Local and Indigenous management of climate change risks to archaeological sites

Bethune Carmichael (), Greg Wilson, Ivan Namarnyilk, Sean Nadji, Sally Brockwell, Bob Webb, Fred Hunter and Deanne Bird
Additional contact information
Bethune Carmichael: Australian National University
Greg Wilson: Djelk Indigenous Protected Area
Ivan Namarnyilk: Djelk Indigenous Protected Area
Sean Nadji: Kakadu National Park
Sally Brockwell: Australian National University
Bob Webb: Australian National University
Fred Hunter: Kakadu National Park
Deanne Bird: University of Iceland

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2018, vol. 23, issue 2, No 5, 255 pages

Abstract: Abstract Hundreds of thousands of significant archaeological and cultural heritage sites (cultural sites) along the coasts of every continent are threatened by sea level rise, and many will be destroyed. This wealth of artefacts and monuments testifies to human history, cosmology and identity. While cultural sites are especially important to local and Indigenous communities, a stall in coordinated global action means adaptation at a local scale is often unsupported. In response, this paper produces a practical climate change risk analysis methodology designed for independent, community-scale management of cultural sites. It builds on existing methods that prioritise sites most at risk from climate impacts, proposing a field survey that integrates an assessment of the relative cultural value of sites with assessment of exposure and sensitivity to climate impacts. The field survey also stands as a monitoring program and complements an assessment of organisational adaptive capacity. The preliminary field survey was tested by Indigenous land managers in remote northern Australia at midden and rock art sites threatened by sea level rise, extreme flood events and a range of non-climactic hazards. A participatory action research methodology—incorporating planning workshops, semi-structured interviews and participant observations—gave rise to significant modifications to the preliminary field survey as well as management prioritisation of 120 sites. The field survey is anticipated to have global application, particularly among marginalised and remote Indigenous communities. Well-planned and informed participation, with community control, monitoring and well-informed actions, will contribute significantly to coordinated global and regional adaptation strategies.

Keywords: Archaeology; Climate change; Adaptation; Community planning; Cultural heritage; Indigenous; Local planning; Risk assessment; Site prioritisation; Vulnerability assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11027-016-9734-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:23:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s11027-016-9734-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11027

DOI: 10.1007/s11027-016-9734-8

Access Statistics for this article

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change is currently edited by Robert Dixon

More articles in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().