Heritage preservation and climate change adaptation for floods in historic schools: İzmir city centre

Date

2023-12-04

Author

Halıcı, Tuğçe

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Cultural heritage assets are increasingly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Assessing the vulnerability of heritage buildings to climate change hazards and developing adaptation measures is crucial for conserving their heritage values. Therefore, this thesis aims to assess the vulnerabilities of historic school buildings in İzmir’s (Turkiye) historic centre and to develop adaptation measures. The assessment is conducted at both urban (for İzmir’s historic centre) and building scales, with a primary focus on flood and sea-level rise. The methodology integrates field surveys, archival research, interviews with school staff, and expert consultations. In addition, a Geographic Information System (GIS) is utilized for an urban-scale spatial assessment, incorporating data from flood and sea-level rise hazard maps and the locations of historic schools. For a building-scale vulnerability assessment, this study adopts a qualitative assessment approach, considering heritage value, present condition, and indicators related to architectural characteristics and adaptive capacity. The urban scale assessment is instrumental in identifying the schools exposed to flood and sea-level rise at various levels, which is critical for prioritizing urban-scale adaptation measures. Regarding sea-level rise, scenarios for the years 2050, 2100, and 2150 are taken into account for temporal aspects of the assessment on an urban scale. Mithatpaşa Vocational and Anatolian High School is selected as the case study for the building scale assessment. The results of the assessment show factors affecting the flood vulnerability of the school. Subsequently, adaptation strategies, including the use of temporary flood barriers to prevent water ingress through basement windows, enhancement of the drainage system, and user training to improve adaptive capacity, are proposed to reduce the school’s vulnerability. These proposals take into account the conservation of its heritage values. The methodology employed in this research, along with the results of the case study, provides insights for future research on addressing climate change adaptation in cultural heritage.

Subject Keywords

Cultural heritage, Climate change adaptation, Vulnerability assessment, Flood, Sea-level rise

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/107779

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis