Disasters and Heritage Loss

Abstract

The chapter discusses the importance of understanding the values of cultural heritage and how they can be impacted by disasters. Identifying and assessing tangible and intangible values across various sectors of society is essential for this process, as well as translating physical damage and interruption of heritage-related activities caused by disasters into losses across these values. As adequate metrics or indicators are required to assess these losses, the chapter reviews existing methods for evaluating cultural heritage values and discusses methodological challenges associated with their economic quantification. It then connects these concepts to the analysis of disaster impacts on cultural heritage and to the quantification of the loss in value of damaged cultural heritage. The importance of disaster damage and loss data for disaster risk management is also discussed, along with the need to establish systems to collect and share such data for cultural heritage. In this context, the chapter discusses a few initiatives that may drive some of the required changes in this field. (c) 2024 selection and editorial matter, Bijan Rouhani and Xavier Romão; individual chapters, the contributors.