Introducing ACTOR as a Learning Framework - Merging Cultural Heritage Assessments with Risk Reduction and Disaster Recovery

Ann Kristina Bojsen¹

¹Associate Professor at the Bachelor's Degree Programme in Emergency and Risk Management, Metropolitan University College, Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

There is a general professional consensus that vulnerability and risk assessments are crucial tasks in any serious attempt to substantially reduce disaster losses and enhance the reconciliation or recovery in the post event phase. However, cultural heritage is often considered as an overarching element that should be assessed, rather than a permanent key component of the assessments. Research in disaster management noticeably illustrates how cultural heritage is increasingly at risk from disasters caused by natural and human-made hazards, as well as the effects of climate change. Still, disaster risk reduction interventions tend to overlook the importance of incorporating cultural heritage, as an independent and highly valuable component in order to increase the risk reduction. Furthermore, there is a lack of methodological expansion in order to merge disaster assessment and cultural heritage. These limitations serve as motivation for the introduction of the ACTOR framework (Assessing Cultural Threats, Obstacles and Resilience) ACTOR aims at merging cultural heritage assessments with risk reduction and disaster recovery, and provide disaster management students with a learning framework that considers how different impacts of cultural heritage affect disaster risk reduction, and how disasters and risk influence cultural heritage. The ambition of ACTOR is to outline a conceptual framework for cultural heritage in relation to disaster risk reduction interventions, and to introduce a methodological contribution to the field of disaster management education and training that places cultural heritage at the center of disaster risk reduction.

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Cite this Article as Follows

Ann Kristina Bojsen. Introducing ACTOR as a Learning Framework - Merging Cultural Heritage Assessments with Risk Reduction and Disaster Recovery. International Conference on Education, Transportation and Disaster Management (2018): 44. Print.