26 - Scheduled Monuments and Sites at Risk of Coastal Erosion: Danish Heritage Legislation and Actions

Summary

Denmark is a lowland country with a coastline of more than 7,000 kilometers. The Danish coastal zone contains a rich archaeological heritage, which is vital for understanding the development of the Southwestern Scandinavian area, and its changing prehistoric and historic communities. However, the ongoing climate change and its environmental consequences poses a threat to some of the country’s 32,000 scheduled monuments and sites. Danish legislation on monuments is restrictive: the default position is that no changes at all may be made to historic monuments and sites. The issue of monuments and sites threatened by coastal erosion is interesting in that society has instituted a conservation system that cannot be sustained because of escalating weather conditions. This poses major administrative challenges to the country’s cultural heritage authorities, who need to re-evaluate some quite fundamental concepts and principles of current cultural heritage practices. Above all, this means breaking with a long-standing management tradition that needs to be better adapted to tackle the future challenges of cultural heritage in a world of global warming.