Environmental Sciences Research Institute

Climate Change and Cultural Heritage in Northern Ireland


Principal investigators Thomas McErlean, Rory McNeary and Kieran Westley


The project, Climate Change and Cultural Heritage in Northern Ireland, was officially established at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology (CMA) in April 2011 and is funded by NIEA, Built Heritage. The project intends to initiate a more focused understanding of the significance of Climate Change for Cultural Heritage in Northern Ireland in light of Government’s mitigation and adaptation agendas under the UK Climate Change Act 2008. It aims to provide both a qualitative and quantitative approach and will define parameters, risks and impacts of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage sites in Northern Ireland; propose preventive (monitoring and mitigation) and corrective (risk management and adaptation) actions for Cultural Heritage sites in Northern Ireland and produce quantitative mapping to better highlight vulnerable Cultural Heritage sites in Northern Ireland. This will be a strategic overview and concentrates on the known historic record.

Outputs (select)

Presentations

McNeary, R. [and Westley, K.] (June 2012) Climate Change and Cultural Heritage in Northern Ireland: A Risk Assessment. For Historic Monuments Council (HMC), Navan Centre, Armagh.

McNeary, R. and Westley, K. (Dec 2011) Climate Change and Cultural Heritage: Realism and Resilience. Public lecture for NIEA, Built Heritage, Belfast.

McNeary, R. (May 2011) Built Heritage and Climate Change. Northern Ireland Climate Change Impacts Partnership [NICCIP] meeting, Hillsborough, Co. Down.

Papers, posters and reports

Westley, K. and McNeary, R. (Aug 2012), Vulnerability Assessment of Coastal Archaeological Resources: A Case Study from Northern Ireland (Poster). Session: Over the Edge - Heritage Management and Coastal Erosion. European Association of Archaeology (EAA) annual conference, 30 Aug – 1st Sept 2012, Helsinki, Finland.

McNeary, R., Westley, K. and McErlean, T. (May 2012) Climate Change and Cultural Heritage in Northern Ireland: Towards Adaptation. Interim Report (internal) prepared for NIEA, Built Heritage. 157pp.

McErlean, T., McNeary, R. and Westley, K., (2011) ‘Climate Change and Coastal Archaeology in Northern Ireland’, in NIEA, Coast, Issue 7.