On 24and 25 May 2014, the intensive course entitled Environment and Sustainability(code shared with World Heritage and Sustainability) was held in the SeminarRoom, Kasuga Plaza, Tsukuba.
Disaster RiskManagement for Cultural Heritage
The course on disaster risk management for cultural heritage was very informative and dealt with an area in heritage and conservation that I was not very familiar with before. During the course I learnt the difference between numerous terms related to risk and disaster management such as risk, disasters, preparedness, resilience,reduction, management, and many more. It is possible that in the past I have used some of this terminology in the wrong context but after getting a logical understanding of what each of the terms mean, it is now clear how they all relate to one another.
Dr. Jigyasu began with an explanation of what heritage means and showed us various pictures of heritage sites all over the world. Some were natural and others were cultural. Among them were Danxia landform in China and Himeji castle in Japan. He sought to clarify that heritage is not just as a thing of the past but of the present too, since it is through these heritage sites and values that a story can be told about a certain place and a certain people at a certain time. Asterling example was that of the image on a number of manholes in Belgrade (1950/60’s).Though the manhole image was not representative of any place in Belgrade, it showed a number of iconic cities in the world at the time. The image on the manholes has since been converted to souvenirs and these are sold to tourists visiting Belgrade. Therefore heritage does not have to be something extravagant, little things too can shape the whole heritage narrative.
We further discussed about assigning value to heritage. This differs with culture, time and the people. Value is contextual and depending on the use, exchange, rarity,aesthetics and cultural symbolism, different people can and may assign different values to one heritage site. Values change over time and something which could be of value today because of its usage, may overtime see the use change,or cease. UNESCO uses the concept of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) to allow for nomination and listing of World Heritage Sites. OUV implies that a heritagesite has been valued and assessed by various impartial parties from all over the world and they all agree that there is something exceptional by world standards about the heritage site.
A Heritage site should not be viewed in isolation, but rather in its context. As one aims to protect heritage, they must also aim to protect the livelihoods of the community who are within or around the heritage site. People, the built formand the environment are three important components of heritage and must all betreated in an integrated manner.
We further discussed risk in relation to heritage management. Risk is defined as the probability of a negative occurrence in the future based on the present circumstances. Risk is calculated as a product of hazard and vulnerability. Hazardsare situations that pose a level of threat to life, property or the environment. Vulnerability in my thinking implies a point of weakness that makes us more susceptible to hazards. These weaknesses (vulnerabilities) are categorized into: physical (poor structure, construction or material); social(lack of a proper community response system); economic (unsustainablelivelihoods) and institutional (lack of a proper policy framework).
In order to understand the concept of risk, we engaged in exercises whereby everyone picked a case study in their own country and analyzed the values of each site.Thereafter, the hazards and vulnerabilities were analyzed and the value they were most likely going to affect. I picked the case of Lamu Old Town in Kenya which is a world heritage site enlisted in 2001. Some of the greatest values of this site is the old town itself and the rich Islamic culture of the people of Lamu. One of the social hazards facing the town is uncontrolled tourism which when multiplied by the vulnerability of weak policy and institutional frameworks is bound erode the core values of the town and its people. The values would be eroded through: The dilution of the conservative Islamic culture that forms part of the cultural heritage and alteration of the architectural character and urban morphology of the town to accommodate more tourists. This example and the examples from the other students helped me understand the concept of risk inrelation to hazards and vulnerabilities.
Risk will often times become a reality and when this happens we have a disaster. Risks and disasters relate in two ways. One is that risk can result into a disaster.Secondly, risk can also emerge from a disaster. This can therefore be an infinite process whereby risk leads to a disaster and then the disaster results into another risk that leads to a disaster etc. Therefore to curb this infinite process from occurring we have to manage risk. Risk management is a 3 level cyclical process from before the disaster happens, during the disaster and after the disaster has occurred. Before the disaster happens, three points are important: prevention, mitigation and adaptation. During the disaster,emergency preparedness, rescue and response are imperative. After the disaster,recovery, restoration and retrofitting, damage assessment, treatment and rehabilitation are carried out. Recovery is concerned with physical and economic aspects, whereas rehabilitation is concerned with people.
Risk management can also be viewed in three simple steps: one is to stop the hazards, two can be to create a buffer between the hazard and the heritage site at risk and lastly it is to strengthen what is at risk so that it can withstandand recover from any effect of the hazard. An example was given whereby, a roadpassing through an ecologically sensitive park with rich bio-diversity is posing a hazard through carbon emissions coming from the vehicles which affectthe plants and animals in the park. To deal with this situation there is theoption of closing the road so that no vehicles can pass through (hazardelimination), or planting trees along the road to create a barrier between itand the park (buffering) or both.
To further understand the concept of risk, we were tasked to take up a case of one disaster e.g fire, earthquake, typhoon, or tsunami and look at the interrelationship between the causes and effects of that hazard. Our group was tasked with expounding on fire disaster and we chose the case of Kyoto city. In our analysis of this case, it emerged that the great Kobe earthquake (cause)led to massive destruction and fire outbreaks especially in areas dominated by wooden architecture. Some of the fire outbreaks were experienced in Kyoto and the rich architectural heritage of this city was lost (effect).
Traditional knowledge plays a big role in disaster risk reduction and management. However, on many occasions traditional knowledge has been ignored and replaced with the so called modern technology. For example: we were shown a picture of traditional round-shaped huts which are able to withstand strong winds. Architects in the US are now researching on this issue and it has emerged that dome-shaped houses are able to withstand hurricanes much more than ordinary houses. Basically, acombination of traditional knowledge and modern technology provides the bestsolutions. Heritage sites also have been safe havens in the face of disasters.For example: temples were useful at the time of the 2011 great East Japan Earthquake since they are located in high areas where the resultant tsunami could not reach. They served as shelters for the displaced people.
These and many other lessons were drawn from the course and the most important thing in my view was being able to relate what was being taught with our areas of research and the situations in our home countries. I learnt that resilience does not mean going through disaster after disaster and just surviving it but it is being able to bounce back in an even better frame than before after a disaster strikes. I concluded therefore that my country Kenya, which experiences many disasters on a daily basis, from terror attacks, to political violence to firesto famine and floods is an example of ‘survival’ and not resilience as I had earlier thought. However, this is not the way it is supposed to be. Therefore,with this newly acquired knowledge I hope to contribute in the efforts towards making my country a resilient nation in the face of disasters and more so, to ensure that our heritage sites are also taken care of in such situations.
Reported by Melissa Wangui Wanjiru(Doctorate programme student in Policy and Planning Sciences)
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