Cultural heritage and natural disasters: risk preparedness and the limits of prevention

Heritage at risk: special edition, 2007

This special volume deals exclusively with disasters, a subject of particular relevance in view of the threat to cultural heritage by global climate change. This publication is the outcome of the conference 'Cultural Heritage and Natural Disasters — Risk Preparedness and the Limits of Prevention'. It contains the conference speakers’ reports on earthquake, storm and flood disasters which special emphasis on the earthquake in Bam and the tsunami in Sri Lanka. It also contains new articles by additional experts in the field. The topics cover a number of countries namely: Czech Republic, France, Germany, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and United States of America.

The conference was organized by ICOMOS Germany within the framework of the Leipzig Messe’s European Conservation Fair denkmal 2006, in cooperation with ICCROM (International Center for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) and the Konferenz Nationaler Kultureinrichtungen (KNK, Conference of National Cultural Institutions).

The ICOMOS Heritage at risk series, which began publication in 2000 makes evident that many monuments and sites all over the world are endangered by natural disasters, wars and ethnic conflicts, barbaric acts of destruction, pillage, uncontrolled urban development and general environmental pollution, as well as by neglect, inappropriate restoration and many other factors.