The western Peloponnese coastline cultural landscape: cultural heritage management policy tools for making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Our cultural memory is permanently endangered and, often, damaged irretrievably, given that cultural disasters, are quite repetitive, whether in cases of man-made or of natural disasters, armed conflicts and climate change combined with earth’s tectonic activity constituting, potentially, the primary causes.

The southwestern Peloponnese in Greece, precisely the region of Pylia, due to its proximity to the Hellenic trench, is considered to be tectonically as one of the most active areas in Greece, representing a major subduction zone. At the same time, it constitutes also a broad area with a very long history and a wealth of archaeological sites and relics. Focusing on the western coastline of the said region, directly exposed to variations of sea level height, as well as to conditions of rapid erosion due to the aggressive components of seawater, it should be considered as an area of ​​urgent priority to be monitored and protected.

Specifically, Voidokilia bay at the western coast of Messenia Prefecture, to the north of Navarino bay, a highly fragile ecosystem, actually under a NATURA Network protection status, constitutes the related case-study. Nevertheless, Voidokilia bay, is also one of the most attractive landscapes worldwide, thus facing rapid tourism challenges, ending up in increased disaster risks, both for the cultural as well as for the environmental assets. Accordingly, an interdisciplinary methodology within the scientific field of digital humanities has been applied for digitizing archaeological sites, excavated or not, underwater or not, as well as for highlighting their interdependence with the wider Messenia region’s archaeological sites network, further combined with trade routes connecting southwestern Peloponnese and the Aegean islands, via southeastern Peloponnese and Attica, thus fulfilling the notion of applied archaeology.

In this context, applying geoinformatics proved to be the most effective methodology for the related holistic cultural heritage management, in the perspective of an effective strategic planning on the part of the State apparatus, whether for private or public works, taking also into consideration charters, European directives and good practices, already applied worldwide, such as people’s community inclusion, in the direction of a public archaeology model.

The cornerstone of the specific research procedure has been extensive documentation, integration of different data types, such as archaeological, bibliographic, (palaeo)environmental, geospatial, remotely sensed imagery, for building up the sites’ multidimensional profile and revealing spatial relations and settlements’ interdependence, further highlighting the related buffer zones, in the perspective of delineating wider areas of archaeological profile, for anticipating the long-standing threats to archaeological assets such as rapidly increasing tourism, mismanaged development, poor excavation and looting, lack of conservation, climate change posing further significant threats to cultural heritage assets.

Conclusively, further constituting a potential contribution to the archaeological cadastre, already established by the Hellenic Republic, as well as proposing mild tourism development for keeping the balance between urban regeneration and environmental protection, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal 11-Sustainable cities and communities, one of the 17 SDGs established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, with the official mission to “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.