8th international training programme on disaster risk management of cultural heritage

Historic urban areas and their territorial settings are irreplaceable and highly complex cultural resources that have evolved over time and contain various heritage components and systems such as traditional housing, urban spaces, ecological features such as water systems and intangible components such as rituals and social activities that have sustained these areas for generations.

However these historic areas and their settings are becoming increasingly fragile due to unprecedented transformation processes that have posed grave risks to their heritage values and have increased their vulnerability to natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides and floods. Several catastrophic disasters in recent years such as Mumbai floods of 2005, Hurricane Katrina affecting New Orleans in 2005, Christchurch, Haiti and Chile Earthquakes of 2010 and recent Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and Thailand Floods in 2011 have caused extensive damage to rich cultural heritage located in these areas.

Considering these issues, the theme of the 8th UNESCO chair international training course on disaster risk management of cultural heritage would be ‘Reducing disaster risks to historic urban areas and their territorial settings through mitigation’. The year's training programme will focus on policies and planning measures for mitigating risks to cultural heritage from multiple hazards such as earthquakes, floods, landslides and fires, especially in rapidly urbanizing context of developing countries. Special techniques for mitigating risks from earthquakes and fires will also be highlighted besides policies, planning and design interventions for long term restoration and rehabilitation of cultural heritage following disaster through a special workshop in the area affected by the Great East Japan Disaster in 2011.

Objectives:

The main objective of the course is to provide an overview of the various aspects of disaster risk management of cultural heritage. In particular, the course provides interdisciplinary training to:

• Undertake an integrated risk assessment by analyzing the vulnerability of cultural heritage to disasters risks;
• Build an integrated system for disaster risk management of cultural heritage, incorporating mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery measures;
• Formulate risk management plans for cultural heritage that correspond to the urban and regional disaster management plans and policies; and
• Establish an international scientific support network for risk management of cultural heritage in order to build the institutional capacity needed to formulate comprehensive risk management plans that are based on the characteristics of cultural heritage and nature of hazards in the regional context.