An indicator for the economic loss in value of damaged cultural heritage properties

Abstract

Disaster risk management (DRM) initiatives recognize the importance of cultural heritage and emphasise the need to assess the impact of hazards on the built cultural heritage. These impacts are connected to one of the challenges for the DRM sector related to the need to integrate non-monetized losses (such as those related to cultural heritage) into loss estimation procedures to obtain a sound quantification of disaster impacts. Quantifying loss in value of a cultural heritage asset introduces a high level of subjectivity due to the difficulty in estimating losses across the multiple types of values it embodies as a result of a certain amount of physical damage to the asset. To address this issue, the paper presents an indicator to estimate economic losses that represent the loss in value of cultural heritage properties due to damage caused by hazardous events. The indicator estimates loss in value of cultural heritage properties as a function of the (physical) damage they suffered and of the estimated economic impact that cultural heritage has in a country. This indicator does not reflect the true value of economic losses but establishes a standardized measure of potential economic losses comparable across countries.