Climate change associated hazards on cultural heritage in Egypt

Abstract

Egypt is a distinctive country in terms of its rich and unique tangible cultural heritage including monuments and archaeological sites distributed across the country. Many monuments and archaeological sites are facing a variety of climate change-associated hazards with a wide range of cross-sectoral impacts. This research intends to identify climate change-associated hazards on tangible cultural heritage in Egypt, highlighting the main areas of concern. For this purpose, a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based methodology is utilized, beginning with defining a framework for hazard identification. This is followed by developing a geospatial database of tangible cultural heritage. Meanwhile, expected changes in relevant climate parameters under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario up to 2065 were profiled. Thereafter, a geospatial database of existing tangible cultural heritage in Egypt as well as current and future climate parameters are employed to examine the exposure of archaeological heritage in Egypt to various climate change-associated hazards up to the year 2065. It was found that the tangible cultural heritage sites in Egypt, accounting for 205 sites, are exposed to specific or combined levels of climate change-associated hazards depending on their geographic settings. In this respect, it was found that 25% of archaeological sites in Egypt are susceptible to combined high to moderate temperature ranges and humid conditions as a result of climate change up to 2065. This highlights the need for developing archaeological site conservation strategies based not only on current conservation needs, including anthropogenic and environmental stressors, but also on climate change-associated hazards. Such a strategy needs to prioritize different cultural heritage assets actions according to their uniqueness as well as associated direct and indirect benefits.