Cultural heritage is increasingly exposed to complex and overlapping hazards, from floods and wildfires to the escalating impacts of climate change and armed conflict. Ukraine is particularly affected, facing natural hazards such as the worst floods in the last 50 years in its Western Oblasts in 2020, as recorded by the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. On top of that, the ongoing war led to more than 400 cultural sites being damaged so far, particularly in its eastern regions.

EUSPA is supporting the mitigation of environmental risks by fostering the integration of Copernicus Earth Observation data into tools that help identify, monitor and mitigate risks to protect cultural heritage. The Agency is facilitating the use of Copernicus-enabled geospatial information. In particular, through ERA5-Land, a high-resolution dataset providing hourly information on atmospheric and land variables, and GloFAS (Global Flood Awareness System), which delivers real-time river flood forecasts and hydrological monitoring. These data sources provide critical insights into variables like air temperature and precipitation, enabling detailed, site-specific risk assessments.

By integrating historical and current climate data, stakeholders can create risk maps that inform proactive measures, enabling early intervention to protect vulnerable monuments, landscapes and archaeological sites. Routine workflows informed by Copernicus data ensure that evolving risks can be tracked in near real time, supporting timely decisions for protection and resilience planning. These actions reflect wider recommendations from expert groups under the European Commission, which advocate for the integration of cultural heritage into national disaster risk management strategies. This approach emphasises the need for proactive preparedness and coordinated responses to ensure that cultural heritage is not an afterthought, but a core element of resilience planning. 

“For us at EUSPA, it is important to support initiatives that harness the power of Earth observation to preserve Europe’s rich and diverse cultural heritage”, 

says Chiara Solimini, Space Downstream Market Officer at EUSPA.