WRENCH

WRENCH envisions heritage as both something at risk and something able to tell a story about the risk we are all running. Interpreting heritage as a key ingredient of community identities, WRENCH proposes to shift from a user-driven approach to a living heritage approach, that is, from a consumerist idea of heritage (something to be used by clients) to a citizens’ idea of heritage (something to inhabit, cocreate, and shape).

WRENCH has the twofold goal of

(a) developing a transdisciplinary methodology involving environmental sciences, engineering, and humanities to investigate the impact of climate change on tangible and intangible heritage;

(b) employing heritage as storytelling tools to enhance awareness of climate change.

This transdisciplinary innovative methodology will entail:

• Applying advanced generation climate models to carry out data analysis related to climate change, including retrieving historical and future projections of hydrometeorological variables.
• Investigating the effect of extreme environmental conditions on historical materials, and structures by in-situ physical testing, development of rheological models accounting for them and advanced structural modelling.
• Assessing the effect of climate change on immaterial heritage by historical methodologies and participatory research.
• Developing a holistic framework for the evaluation of climate change on cultural heritage.

Objective (b) is based on the capability of heritage to enhance climate change awareness through the use of innovative methods of representation, which will make visible the present and future impacts of extreme climate actions on heritage.