EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - CULT-STRAT, preserving cultural heritage

CULT-STRAT, preserving cultural heritage

Introduction

Damage caused to objects of cultural heritage is one of the most serious among the detrimental effects of air pollutants. It endangers a vital part of the European identity. Therefore an urgent need exists to include the impact of pollutants on cultural heritage in the EU Directives on urban air quality, alongside the human health and parts of the ecosystem that are already concerned.

Problem

A series of research efforts is being supported by the European Commission and other international players to investigate the effects of pollution on Europe’s diverse stock of cultural artefacts and structures. But how can this vast amount of data be tied together, much of it based on highly localised conditions? More important, how can it be implemented into national and EU policy-making to achieve better air quality control regulations? The Commission-funded project CULT-STRAT aims to find the answers.

Description

Bringing together thirteen partners in nine European countries and supported by the Sixth Framework Programme of the EU, the three-year CULT-STRAT project runs until 2007 and has an ambitious set of sequential objectives.

To identify models for developing sustainable maintenance and preventive conservation strategies regarding cultural heritage. Such modelling will lead to a ranking of pollutants for their corrosive and soiling impact on façades, statues and other monuments exposed to the open air.
To develop methods to estimate which of the cultural sites’ sensitive materials are most at risk across Europe.
To collect samples of how and where pollution is distributed across the continent and correlate this to Europe’s cultural stock. In this way a strategic comprehensive map of the cultural sites most at risk can eventually be developed. Based on the relevant pollution levels, such a map could project a spatial picture for 2010 and 2020 of the damage to cultural heritage sites and associated costs throughout Europe.

Approach

CULT-STRAT will use the research completed by another EU-funded project, MULTI-ASSESS, which completed its work in April 2005.

The latter created new models for predicting the rate of multi-pollutant deterioration of materials and the soiling of cultural objects. It also developed new tools, such as passive samplers, to collect and measure atmospheric concentrations of nitric acid and particles at specific sites.

Much of the data generated by MULTI-ASSESS will be folded into CULT-STRAT’s wider-ranging objectives.

Results

As soon as the CULT-STRAT project has been implemented, its results will be published on the CULT-STRAT website.

EU involvement

The CULT-STRAT project is partially financed by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Union.

Contact info

CULT-STRAT
Mr V. Kucera (Project coordinator), tel. +46 8 674 17 25

Project start date

01/01/2004

Links

More information on the CULT-STRAT project

Read the CULT-STRAT brochure (PDF, Eng, 650 KB)

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Urban environment > Cultural heritage

Keywords

Conservation of historic buildings