Climate Change and Architectural Conservation Resiliency: How to Measure Environmental Impacts on Historic Sites and their Surrounding Communities

Climate change is becoming an increasingly impactful reality. According to the Canada's Changing Climate Report 2019 published by the federal government, Canada is warming up twice as fast than any other region on Earth. These fast changes will transform our physical environment and threaten our architectural heritage and infrastructures. Today, Forillon National Park in the Gaspésie Peninsula is at the forefront of this reality. Intensifying weather conditions expose fragile centuries-old materials to unprecedented extremes. The proposed research seeks to study architectural heritage site's adaptability and resiliency towards climate change and identify what the risks are. Most historic buildings in Forillon National Park sit vacant all year round, making them more vulnerable to our changing environment. This research has the potential to provide solutions to our changing environment at a macro and micro-scale.