Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk: prioritizing action and connecting research and citizen science at sites threatened by the sea

Summary

In Scotland, there is a long tradition of archaeologists working at sites threatened by coastal erosion. Government Agency, Historic Scotland, has sponsored a series of coastal surveys in order to locate sites; and the SCAPE Trust has worked with national and local heritage bodies to prioritize action and produce an interactive ‘Sites at Risk’ map from the data. The map includes sites of all periods and site types, many of which contain a wealth of palaeoenvironmental data.

The coast is a highly dynamic zone, and once a site is recorded, its condition can rapidly change. In Britain, heritage data is publically accessible, and SCAPE is employing a citizen-science approach to gathering data. Using apps and the internet, the public are undertaking recording projects to update records and report new discoveries.

Academic research priorities from the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework are being linked to the updated ‘Sites at Risk’ data, and the aim is to encourage the research community to investigate some of the most threatened sites. Undertaking practical action at vulnerable sites is helping to turn a challenge into an opportunity; and a new understanding of the past is being presented by sites threatened by natural processes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Global Change Threats to the Archaeological and Paleoecological Record

Keywords

Spatial Coverage