Addressing Risks for Cultural Heritage in Risk Assessments - Is there any?

Abstract

When talking about disaster risks, cultural heritage is usually not taken into account—either globally or nationally. Yet, heritage sites are increasingly affected by floods, fires, earthquakes, and other hazards. Despite growing awareness, very few World Heritage properties have developed proper disaster risk reduction plans. Policy-makers, both in cultural and civil protection sectors, tend to focus on what they perceive as “real” priorities, while the vulnerability of heritage is often acknowledged only after a disaster—when it is too late.

In Croatia, civil protection legislation includes cultural property protection, yet major strategic documents rarely engage with it meaningfully. This article examines the extent to which cultural heritage is addressed in disaster risk assessments by analysing three selected Croatian cathedrals—Dubrovnik, Rijeka, and Đakovo—and corresponding local risk assessments. Using ICCROM’s Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA), adapted for the Croatian context, the aim was to highlight the gap between official planning and actual vulnerability. The results reveal consistent underrepresentation of cultural heritage in official frameworks and demonstrate the practical value of heritage-specific tools such as the VCA.