Coastal heritage threatened by climate change

Humans have always lived by coasts and waterways, and thus these locations are rich with archeological sites. Natural and cultural resource management are conducted separately, despite the fact that climate change, sea level rise, and extreme weather threaten them both. Jayur Mehta and colleagues argue a synergy of both approaches is required to protect coastal archaeological landscapes. The authors used LiDAR digital elevation models, site location data, and NOAA sea level rise models to define impacts and inundation of archaeological sites for the US Gulf coast regions of the Florida Big Bend and the Mississippi River Delta. In Florida’s Big Bend region, 11 Indigenous sites are already at or below sea level and a further 142 mound and midden sites could be submerged in the next century—including a monumental mound site known as Garden Patch. In the Mississippi River Delta, 11 Indigenous sites are at or below sea level and a further 107 mound and midden sites are at risk—including the Magnolia Mounds complex and the Bayou Grand Cheniere site. Similar risks exist for prehistoric sites in low-lying parts of the Netherlands, cultural heritage sites in Oceania, and archaeological sites in coastal Peru. In Peru, the rapid pace of agricultural expansion further exacerbates threats to cultural resources. The authors call for policies integrating coastal ecosystem management with archaeological and historical resource preservation, using Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge, and cultural-
ecosystem services approaches. According to the authors, coastal archaeological resources provide coupled ecosystems resilience in biocultural landscapes and that an integrated approach is necessary for preservation and restoration.

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