Cultural Resources

Category Description & Vulnerability Overview

Description

Reviewing the vulnerability of cultural resources can be much like the Plan of Conservation and Development process. It likely requires community-wide outreach, review of local plans and documents, and input from a variety of stakeholders. The existing POCD may be a useful place to start to identify key character areas, demographic groups, and historical sites. While you’re reviewing your community’s cultural resources, consider the following:

• Many historical buildings are located in flood zones.
• Historical buildings may not be insulated or sealed. May not have contemporary air handling systems.
• Many vulnerable groups including low-income, elderly, Native American, and non-English speaking groups.
• Traditional gathering locations like fairgrounds and town greens do not have shelter from natural disasters or high heat.
• Trees along roads at town entrances may be second growth generation and nearing end of life or at risk from trimming.
• Lack of farm transitions may reduce traditional farming knowledge.
• Local traditions and events may need heat/cooling and intense storm plans.

“Historic resources are part of a community’s shared identity and function as places of memory and meaning for local residents (Hayden, 1995; Jenks, 2008). The physical fabric of a community can be seen as both reflecting and reinforcing cultural norms and social relations (Schein, 1997). If that fabric is destroyed, members of a disaster-affected community may be forced to ask fundamental and destabilizing questions about the nature of their relation-ship with each other and with the space in which their lives have been lived (e.g., Gans, 1962, pp. 281–335; Otte, 2007). Protecting historic resources can preserve a community’s shared identity and reinforce connections between neighbors and the larger community (FEMA, 2005; Jones, 1986)”

[Source: Appler and Rumbach. Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 82, No. 2, Spring 2016. DOI 10.1080/01944363.2015.1123640]

Vulnerability Overview

Cultural Resources is the most varied of the categories and includes less tangible concepts that contribute to the overall character of a place. The 2006 NPS Management Policies define cultural resources as “archaeological resources, cultural landscapes, ethnographic resources, historic and prehistoric structures, and museum collections.”

In addition to these historical objects, cultural resources also includes important socio-cultural components such as different ethnic groups, traditional land use activities, and the human-landscape interaction through recreation. Rural character is a strong portion of cultural resources since it is a defining vision for most of the region’s municipalities. Communities must take care to develop strategies that protect their local character and cultural resources since they are usually important motivations for residents and visitors alike.

A community’s cultural fabric should consider:

• The region’s residents, especially vulnerable populations such as elders, indigenous people, disable/handicapped, children, refugees and migrants, and low income groups;
• Significant landscape and scenic areas;
• Historical properties (districts, sites, views, etc. On local, state, national, and international lists);
• Traditional events such as an annual harvest festival, Ice Watch, summer concert series, or holiday celebrations;
• Traditional land use such as hunting, agriculture, or religious uses;
• Recreation and tourism;
• Village/Town Center
• Rural Character components

“Integrating historic resource resiliency into state and local government plans is critical, to ensure that preservation values are represented in plans for hazard mitigation, conservation and development, and climate preparedness. Planners should consider historic resources in each of the four key steps—prepare, withstand, recover, and adapt—that inform hazard mitigation plans.” [Source: Shared Stewardship: Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office’s 2018-2023 Strategic Plan]

Potential Partners & Funding Streams

Please send any suggested partners, grants, or resources to info [at] joannaw1.sg-host.com.

General Tools

CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index Communities can use the interactive map as well as download county-wide maps. Access the Litchfield County Social Vulnerability Index here

National Park Service Climate Change Response Strategy 2010

NPS Cultural Resources Climate Change Strategy

Adaptation planning For Historic Properties Report

SHPO Resiliency Report from Goodwin – Forthcoming December 2018

Shared Stewardship: Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office’s 2018-2023 Strategic Plan CT SHPO intends to develop its resiliency efforts as noted in the Strategic Plan. There will be additional resources on the SHPO website and staff will be working with municipalities and local preservation organizations to enhance resiliency. Goal #4 is “Develop a Resiliency Strategy for Historic Resources”.

HUD’s Economic Resilience Planning Evaluation Tool: The Economic Resilience Planning Tool provides users with a number of best practices to integrate aspects of economic disaster mitigation, preparedness, and recovery into economic development plans.

“Preservation Meets Resiliency: Municipal and State Planning for the Future” Presentation

Tribal Climate Change Guide to Funding, Science, Programs and Adaptation Plans This sortable spreadsheet can help tribes find potential funding sources and other resources. Maintained by University of Oregon.

Survey and Planning Grants, CT Dept. of Economic & Community Development, Offices of Culture and Tourism

Policy Guide on Historic and Cultural Resources, American Planning Association

Preservation & Climate Change, National Trust for Historic Preservation

Historic Preservation and Cultural Resources: Protecting Our Heritage, FEMA

Case Study—CT State Historic Preservation Office Resiliency Assessment

Case Study—Mapping Manitoba’s Historical Sites

Actions

The section is divided into the following major categories:

• Archaeological & Ethnographic Resources
• Social & Governance Resilience
• Local Economy
• Cultural Landscapes
• Buildings & Structures
• Rural Character Components

A tabular version of the actions is available for printing.

Archaeological & Ethnographic Resources

Social & Governance Resilience

Local Economy

Cultural Landscapes

Buildings & Structures

Rural Character Components

Note: Rural Character Components are from the Wozniak-Brown, Joanna, “Understanding Community Character as a Socio-ecological Framework to Enhance Local-scale Adaptation: An Interdisciplinary Case Study from Rural Northwest Connecticut” (2017).  https://aura.antioch.edu/etds/343