TRIQUETRA-Toolbox for assessing and mitigating Climate Change risks and natural hazards threatening cultural heritage

ID Call: HORIZON-CL2-2022-HERITAGE-01-08 Effects of climate change and natural hazards on cultural heritage and remediation

Sapienza's role in the project: Other beneficiary

Scientific supervisor for Sapienza: Salvatore Martino

Department: Research centre for Prediction, Prevention and Control of Geological Risks

Project start date: 01/01/2023

Project end date: 31/12/2026

Project Abstract:

The TRIQUETRA project is based on the assumption that cultural heritage, encompassing all tangible and intangible aspects of society and its historical tradition, can shape the individual and society itself, providing evidence of past events and contributing to current well-being through involvement in them. Understanding the challenges cultural heritage faces over time is an important objective if it is to be preserved and passed on to future generations. TRIQUETRA project has as a specific technical aim: the study of the complex physical-chemical and mechanical interactions existing between the archaeological components of the monumental heritage and the natural elements that are expressed, in turn, through natural processes (including rainfall, storm surges, wind, diurnal and seasonal thermal cycles, earthquakes, landslides, etc.). Such natural processes can cause damage to the archaeological heritage over time, resulting in its gradual loss. Therefore, the durability and preservation of archaeological emergencies cannot disregard their contextualisation in a territorial and environmental context, the dynamics of which are marked by geological and geomorphological processes that shape the landscape and modify it in both time and space. Within the TRIQUETRA project, 'Sapienza' will take care of the geological-technical modelling and multi-parametric and multi-sensor monitoring of the coastal cliffs of the islands of Ventotene and Santo Stefano (Italy) and the island of Aegina (Greece) as well as of the rock walls bordering the cliff of the Neolithic settlement of Coirochoitia (Cyprus) affected by landslides threatening the archaeological sites there.

For the site of Ventotene and Santo Stefano, Sapienza will also take care of their archaeological studies and, in particular, the degradation and durability analyses of the archaeological emergencies of the Roman age (Villa di Giulia, Roman Port, Roman Peschiere, Roman cisterns) present there, in order to arrive at a preservation project, compatible with the geological processes existing in the area.