Potsiou et al. (2025) Impact of Climate Change and Other Disasters on Coastal Cultural Heritage: An Example from Greece

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Land
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-10-07
• Authors: Chryssy Potsiou, Sofia Basiouka, Styliani Verykokou, Denis Istrati, Sofia Soile, Marcos Julien Alexopoulos, Charalabos Ioannidis
• DOI: 10.3390/land14102007

Research Groups

• EU Horizon Project (producer of TRIQUETRA Decision Support System)
• Hellenic Cadastre
• Hellenic Archaeological Cadastre

Short Summary

This study proposes and validates an integrated geospatial framework, including Digital Twin technology, land administration systems, and open geospatial data, for proactive risk assessment and management of coastal cultural heritage sites. The approach, demonstrated at Aegina Kolona, provides a practical pathway to enhance resilience against climate change threats through multi-scale hazard simulation and scenario testing.

Objective

• To demonstrate the value of innovative geospatial tools and data ecosystems, particularly Digital Twin technology integrated with land administration systems and open geospatial data, for timely risk assessment and proactive management of coastal cultural heritage sites facing climate change threats.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Island-scale (Aegina island) with a 5 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) coupled with site-scale modelling (Aegina Kolona archaeological site) using a high-resolution UAV-derived DEM.
• Temporal Scale: Continuous updates for the Digital Twin; future scenario testing for sea level rise, flooding, and erosion; identification of critical intervention windows for temporary protection measures.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: TRIQUETRA Decision Support System (DSS), Digital Twin methodology, multi-scale hydrologic–hydraulic modelling framework.
• Data sources:
  • Cadastral information (Hellenic Cadastre)
  • Archaeological cadastral information (Hellenic Archaeological Cadastre)
  • Open geospatial resources
  • Photogrammetric 3D models
  • Climate projections
  • Hazard simulations
  • UAV-based Structure-from-Motion Multi-View Stereo (SfM-MVS) survey outputs:
    • Dense point cloud (>60 million points)
    • Digital Surface Model (5 cm resolution)
    • High-resolution orthomosaics (1 cm and 2.5 cm ground sampling distance)
    • Textured 3D model (from >6000 nadir and oblique images)
  • Digital Elevation Model (DEM) (5 m resolution for island-scale simulations)

Main Results

• The integrated framework, combining land administration systems, open geospatial data, and Digital Twin technology, provides a practical pathway for proactive and efficient management of coastal cultural heritage.
• Validation at Aegina Kolona demonstrated the creation of a robust geospatial infrastructure using high-resolution UAV-based photogrammetry, including a dense point cloud exceeding 60 million points and a 5 cm resolution Digital Surface Model.
• Multi-scale hydrologic–hydraulic modelling revealed spatially variable flood impacts on individual structures within the archaeological site under extreme rainfall events.
• The study highlighted the sensitivity of flood risk assessment results to watershed delineation and model resolution.
• The approach successfully identified critical intervention windows for implementing temporary protection measures.

Contributions

• Introduction and validation of the TRIQUETRA Decision Support System (DSS) and a Digital Twin methodology for comprehensive hazard identification, quantification, and mitigation for coastal cultural heritage.
• Development of an innovative approach that integrates heterogeneous geospatial datasets (cadastral, photogrammetric 3D models, climate projections, hazard simulations) into a continuously updated virtual replica of heritage sites.
• Demonstration of a multi-scale hydrologic–hydraulic modelling framework, coupling island-scale and site-scale simulations, for detailed flood risk assessment using high-resolution UAV-derived data.
• Providing a practical pathway for proactive and efficient management, enhancing resilience of coastal heritage against climate change threats by enabling stakeholders to test future scenarios.

Funding

• EU’s Horizon project (for the production of the TRIQUETRA Decision Support System)

Citation

@article{Potsiou2025Impact,
  author = {Potsiou, Chryssy and Basiouka, Sofia and Verykokou, Styliani and Istrati, Denis and Soile, Sofia and Alexopoulos, Marcos Julien and Ioannidis, Charalabos},
  title = {Impact of Climate Change and Other Disasters on Coastal Cultural Heritage: An Example from Greece},
  journal = {Land},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/land14102007},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/land14102007}
}