Climate change impact on coastal and underwater archaeological sites

CNR-ISAC Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Italy

PhD enrolment : UNIFE

Supervisor: Alessandra Bonazza

Co-supervisor: C. Vaccaro

Start date September 2026

Duration (in months) 36

Objectives: Objectives: Obj1. Improved knowledge and understanding of climate and pollution parameters to be monitored having a priority for the safeguarding of coastal and underwater archaeological sites in climate change scenarios. Obj2. Refining and tuning damage functions in relation to the degradation of building heritage materials in relation to ongoing variations of climate and marine parameters. Obj3. Integrated application of data from climate models, earth observation and in situ monitoring for hazard analysis (climate induced extreme events) at territorial level. Obj4. Risk and vulnerability assessment methodological approach for coastal and underwater archaeological sites

Expected Results: The acquired knowledge and advancement in research will provide inputs for decision support tool (DST) development for the risk management of archaeological cultural heritage. The DST will support heritage managers and territorial/marine planners in strengthening resilience towards climate change. It will also foster the exploitation of Copernicus services (C3S, CAMS and CMEMS) in the field of cultural heritage protection. This will contribute to the recommendations given by the EU Task Force Copernicus Cultural Heritage and to open potential interest from SMEs and the private sector in general operating in the EO domain

The DST will support policy and decision makers in the definition of preparedness measures towards climate change (including extreme events) for the safeguarding of coastal and underwater cultural heritage. This will be in line with: i) The priority 4 of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-230) focusing on preparedness; ii) The adoption of an Emission Control Area in the Mediterranean; iii) The inclusion of measures specifically dedicated to cultural heritage protection in the National Plans for Adaptation to Climate Change; iv) The elaboration of the MedECC Special Assessment Report Climate and Environmental Coastal Risks in the Mediterranean

Planned secondment(s): UR, B. Quesada M14,2 months, Short and long term hazard scenarios purposely tailored at CHARM case studies scale; UNIFE, C.Vaccaro, M20, 4 months, experimental work for contributing at the development of new dose response functions