Vulnerability of Coastal Cultural Heritage Sites to Sea Level Rise and Its Impacts
*Funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)
We are a research group working on a scientific project focusing on the coastal cultural heritage of Türkiye threatened by sea-level rise and its impacts. The project is titled as “Vulnerability of Coastal Cultural Heritage Areas to Sea Level Rise and Its Impacts“(122M613), and it is funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK). This website is the place where you can find all the information about the project, including the goals aimed, the team, the scope of the study, publications, and more! Want to learn more? Feel free to contact the team!
Ionians, the Greeks, Lydians, and the Roman people have something in common. They are a few of the many ancient civilizations that chose to settle across the coasts of the Aegean Sea of Türkiye. Throughout history, people have preferred to live near the water. Cities have been built on coasts, which have become centers of cultural exchange and trade, as evidenced by the many cultural heritage sites left behind. Turkey is one such country with numerous coastal heritage sites, which are at risk of destruction. One of the major threats driving this risk is climate change, which is causing sea levels to rise globally.
In order to preserve the heritage of humanity, it is crucial to understand the risks and the vulnerabilities well. For this purpose, this screening project aims to develop and utilize a comprehensive vulnerability assessment model to assess the vulnerability of coastal cultural heritage to sea level rise and its impacts.
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) proposes a comprehensive approach to define vulnerability. This approach recognizes that vulnerability is not solely a product of environmental exposure, but also hinges on how communities, ecosystems, and societies respond to these environmental stressors. Considering this, vulnerability is defined with three components.
The term refers to the extent to which a recognized heritage value is subjected to the influence of climatic fluctuations and the ensuing consequences. It is contingent upon the prevailing environmental conditions, encompassing both physical and atmospheric elements.
This term refers to the susceptibility of a heritage resource, contingent upon its material properties and physical state of preservation. This sensitivity assessment examines how susceptible the resource is to the adverse effects of climatic changes.
This term encompasses a proactive approach to enhance resilience and adaptability.
The vulnerability assessment introduced in this project is a pioneering study in the context of national cultural heritage assets situated along the coasts of Türkiye. This assessment aims to integrate the physical indicators with social vulnerabilities. In other words, the innovative approach lies in the unification of coastal engineering principles with insights from a number of disciplines, including architecture, city and regional planning, archaeology, tourism, and more.
The study aims to provide a screening tool that helps prioritize the adaptation actions for coastal cultural heritage against the sea-level rise and its impacts. The tool will integrate the physical and social vulnerabilities by developing a new vulnerability assessment Read More ...
Our dedicated project team, comprising experts from diverse academic backgrounds such as architecture, tourism, city and regional planning, and coastal engineering, collaboratively investigates the vulnerability of Turkey’s coastal cultural heritage sites to the rising sea levels and the consequential impacts Read More ...
Explore our collection of publications that share the findings from our project, which looks at how climate change affects coastal cultural heritage sites along Turkey’s coast as sea levels rise. These publications are the result of teamwork between experts in Read More ...
