Local Management Strategies for Preventive Conservation of Historic Buildings “Controlling Deterioration Caused by Air Pollution”

Abstract

The current local strategies are reactive in response to risk or damage, usually in the form of treatments, repairs and retrofitting on the building scale, there is a need for proactive strategies that rely on preventive conservation concepts which can be more sustainable and cost effective as it minimizes the possibility of deterioration and risk through controlling its cause on different scales. In order to conserve historic buildings from deterioration caused by air pollution, the impact of air pollution on these buildings need to be specified and quantified in order to be controlled below the tolerable thresholds using convenient strategies on the appropriate scale. The main objective is to minimize deterioration of Historic Buildings caused by Air Pollution through the development of a framework for local management preservation strategies. A survey was also conducted to validate the framework. This will lead to types of preventions (UNESCO PRECOMOS Chair) as follows; primary prevention by avoiding the causes of the unwanted effect (damage), secondary prevention as the means of monitoring that allow an early detection of the symptoms of the unwanted effects, and tertiary prevention that allow avoiding further spread of the unwanted effect or the generation of new unwanted (side) effects.