Safeguarding the Coastal Heritage: Past and Present Climate Practices

The conservation movement of historic buildings has shifted in an environmental direction. One of the concerns in the preservation of coastal towns in developing countries is the detrimental effect of climate change and the cost of its adaptation. In the Black Sea basin of Turkey, where the main rivers merge with the Black Sea, flash floods accelerate the pressure on the urban built heritage and threaten the local economy. Thus, mansion owners experience climate-driven changes in crops failure. The economic development of the shoreline has destroyed most of the mansions while the remaining ones lost their coastal functions through incompatible interventions.

The severity of these erosions and floods has increased over time. Sensitivities of historic buildings to climate change vary depending on different geographic locations and communities; thus adaptation measures changes from coastal towns to countryside. The aim of this article is therefore to explore the key challenges for the chosen case study area and local vulnerabilities in the coastal communities. Through interviewing various stakeholders from the coastal communities, the research aims to explore the key challenges, and explores coping strategies to face them.

This paper starts by documenting the local construction techniques of waterfront mansions in the Eastern Black Sea region in Turkey through local and national archival sources. It then analyzes the cases of flood damage on the coastal community and vulnerabilities of historic buildings in the coastal towns along the Black Sea. The research suggests solutions for climate adaptation policies for the coastal mansions in the selected case area.