Climate change impacts on cultural heritage building foundations in Western Andalusia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to present the consequences of climate change, especially temperature increase, drought, sea-level rise, and coastal flooding or earthquake increase, in the foundations of four heritage buildings in Andalusia, to enhance the importance of risk assessments of heritage to contribute to disaster resilience. The climate-related hazard that may thrive as climatic stressors on outdoor cultural heritage have been studied, as the decrease in soil moisture leads to a subsidence and shrinkage effect of the surface clays affecting such important heritage buildings as the Church of the Sagrario, next to the cathedral of Seville. Other hazards analyzed in the study cases include a slight rise in sea level at the mouth of the Guadalquivir and the recent erosion of coastal buildings such as the Chipiona Castle or the castle of Utrera, all of them placed on Western Andalusia.