The Historic Environment as an agent of change in the climate emergency: a community-centred approach

Our Place in Time (OPT), the Historic Environment Strategy for Scotland (2014), defines the Historic Environment as 'the physical evidence for human activity that connects people with place, linked with the associations we can see, feel and understand'. This definition portrays the historic environment (HE) as an active feature within our lived experiences, i.e. something that 'connects' and 'links'. Too often, however, the HE is managed as a passive, static thing, rather than as a dynamic part of an ever-changing relationship between humans and their environment. Yet it is the human element that makes up the very fabric of the HE: human activity created the HE, and human interaction with the HE is what keeps it alive, giving it the significance it holds within our culture and communities today.

Environmental change over time has always impacted the built environment; however, the combination of accelerating incremental change and increasingly frequent severe weather events triggered by the climate emergency have put increasing strain on the management of the HE. These climate changes have the potential to make HE loss sudden and severe. Historic Environment Scotland (HES) manages over 300 historic monuments, referred to as Properties in Care (PiCs), many of which are already directly impacted by climate change. How can HES manage PiCs in the face of climate change? And how can communities be a part of these decisions?

While most projects have focused on the conservation and management of the HE and the physical aspects of climate change, few have properly addressed these questions in the context of community needs and engagement. Indeed, projects such as Learning from Loss (2018) highlighted the disparity between the focus on site management amongst heritage professionals and the pragmatism of local communities when it came to acceptance of loss, especially for coastal and island sites. A Social Value Toolkit (2021), created as part of a collaborative PhD thesis between the University of Stirling and HES, provides guidance for heritage professionals trying to ascertain social value, but has its limits. The toolkit functions only in one direction, run by heritage professionals to understand community value, and establishes a snapshot of social value at a single, fixed point in time. The same issue of a fixed-in-time community response is true for the Climate Vulnerability Index work carried out at World Heritage sites in Scotland (2019-22), though this method does actively assess Community Vulnerability independently of the monument, a process which is of key importance to understanding the 'connection' between humans and the HE.

Is it possible, then, to manage the HE in the face of climate change that actively supports the 'connections' and 'links' between humans and their HE as defined in OPT? This fellowship will answer that question by generating a new approach to asking these questions, focusing on the active, human element of the HE. Instead of asking, 'how can we manage the HE in the face of climate change with communities in mind', we must ask, 'how can the HE support and connect with communities in the face of climate change'? How can HES's PiCs be at the forefront of this conversation? While the ability to keep PiCs in a 'preserved' state has always been a misconception, it is certainly no longer viable in the context of a swiftly changing climate. Once we step away from the passive management process that stipulates monuments should be maintained 'as is', what possibilities become open to us? If we see the HE as something that is active, ever-changing and alive, how does that shift our capacity to engage with it? This fellowship will ask these questions of diverse communities at PiC case studies, with the aim of understanding how policy and management for the HE can adapt to community needs, being flexible and resilient in the face of climate change, loss and the ever-changing environment.