Road salt damage to historical milestones indicates adaptation of winter roads to future climate change may damage arctic cultural heritage

There is no doubt that anthropogenic global warming is accelerating damage to cultural heritage. Adaptation measures are required to reduce the loss of sites, monuments and remains. However, little research has been directed towards understanding potential impacts of climate adaptation measures in o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Climate
Main Authors: Antonson, Hans, Buckland, Philip, Blomqvist, Göran
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021
Subjects:
Transport Systems and Logistics
Archaeology
Adaptation
Climate change
Corrosion
Cultural heritage
Degradation
Planning processes
Arctic
Global warming
sami
Online Access:https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/f94cd95f-6ed8-4a91-8fbd-a0a117882b5e
https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9100149
Description
Summary:There is no doubt that anthropogenic global warming is accelerating damage to cultural heritage. Adaptation measures are required to reduce the loss of sites, monuments and remains. However, little research has been directed towards understanding potential impacts of climate adaptation measures in other governmental sectors on cultural heritage. We provide a case study demonstrating that winter road salt, used to reduce ice related accidents, damages historical iron milestones. As the climate warms, road salt use will move north into areas where sites have been protected by contiguous winter snow cover. This will expose Artic/sub-Arctic cultural heritage, including Viking graves and Sami sites, to a new anthropogenic source of damage. Research and planning should therefore include the evaluation of secondary impacts when choosing climate adaptation strategies.

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