PROJECT NEWS

UNESCO celebrates the International workshop on GLOCAL user requirements for Disaster Risk Reduction and Cultural and Natural Heritage

Within the context of the Horizon 2020 project SHELTER, the International workshop on GLOCAL user requirements for Disaster Risk Reduction and Cultural and Natural Heritage convened by UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe at its premises in Venice, Italy, took place on 5-6 December 2019 with the support of UNESCO’s Disaster Risk Reduction unit and guidance of SHELTER’s project partners, notably the project coordinator Tecnalia.

The purpose of the international workshop in Venice was to identify and prioritize the main top-down user requirements for SHELTER tools and take stock of existing international and national regulatory frameworks dealing with multi-hazards contexts for disaster risk management in cultural and natural heritage.
The workshop was structured upon an interactive framework and around discussions, with SHELTER project partners providing substantial inputs on the top down user requirements encompassing the entire disaster risk management cycle from early warning to post-disaster actions.

A multi-stakeholder exercise was organized through an international focus group, with the interactive involvement of 21 selected participants from international organizations, national authorities for cultural and natural heritage, local governments and institutions, cultural/natural heritage site managers, technical scholars/experts of disaster risk management in heritage and carefully selected international advisors interplayed within the framework. These participants were from 8 European countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

The participants built a Matrix of Gaps/Challenges, a matrix for Pre/Post Disaster Management and Mind Maps of Disaster Management for each hazard (flood, earthquake, fire). In addition, information on gaps and needs in disaster risk reduction for cultural and natural heritage was collected through a questionnaire and subsequent discussion and could be analysed and applied for SHELTER tools as well as multiple work packages of the project implementation.

The workshop produced the set of requirements for SHELTER developments and their integration with internationally recognized resources and tools. Requirements identified and prioritized as well as the information collected during the workshop will be fed into the implementation of the SHELTER project.