A Communities Engagement Tool for Assessing the Resilience and Deterioration of Cultural Heritage Sites

Climate change and geo-hazards (such as landslides and earthquakes) may have a negative impact on historic areas hosting Cultural Heritage (CH) sites and monuments, which in turn yields significant adverse impacts on economies, politics and societies. The deterioration of CH sites is one of the biggest challenges that needs to be addressed through structural responses, preventive measures, restoration strategies, resilience and adaptation methodologies. In order to assess the resilience and deterioration of the historic areas and also the potential impacts due to various hazards through a community-based participatory environment, a web tool has been developed, entitled “Communities’ Engagement Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Tool”. This paper presents the aforementioned tool which aims at engaging cultural heritage aware communities through a web platform. This specialized software is an advanced application that will encourage citizens to give direct feedback to the relevant cultural authorities in order to assist them in assessing the deterioration of the cultural heritage sites and determining the needed reconstruction needs and expectations.