Climate Change and Conservation of Coastal Built Heritage

This book presents the preservation principles and the current environmental challenges relating to monitoring heritage sites and buildings under the effects of climate change. It provides a clear overview of conservation action levels and the importance of participation and cooperation between them, and discusses evaluation and management methods, thermal comfort for the common usages, and conceptual methods for enhancing the built heritage. The research presented employed the “Zoom In, Zoom Out” approach for monitoring the Syrian coastal heritage sites threatened by the direct and indirect effects of climate change. Lastly, the book establishes the basic principles and conservation strategies for preserving the coastal heritage sites and buildings. As such, it is a valuable reference resource for researchers, developers, architects, and conservators involved in protecting the architectural heritage in coastal areas. It can also be used as a guidebook on preserving and monitoring built heritage sites at both macro and micro levels.

Dr. Maya Hassan holds a Ph.D. degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University, China. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture Engineering, and a High Studies in Architecture Design Diploma from Tishreen University, Syria. She has published more than 13 academic and international conference papers. Maya worked as a research assistant in the field of archaeological building documentation, and held a teaching position at the Department of Theory and History of Architecture at Tishreen University for five years before pursuing her Ph.D. studies. She also worked as an architect in the planning department of Tartous Municipality in Syria from 2006 to 2008. She was involved in the Municipal Administration Modernization Project funded by the European Union, and also documented the Spanish urban planning experience in Barcelona, Alicante, Seville, and Valencia, and took part in the preparation of the urban planning development final document for the coastal sector of Tartous city in 2008. Dr. Hassan’s main research interests are preserving, documenting and rehabilitating the built heritage; and microclimates and the effects of climate change on the built heritage.

Professor Hui Xie obtained his first degree and MEng from Chongqing University, and his PhD from the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield. Before coming to Chongqing under the 100 Talents Plan in 2012, he worked as a Research Associate at Sheffield and Cambridge. His main research interests are the health effects of built environment, urban sound environment and soundscape. Till now, he has published more than 80 academic papers, including 15 SCI papers, 20 EI papers, along with 30+ international conference papers. He has been the principle investigators for 30+ research projects funded by China and UK’s national research councils, including 2 NSFC projects, and has been a consultant for 20+ major acoustics and noise control projects in the UK, Middle East and China. He has served on the editorial board of Building Acoustics, and has been the contributor to several national standards. As a full member of Institute of Acoustics (MIOA) and a Charted Environmentalist (CEnv), he is the recipient of a number of academic awards.