Impacts of global climate change on polar heritage: assessment of imperilled polar heritage sites

Determining how climate change will impact polar heritage sites during the next few decades is a daunting task subject to many variables. It can be difficult in these circumstances to know exactly where one should begin to act, and yet the results of inactivity are predictably dire. The methodological framework presented in this thesis exploits relationships which exist between site geography, geology, temperature, and materiality; all of which are strongly correlated with the likelihood and severity of climate change impacts. While these features of a site do not cause climate change impacts in and of themselves, they provide insights into the timescales at which impacts are likely to take place, and the resiliency of sites to accommodate those impacts when they occur. A key advantage of this approach is that by focusing on measurable site characteristics and features, a meaningful place to act emerges, even as multiple potential future scenarios are considered, and results are refined. This research explores the practice of polar heritage conservation in the context of a rapidly changing global climate. With a focus on historic sites related to the periods of exploration and exploitation corresponding to the 17th to early 20th centuries (i.e., post Norse expansion of the Arctic and pre-Cold War militarization of Antarctica and the Arctic), the thesis develops a novel approach to assessing the risks of climate change impacts on cultural heritage sites, the effectiveness of which derives from its accommodation of positive feedback loops.