Climate change risk management of earthen archaeological sites: Impact assessment, adaptation strategies, and material stabilization approaches

Climate change poses a significant and escalating threat to cultural heritage worldwide, particularly to earthen archaeological sites. These inherently fragile sites are highly sensitive to environmental fluctuations. Despite growing global awareness, and systematic frameworks for assessing and adapting earthen heritage to climate change, this remains an underdeveloped research area. This thesis addresses this gap in knowledge by integrating conceptual, empirical, and experimental approaches to develop a comprehensive framework for climate change risk management and adaptation of earthen archaeological sites. The research is structured in three interrelated phases. First, a literature review synthesizes the state of knowledge on climate change impacts, vulnerability assessment, and adaptation strategies for cultural and earthen heritage. It identifies critical gaps in policy integration, the utilization of traditional knowledge, and material-level adaptation. The second phase involves a comparative vulnerabil