The Longwood Vulnerability, Potential, & Condition (VPC) Assessment Method: A Case Study from a Hurricane Sandy Project in Virginia

Summary

Where cultural resources are increasingly threatened by the effects of a changing climate, the old model of preservation in place is no longer sustainable. For resource managers charged with the preservation of our cultural heritage, effective stewardship demands that managers are in a position to make data-driven decisions to prioritize the deployment of scarce financial resources to the most vulnerable cultural resources. Nowhere in Virginia are the effects of climate change more apparent than along the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay, and nowhere else is scientifically derived data on those impacts more urgently needed. To generate this data, the Institute of Archaeology developed the Longwood Vulnerability, Potential, and Condition (VPC) Assessment method and applied it to the Hurricane Sandy Shoreline Survey in Lancaster, Northumberland, Middlesex and Mathews Counties. By triangulating the data from site vulnerability to quantify annual shoreline change rates, potential for undocumented resources through predictive modeling of the study area and the observed condition of known sites, the Longwood VPC Assessment method provides resource managers with a powerful tool for making informed, data-driven management decisions about archaeological sites and the level of threat to which each may be subjected.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20091