Global climate change impact on built heritage and cultural landscapes

Although climate change over the next hundred years is likely have a range of direct and indirect effects on the natural environment, almost no studies exist as yet on the impact on cultural heritage. The Noah's Ark Project focuses on the effects of climate change on Europe's built heritage and cultural landscapes over the next century. The current outputs allow the advancement of different scenarios, which highlight how some processes of building decay will be accelerated or intensified by climate change, while others will be delayed. The linking of global changes to the response of the archaeological and historic built heritage, in terms of materials and structures, remains a challenge. © 2006 Taylor & Francis Group.