Wildfire Resilient Cultural Heritage (FIRECULT)
A collaborative research project funded by the JPIs on Cultural Heritage and Climate and the Belmont Forum.
FIRECULT aims to systematically investigate the links between climate change driven disruption in fire regimes and tangible or intangible cultural heritage.
Interdisciplinary consortium applies diverse research methodologies including modelling, artistic analyses, economics, and stakeholder participation to produce novel insights into the climate-human interaction, and develop innovative approaches to heritage conservation vis-a-vis wildfire.
We draw information from case studies in Ireland, Italy, Turkey and Kenya represinting the diversity of tangible and intangible cultural heritage and fire risk. We model projected fire risk for cultural landscapes, landmarks and ways of life, quantify potential fire costs, interpret and reimagine the wildfire-heritage relationship through art, and work with local and national stakeholders to synthesize analyses and produce heritage and wildfire management recommendations, contributing to the climate change resilience of cultural heritage.
Learn more about FIRECULT
Project Partners
- Imperial College London
- Lead PI: Yiannis Kountouris i.kountouris@imperial.ac.uk
- Aberystwyth University
- Kyriaki Remoundou
- Boston University
- David Demeritt
- Izmir Institute of Technology
- Koray Velibeyoglu
- Pelin Ozden
- Duygu Kasdogan
- Newcastle University
- Menelaos Gkartzios
- University College Dublin
- Mark Scott
- Elgar Kamjou
- University of Florence
- Univeristy of Palermo
- Andrea Laschi
Workpackage 1: Modelling wildfire risk on heritage and evaluating the role of wildfire in creating tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
- Assess the contemporary and projected fire risk for global heritage sites
- Derive estimates of associations and causal effects between wildfire incidence, attitudes and beliefs constituting intangible culture and an assessment of their persistence over time
- Characterize fire risk determinants in case studies.
Workpackage 2: Quantifying cultural and relational values at risk from climate driven fire regime change
- Systematic review of values at risk from climate change.
- Estimates of values at risk and rankings of proposed management interventions at the case study level.
- Estimates of cross-national preferences and values at risk.
Workpackage 3: Artistic research and reimagining of the wildfire-heritage relationship
- A set of artistic outputs reflecting on the past and imagining the future of the wildfire-heritage relationship under climate change
Workpackage 4: Governing heritage at risk and building adaptive capacity
- Assessment of the viability of existing land governance systems in representative case studies.
- New governance evaluation.
- An assessment of knowledge transfer opportunities.
Recent relevant publications
- Piroli, E., La Mela Veca, D. S., Mistry, J., & Kountouris, Y. (2024). Understanding stakeholders' perspectives behind wildfires in Sicily: A Q-methodology approach. People and Nature, 6, 2514–2527. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10729
Recent news
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Join artist Shane Finan for this online event, as he discusses his recent FIRECULT artist residency.
Shane spent 3 months working with the University College Dublin and the Wicklow Uplands Forum exploring the Irish heritage of wildfires and the traditions and intangible cultures around the burning of aiteann (also known as gorse) in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland.
Throughout the residency Shane used fire as a creative medium and through his practice of drawing, video and installation, he seeks to introduce the idea that intangible cultural heritage is never truly destroyed.
*This is an online event and a meeting link will be sent to ticket holders on the morning of the 17 June, so please leave an email address when making your booking.*: https://www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/shane-finan-firecult-artist-talk/
Shane Finan assembles artworks from interactive contemporary technologies, found objects and traditional artistic media. His work is based in rural environments and examines technologies in human and nonhuman entanglements. He always collaborates, recently working with and learning from artists, crustose lichen, environmental scientists, farmers and fungi.