Climate Heritage
Preservationists have been engaging with sustainable practices including adaptive reuse, material conservation and traditional crafts and trades for decades.
The built environment of San Antonio bears the mark of centuries of hazard events including flash flooding, droughts and violent storms. With this knowledge of past climate adaptations, Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) is addressing the challenges of climate change as it impacts the cultural heritage of San Antonio.
Cultural heritage anchors social memory and cohesion, informs community identity and instills a sense of place. This is essential in sustaining inherent resilience.
"Set within a river valley and sprawling out over its surrounding hills, San Antonio will not - because it cannot - fully escape the convergence of climate and geography that produces...rampaging waters that regularly have scoured the floodplain on which the city has been built."
Climate Heritage Mobilization
In 2018, OHP participated in the Climate Heritage Mobilization, a Global Climate Action Summit affiliated event.
At this event, the City of San Antonio's Historic Preservation Officer Shanon Miller and Chief Sustainability Officer Doug Melnick participated in an intense program along with dozens of other international heritage actors working to mobilize to address climate change.
Out of this mobilization the Climate Heritage Network was formed and formally launched in October 2019. OHP currently serves as the North America Region Co-Chair for the Climate Heritage Network.
Peer Learning Exchange
In August 2019, OHP and the Office of Sustainability hosted a Peer Learning Exchange funded by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network.
Heritage and sustainability leaders from the cities of Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Antonio spent two days focused on two guiding questions:
- How can cultural heritage support local climate action and adaptation?
- How can we incorporate climate-wise principles into preservation planning?
Presentations & Other Resources
- Deconstruction & Salvage Initiative
- City of San Antonio - Ongoing
- Stemming the Tide: Global Strategies for Sustaining Cultural Heritage through Climate Change(PDF, 5MB)
- Smithsonian Institute Symposium - March 2020
- SA Climate Ready
- Climate Action & Adaptation Plan – October 2019
- Climate Heritage Peer Learning Exchange Report(PDF, 8MB)
- Urban Sustainability Directors Network – August 2019
- The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Cultural Heritage in Climate Action (PDF)
- ICOMOS Climate Change and Heritage Working Group – July 2019
- Heritage Conservation in Climate Change Conversations(PDF, 8MB)
- Keeping History Above Water – May 2019, St. Augustine, FL
- Resilient, Historic Buildings Design Guide (PDF)
- Boston Environment Department – August 2018
- Building Resilience through Heritage Conservation(PDF, 2MB)
- AAG Conference – February 2018, New Orleans, LA
- Parks, Recreation and California Culture (PDF)
- Chapter 4, Safeguarding California Plan – January 2018
- Climate Change Adaptation Report
- Historic England – June 2016