Unveiling Risks and Leveraging the Knowledge Base Platform for Cultural Heritage sites in the Context of the TRIQUETRA Project

The TRIQUETRA EU research project embarks on a pioneering initiative aimed at enhancing climate change (CC) resilience in Cultural Heritage (CH) sites. Within the scope of TRIQUETRA, certain provisions have been made for studying the geological and historical climatic data towards risk identification that the pilot CH sites of the project are facing.  The geological risk quantification was based on monitoring and modelling approaches to classify the intensity of geohazards related to ground instabilities, earthquake-induced effects, coastal retreat, sea-waves, water runoff, wind storms, wildfires etc. Digital twins derived by in-filed monitoring and surveying are assumed at the basis of geohazard quantification. Similarly, the assessment of historical climatic information has been based on observations and a multi-model ensemble of high-resolution Regional Climatic Model (RCM) simulations, aiming to identify potential risks at the selected CH sites. The datasets will be used for further experimentation, and continuous collection of new data will take place throughout the course of the project, serving towards the proposal of mitigation action against the CC-induced risks. 

Similarly, emphasis was given to gather information from past initiatives and directives to create a node of reference for the future, crucial for understanding the vulnerabilities of CH sites in the face of CC. An extensive literature review on CC and other risks and mitigation measures for CH sites worldwide has been made, in addition to gathering of existing and historical site-specific data, identification of geological conditions at CH sites and classification of geological hazards associated with environmental and climatological data that pose direct or indirect risks to the pilot CH sites.

The development of the TRIQUETRA Knowledge Base platform (an electronic repository) based on the retrieved data, accompanied by advanced search tools and a “Self Service Portal” hosted on the project website (https://triquetra-project.eu/), ensures that contents related to CC, geological conditions, historical data, site-specific information, as well as risks and mitigation measures for CH sites are discoverable for future decision-making actions. The Knowledge Base platform includes a dedicated database and a WEBGIS platform, which store collected data in a common geospatial database providing a secure environment, which has an open access policy and will offer further analysis beyond the end of the project.

The above lay the groundwork for holistic research to CC resilience in CH sites. The findings presented herein not only advance the objectives of the TRIQUETRA project but also offer insights that can guide future research in the preservation of global CH in the face of an ever-evolving climate.