Documentation and conservation of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) is crucial to preserve humankind’s history and traditions, safeguarding tangible testimonies of past human life while ensuring its accessibility to present and future generations. TECTONIC project will promote an intersectoral collaboration between academic and non-academic
professionals (such as technical experts, archaeologists, conservator, geologists, engineers, computer scientists) working in different topics related to the UCHs to respond and find solutions to the complex issues still existing in the field of UCH. The overall aim is the exchange of skills and expertise, the training activities for the implementation, improvement and assessment of innovative materials, techniques, tools and methodologies to develop solutions and marketable products for the conservation, restoration and management of the UCH (objects, artefacts, structures, remains etc.). To achieve its overall aim, TECTONIC project will undertake innovation and development activities driven by the following objectives:

• Study, documentation and 3D reconstruction of the selected pilot sites; 
• Decision support tool for UCH risk assessment in a changing environment;
• Conservation studies, protocols and suitable procedures for preservation/conservation activities; 
• Development of open and low-cost robotic solutions for the inspection, documentation and monitoring of UCH; 
• Raising the public awareness and knowledge about the importance to preserve the underwater historical and archaeological heritage.

All the objectives will be devoted to stimulate new ideas that would bring to the development of new marketable products by capitalizing on the research results that will be achieved in the project, creating a link between business, research and higher education.

Call: H2020-MSCA-RISE-2019

Natural and man-made hazards, anthropogenic effects and extreme climate change events, are persistently putting natural and cultural heritage under pressure, with an increasing frequency over time. In addition, such disasters and catastrophes impose new and continuously changing conservation challenges and urgently needs for innovative preservation and safeguarding approach, particularly during extreme climate conditions.
STRENCH outcomes will strongly contribute and capitalise EU funded projects results to improve capacities of the public and private sectors to mitigate the impacts of climate change and natural hazards on cultural heritage sites, structures and buildings at risk as outlined in the priority 6 of the call. It will be specifically tailored and robustly implemented in order to propose ready-to-use solutions (WebGIS tool, hazard maps, methodology for vulnerability ranking, strategies for disaster risk reduction) for assessing climate change effects in order to define strategies for the protection of cultural heritage at risk, assisting local stakeholders in improving their know-how on the process of definition of priorities of intervention and strategies (preparedness/emergency/recovery).
According to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and the European Agenda for Culture, the political development of innovative strategies will be also an asset together with the introduction of cultural heritage preservation in the main political and planning documents for the next programming period. By the achievement of the planned objectives, STRENCH is expected to proactively target the needs and requirements of stakeholders and policymakers responsible for disaster mitigation and safeguarding of cultural heritage assets and to foster the active involvement of citizens and local communities in the decision-making process.

Partners
1. (LP) Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e del Clima - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Bologna, Italy;
2. Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences – Praga, Repubblica Ceca;
3. University for Continuing Education Krems Danube University Krems – Krems, Austria;
4. Fondazione Villa Ghigi – Bologna, Italy;
5. SISTEMA GmbH – Wien, Austria;
6. Balatoni Integrációs Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft – Siófok, Hungary;
7. Urbanistični inštitut Republike Slovenije – Ljubljana, Slovenia;
8. Landkreis Forchheim – Forchheim, Germany;
9. Općina Dugopolje – Dugopolje, Croatia.

Social media
strench.ice at gmail.com

STRENCH Promotional video

STRENCH short video