CLIMATE FOR CULTURE – Damage risk assessment, economic impact and mitigation strategies for sustainable preservation of cultural heritage in the times of climate change
Project Overview
the CLIMATE FOR CULTURE project estimates the impacts of changing climate conditions on historic buildings and their vast collections in Europe and the Mediterranean. A multidisciplinary research team of 27 partners aims to identify the damage potential of our cultural heritage most at risk, so as to encourage the development of strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change, including through policy makers and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. Furthermore, the project provides insight into the possible socio-economic impact of climate change, given the importance of cultural heritage to Europe’s economy.
The main innovation of the project is to use simulation and modelling tools to better predict the influence of the changing outdoor climate on the microclimate in historic buildings until 2100, and to assess the damage potential of these future microclimates on art collections in various climate zones. For the first time ever, regional climate models with a high resolution of 10×10 km are therefore being developed and coupled with whole building simulation tools to identify the most urgent risks for specific regions.
Project Results
Innovative approach of correlating high resolution regional climate modelling with whole building simulation tools to produce scenarios of future indoor climates in historic buildings.
For the simulation tools, huge amount of T and RH data are needed which are however mostly only available in analogue form. The project developed a software algorithm to convert analogue into digitalized data. The software DigiChart can be downloaded for free at the Climate for Culture website.
A comprehensive set of data from more than 100 historic buildings have been collected in a database and from this the concept of generic buildings has been developed. By using generic buildings, information about how indoor climate conditions change due to the changing outdoor climate can be obtained easily and quickly. So the high resolution climate projections for Europe and the Mediterranean can be visualised and show the impact of climate change in the various regions which are summarized in 55,650 climate and risk maps of future climate induced risks to historic buildings and their interiors.