Sustainable management approaches for underground heritage structures threatened by the environment and the human presence

Aiming at protecting and safeguarding cultural heritage for future generations, the concept of sustainability should be applied to the management of monuments and historical sites, considering that the preservation of heritage is included in the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals. This paper studies the Macedonian tombs in Greece which are monuments of great historic importance and precious educational value. Evaluation of their indoor climatic conditions has shown that the deterioration processes are mainly caused by cyclical changes in temperature and relative humidity when they are exposed to the environment and the visitors. Protection against future deterioration can only be assured through proper interventions to stabilise the microclimate. The purpose of this paper is to show that prior to the final decision-making for protection measures, it is very important to acquire on site recorded data and analyse them using a simulation tool. The proposed methodology can be applied to all Macedonian tombs.