Public archaeology and climate change / edited by Tom Dawson [and three others].

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Public Archaeology and Climate Change promotes new approaches to studying and managing sites threatened by climate change, specifically actions that engage communities or employ 'citizen science' initiatives. Researchers and heritage managers around the world are witnessing severe challenges and developing innovative mechanisms for dealing with them. Increasingly archaeologists are embracing practices learned from the natural heritage sector, which has long worked with the public in practical recording projects. By involving the public in projects and making data accessible, archaeologists are engaging society in the debate on threatened heritage and in wider discussions on climate change. Community involvement also underpins wider climate change adaptation strategies, and citizen science projects can help to influence and inform policy makers. Developing threats to heritage are being experienced around the world, and as this collection of papers will show, new partnerships and collaborations are crossing national boundaries. With examples from across the globe, this selection of 18 papers detail the scale of the problem through a variety of case studies. Together they demonstrate how heritage professionals, working in diverse environments and with distinctive archaeology, are engaging with the public to raise awareness of this threatened resource. Contributors examine differing responses and proactive methodologies for the protection, preservation and recording of sites at risk from natural forces and demonstrate how new approaches can better engage people with sites that are under increasing threat of destruction, thus contributing to the resilience of our shared heritage.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The focus of this edited volume of 18 papers is on rapid climate change and the threat rising sea levels, coastal erosion, melting permafrost, desertification, flooding, and temperature fluctuations pose to archaeological sites. The volume provides a fresh approach to identifying, preserving, and investigating endangered sites by establishing partnerships with the public through which trained volunteers can monitor the vulnerability of cultural resources. Content is largely delivered through case studies, which include Alaska's North Slope, where biological artifacts preserved in the frozen ground now risk being lost, and the British Isles, where coastlines are undergoing dramatic changes from erosion. In Japan, ancient wooden temples are experiencing increased soaking rainfall, fungus, and destructive insects due to higher temperatures. Cultural heritage management plans in these areas incorporate local communities and networks of public volunteers who participate with professional archaeologists in preservation efforts. For example, the membership of the Society for California Archaeology was mobilized to monitor the state's entire coastline; in France, the ALeRT program established a network of trained volunteers. This important volume highlights the threats facing cultural heritage sites and offers strategies for their preservation addressed through public archaeology programs. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --James Bushnell Richardson, emeritus, University of Pittsburgh