Troubled Waters, Stormy Futures: heritage in times of accelerated climate change

2013年至2014年的冬季风暴为英国海岸破坏创造了新的先例，迫使政府、遗产机构和当地社区认真考虑未来对海岸遗产的管理。相关组织似乎对这些事件毫无准备，社区可能对所发生的事情以及他们自己的情绪反应感到惊讶。在8200多英里之外的太平洋低洼岛国基里巴斯，由于气候变化和海平面上升威胁到家园和遗产，超过10万公民面临永久搬迁的可能性。基里巴斯本身就麻烦不断，也呈现出一种令人不安的集体未来景象。在这个项目中，我们通过探索在气候变化加速的情况下，遗产的当前和潜在损失，将这些不同的环境融合在一起。在英国，我们的项目合作伙伴，国家信托基金，拥有742英里的海岸线，并面临着关于海岸适应战略的艰难谈判。这项研究将考虑遗产组织和社区面临的挑战，重点放在三个案例研究;其中两个是国家信托网站：Porthdinllaen（北威尔士）和Durgan村（康沃尔），这两个村庄分别面临潮汐洪水和海岸侵蚀增加的风险。基里巴斯的第三个案例研究考虑了一个更为紧迫的情况，探讨了可能的全面损失对遗产观念、地方感、宗教信仰和文化认同的社会和个人影响。在每个不同的地点，我们将探索社区，遗产和政府对当前挑战的反应，以及应对未来风暴的战略。收集的数据将与项目合作伙伴威尔士国家图书馆和康沃尔语视听档案馆一起存档，为这项研究和受到威胁的社区提供遗产。更直接的是，我们希望在未来为这些社区和类似社区提供更好的沟通和咨询过程。虽然流行的“遗产”可能包括具有公认历史价值的建筑物或资产，但遗产组织和管理部门（如威尔士政府）越来越意识到，更“普通”或“日常”的东西对社区也有价值，融入当地历史和生活的肌理。遗产的更广泛定义可以包括公共汽车候车亭，沿海路径，甚至是一棵特定的树，因为它们对经历它们的人有意义。为了加深我们对“地方感”的理解，我们将对遗产进行多层次的解释，将其作为一个概念和一个与有形和无形（价值观，信仰，实践）相关的过程。这一策略对于充分理解气候变化破坏社区生活和身份的微妙和创伤性方式至关重要，未来可能会出现痛苦的过渡。这个跨学科项目邀请澳大利亚诗人Mark Tredinnick合作，他将访问基里巴斯，并以更抽象的术语对气候变化对“地方”的影响做出诗意的回应。这项研究要求艺术和人文学科在气候适应辩论中发挥更大的作用，主要由自然和社会科学家主导，我们将采取创新的方法参与和传播我们的研究。将有诗歌，电影，对话和社区故事以及学术和定性分析。艺术回应将有助于在这些遗址和更广泛的文化背景下连接和阐明对过去的看法和对未来的展望。我们编辑的电影，免费提供给相关组织，可以放大和弥合多种声音，建立当地和国际对气候变化对遗产，社区和地方感的影响的跨文化理解。

The winter storms of 2013-2014 set new precedents of coastal damage in the UK, forcing government, heritage bodies and local communities to seriously reconsider the future management of coastal heritage. Relevant organisations were seemingly unprepared for these events, and communities were possibly surprised by what had happened, as well as by their own emotional response. Over 8200 miles away, in the low-lying island nation of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, over 100,000 citizens face the possibility of permanent relocation due to climate change and sea-level rise which threaten homeland and heritage. Troubling in itself, Kiribati also presents an unsettling visualisation of a collective future. These diverse settings are brought together in this project through the exploration of current and potential loss of heritage in times of accelerated climate change.In the UK our project partners, the National Trust, own 742 miles of coastline and face difficult negotiations regarding their Coastal Adaptation Strategy. This research will consider the challenges facing heritage organisations and communities by focusing on three case studies; two of these are National Trust sites: Porthdinllaen (in North Wales) and Durgan Village (in Cornwall), with these two villages at risk respectively of increased tidal flooding and coastal erosion. The third case study in Kiribati considers a more urgent situation, exploring the societal and personal effect of potential whole-scale loss on perceptions of heritage, sense of place, religious beliefs and cultural identity. At each distinct site we will explore community, heritage and government responses to current challenges, as well as strategies for a stormy future. The data collected will be archived with project partners National Library of Wales and Cornish Audio Visual Archive, providing a legacy for this research and the communities under threat. More immediately, we hope to inform improved communication and consultation processes for these and comparative communities in future.Whereas popular imaginings of 'heritage' are likely to include buildings or assets with acknowledged historic value, there is an increased awareness among heritage organisations and administrations such as the Welsh Government that the more 'ordinary' or 'everyday' can also be valuable to communities, embedded in local history and the texture of lived lives. Broader definitions of heritage could include a bus shelter, coastal path, or even a particular tree, because they have meaning to the people who experience them. In order to deepen our understanding of 'sense of place', we will use a multi-layered interpretation of heritage as a concept and a process relating both to the tangible as well as the intangible (values, beliefs, practices). This strategy is essential to fully appreciate the subtle and traumatic ways in which climate-change disrupts community lives and identities, with potentially painful transitions ahead.This interdisciplinary project invites collaboration with the Australian poet Mark Tredinnick, who will visit Kiribati and offer a poetic response to the effects of climate change on 'place' in more abstract terms. This research claims a greater stake for arts and humanities disciplines in climate adaptation debates, mostly dominated by natural and social scientists, and we will adopt an innovative approach towards engagement in and dissemination of our research. There will be poetry, films, conversation and community stories as well as scholarly and qualitative analysis. Artistic responses will be useful in connecting and articulating perceptions of the past and imaginings of the future at these sites, and in a broader cultural context. Our edited films, freely available to relevant organisations, may serve to amplify and bridge multiple voices, forging local and international cross-cultural understanding of the effect of climate change on heritage, communities and sense of place.