Introduction to the project ‘Deterioration and decay of wooden cultural heritage in Arctic and Alpine environments' (ArcticAlpineDecay)

The Arctic is already affected by climate change, and this is expected to accelerate over the coming decades. Alpine regions in Norway are projected to face similar challenges. Current knowledge on Norwegian wooden cultural heritage in Arctic and Alpine regions is scattered and contains significant knowledge gaps. Historically, - scientists, sectorial governance, tourist trade and commerce have mainly worked from their own expertise and experience regarding wooden cultural heritage in Arctic-Alpine regions. Hence, the challenges wooden cultural heritage in Arctic-Alpine regions are facing urgently need an integrated cross-disciplinary approach. This communication paper gives a short background and an introduction to the project ArcticAlpineDecay. The project ArcticAlpineDecay will use state-of-the-art methods within different areas of expertise, and the novelty of the newly started project is the expected synergy of combining information from different methodologies. We also expect synergy with two ongoing Norwegian projects, CULTCOAST and PCCH-Arctic, and these projects are therefore also briefly described.