Context 163 - March 2020

32 C O N T E X T 1 6 3 : M A R C H 2 0 2 0 On the 31 October 2019 the Irish government published nine climate change sectoral adapta- tion plans prepared by seven different govern- ment departments as part of the NAF. The sectors cover natural and cultural capital, critical infrastructure, water resources, flood-risk man- agement and public health.The plans set out the climate adaptation measures necessary to ensure that the state is ready to protect people from the negative effects of climate change in Ireland and the steps needed to limit any damage caused.The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht published two plans covering biodiversity and built and archaeological heritage. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DCHG) recognised the significance of adaptation planning to its work and has been represented on the national steering committee from the outset. In 2015, DCHG established a Climate Change Advisory Group to enable communica- tion across the heritage sector and beyond, to assist in identifying risks and vulnerabilities, and to guide the preparation and implementation of an adaptation plan. The group consists of rep- resentatives from a wide range of stakeholders, including other government departments, the Office of PublicWorks, the Heritage Council, the National Museum of Ireland, ICOMOS Ireland, local authorities, professional bodies, academic institutions and local historical societies. When DCHG was instructed to prepare a statutory climate change adaptation plan for the built and archaeological heritage sector, a multidisciplinary team led by Carrig Conservation International, including Cathy Daly of the University of Lincoln and the Irish Green Building Council, was appointed to assist in its preparation. This team developed the plan through a series of one-to-one meetings with organisations and bodies likely to have a strate- gic interest in it. Two stakeholder consultation workshops were held in Dublin and Galway, and a public consultation process was conducted in May/June 2019. The intention of the adaptation plan is to address built heritage in the widest sense pos- sible, including historic buildings and structures, archaeological monuments and sites, underwater archaeology, cultural landscapes and collections. The plan deals with heritage assets in both public and private ownership, and covers not only structures and sites subject to statutory protection, but all manmade assets that have historical, aesthetic and cultural value. The strategy and actions of the adaptation plan aim to build adaptive capacity within the sector, and to reduce the vulnerability of built and archaeological heritage to climate change. The strategy was developed by establishing goals, sequencing objectives, and identifying and prioritising actions that can help in achieving these short- and long-term goals. The plan identifies leading actors and stakeholders for each action, and an indicative timescale. It will be reviewed and updated at regular intervals. One of the first objectives is set a baseline from which future climate-related changes can be monitored. It will be an objective to centralise all relevant data on heritage assets, bringing the information together into a single portal which can then be integrated with other relevant systems such as flood-risk and coastal- vulnerability mapping. Site-specific vulnerability assessments can then be undertaken, concentrating in the first instance on high-risk and/or high-value sites. These vulnerability assessments will help not only to measure risk, but also to identify how to reduce and respond to it. In some (hopefully, rare) cases, there may be a need to develop poli- cies of managed retreat where structures or sites can not feasibly be saved. Other actions will lead to increased moni- toring of climate change and its impacts on heritage sites, such as monitoring atmospheric climate at selected sites and building on citizen- science approaches to identifying and respond- ing to damage. The adaptation plan will be a significant tool in ensuring that heritage protection is inte- grated into relevant national, regional and local policies and plans on climate-change adaptation and mitigation, and increasing and improving Opposite: Cobh, County Cork: sea-level rise and storm surge pose threats to coastal towns and villages (Photo: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage)