Project Profile: FIRECULT
Wildfire Resilient Cultural Heritage
Who?
| Principal Investigators: | Yiannis Kountouris, IC, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| Partners: | David Demeritt, BU, United States of America Andrea Laschi, UP, Italy Mark Scott, UCD, Ireland Koray Velibeyoglu, IT, Trkiuye Menelaos Gkartzios, NU, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Enrico Marchi, UFI, Italy Kyriaki Remoundou, AU, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Deirdre Lewis, IUF, Ireland James Lowther, MALT, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| Sponsors: |
What?
| Full Project Title: | Wildfire Resilient Cultural Heritage |
| Full Call Title: | CCH2023: CCH2023- Climate and Cultural Heritage |
| Website: |
Why?
| Project Objective: | Wildfire is a natural earth system process in close interactive relationship with human activity since prehistoric times, that has shaped cultural landscapes and defined ways of life. Humans use fire to modify their landscape, clear land for agriculture and development and replenish soil nutrients. At the same time, fire's destructive power endangers livelihoods and landscapes. Anthropogenic climate change disrupts the fine balance between wildfire and humans, directly through its influence on the natural environment and indirectly by impacting on societal structures and behaviours, threatening tangible and intangible cultural heritage. To this day, there is little understanding on the role of wildfire in damaging or creating cultural heritage. FIRECULT aims to fill this gap in knowledge through systematically investigating the links between climate change driven disruption in fire regimes and tangible or intangible cultural heritage. Our consortium comprising international experts inGeography, the Arts, Economics, Forestry and Planning, will apply diverse research methodologies including modelling, artistic analyses, economics, and stakeholder participation to produce novel insights into the climate-human interaction, and develop innovative approaches to heritage conservation vis-a-vis wildfire. We will draw information from case studies selected in collaboration with local partners in regions with diverse tangible and intangible cultural heritage and fire risk. We will model projected fire risk for cultural landscapes, land marks and ways of life, quantify potential fire costs, interpret and reimagine the wildfire-heritage relationship through art, and work with local and national stakeholders to synthesize analyses and produce heritage and wildfire management recommendations, contributing to the climate change resilience of cultural heritage. |
| Call Objective: | This Call aims to support transdisciplinary and convergent research approaches on cultural heritage and climate change, to foster collaboration among the research community across several regions, and to contribute to knowledge advances and policy change at the global level. Applicants are invited to submit research proposals that address at least one of the three call themes: 1. The Impact of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage; 2. Cultural Heritage as a Resource for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation; 3. Sustainable Solutions for Heritage. |
Where?
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When?
| Duration: | 24 months |
| Call Date: | 26 April 2023 |
| Project Award Date: |
