Climate Change and the Resilience of Collective Memories: The Case Study of Fındıklı in Rize, Türkiye

Vernacular heritage sites encompass customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions, and values that are innate to a particular place and time. Climate knowledge of the particular place and time is embedded in vernacular settlements and lifestyles along with other environmental, cultural, and societal determinants of the place. Rebuilt...

Vernacular Heritage as a Response to Climate: Lessons for future climate resilience from Rize, Turkey

Vernacular heritage is undergoing rapid changes caused by the effects of the changing climate, such as loss of lands, biodiversity, building materials, integrity, traditional knowledge, and maladaptation. However, little is known about the causes of deterioration in vernacular heritage sites under changing climate and landscape conditions from a...

A systematic overview of the barriers to building climate adaptation of cultural and natural heritage sites in polar regions

This paper systematically reviews publications for the period 2002–2020 addressing the barriers to climate adaptation of cultural and natural heritage in the Northern and Southern poles. Climate change and its socio-economic implications deteriorate different forms of cultural and natural heritage, including archaeological sites, historic...

The Overlooked Contribution of National Heritage Designation in City Branding and Tourism Management

The designation of cultural heritage, especially the World Cultural Heritage Site, is extensively discussed regarding its impacts on tourism destination branding. However, the impact of the designation(s) of World and/or National Cultural Heritage Site on affective city image and behavioural intention is still under-researched. This study aims...

Blue Paper #5: Sea snot as a visible sign of climate change

Sea snot is spreading over the Sea of Marmara in Turkey. This slimy substance is a symptom of marine pollution, and is threatening life both under and above water. Based on their own observations and the preliminary findings of experts, Gül Aktürk and Stephan Hauser discuss the deeper-lying issues of sea snot in the Sea of Marmara: the failure...

Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Benefit to Climate-Displaced and Host Communities

Climate change is borderless, and its impacts are not shared equally by all communities. It causes an imbalance between people by creating a more desirable living environment for some societies while erasing settlements and shelters of some others. Due to floods, sea level rise, destructive storms, drought, and slow-onset factors such as...

Detection of Disaster-Prone Vernacular Heritage Sites at District Scale: The Case of Fındıklı in Rize, Turkey

The district of Fındıklı in the Northeast city of Rize in Turkey is environmentally and culturally rich with its rural, built, and natural heritage. The city of Rize has been experiencing more frequent and severe rainfall, flooding, and landslides in the last decade. River flooding along the coast and in the center of the city is destroying...

Cultural Landscapes under the Threat of Climate Change: A Systematic Study of Barriers to Resilience

Cultural landscapes reflect a cultural group’s continuous and evolved interactions with natural resources and the environment. By now, climate change has become the most significant threat to cultural landscapes, e.g., food security, water scarcity, and displacement. The cultural and natural heritage of cultural landscapes can enhance their...

Remembering traditional craftsmanship: conserving a heritage of woodworking in Rize, Turkey

The rural vernacular architecture in the highlands of the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey has survived over 200 years, yet the local traditions of craftsmanship in wood are disappearing. As these craft skills are no longer being handed down, the value of the intangible heritage that lies behind the vernacular architecture is no longer being...

The Rural Landscape as Heritage in Turkey Under Changing Climate

The various determinants of vernacular architecture embrace ethnic cultural diversity, morals, climate, cultural and geographical setting, topography, political attitude, religion and language spoken which shaped the rural built heritage in Fındıklı in the Black Sea region. Yet, climate change hazards such as river flooding, more frequent...