Il patrimonio costruito e cambiamenti climatici: il ruolo delle valutazioni digitali in merito alla resilienza termica degli spazi aperti storici

Climate change increases the risk of generating localized and large-scale changes leading to degradation of the ecosystem and people’s health, as well as Cultural Heritage. As mitigation encompasses measures and activities aimed at reducing GHG emissions, adaptation refers to any adjustments in a system in response to the actual or projected climatic scenarios. In the field of Cultural Heritage, mitigation has traditionally been given more attention in climate change research than adaptation, neglecting the thermal resilience potentialities of historical settlements, especially for the upcoming years. Climate Change adaptation measures should be based on the knowledge of the local construction patterns, local microclimates, and their relationship with the formal features of the buildings, according to the so-called genius loci. Despite several enhancements in the understanding of the relationship between climate change impacts and cultural heritage, there are significant barriers that hamper the adaptation of cultural heritage to current and projected climate risks. The need to assess today risks and potentialities, as well as to foresee future condition is still disregarded, despite the diffusion of several algorithms and tools (i.e., Envi-met and Ladybug Tool) that digitally simulate local conditions and predict the effects of design on thermal resilience. The proposed research aims at identifying the thermal resilience potential of some archetypal traditional buildings and historical urban fabrics in responding to the harsh effects of climate change, in today and projected scenarios. The research will focus on the potentialities of microclimatic evaluations applied on cultural heritage to evaluate today and foreseen scenarios’ impacts. These data will inform conservation strategies, heritage management and local policy. The research attempts to how climate change and cultural heritage can be digitally assessed to foster adaptation in historical and dense cities.