The rock-cut city of Vardzia is an example of the extraordinary rupestrian cultural heritage of Georgia. The site, Byzantine in age, was carved in the steep tuff slopes of the Erusheti mountains, and due to its peculiar geological characteristics, it is particularly vulnerable to weathering and degradation, as well as frequent instability phenomena. These problems determine serious constraints on the future conservation of the site, as well as the safety of the visitors. This paper focuses on the implementation of a site-specific methodology, based on the integration of advanced remote sensing techniques, such as InfraRed Thermography (IRT) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based Digital Photogrammetry (DP), with traditional field surveys and laboratory analyses, with the aim of mapping the potential criticality of the rupestrian complex on a slope scale. The adopted methodology proved to be a useful tool for the detection of areas of weathering and degradation on the tuff cliffs, such as moisture and seepage sectors related to the ephemeral drainage network of the slope. These insights provided valuable support for the design and implementation of sustainable mitigation works, to be profitably used in the management plan of the site of Vardzia, and can be used for the protection and conservation of rupestrian cultural heritage sites characterized by similar geological contexts.

Rock-carved cultural heritage sites are often developed in slopes formed by weak rocks, which due to their peculiar lithological, geotechnical, and morpho-structural features are characterized by excellent carvability, which at the same time makes them prone to weathering, deterioration, and slope instability issues. In this context the use of advanced close-range nondestructive techniques, such as Infrared Thermography (IRT) and Unmanned Aerial vehicle-based Digital Photogrammetry (UAV-DP) can be profitably used for the rapid detection of conservation issues (e.g., open fractures, unstable ledges-niches, water seepage and moisture) that can lead to slope instability phenomena. These techniques, when combined with traditional methods (e.g., field surveys, laboratory analysis), can provide fundamental data (such as 3D maps of the kinematic mechanisms) to implement a site-specific and interdisciplinary approach for the sustainable protection and conservation of such fragile cultural heritage sites. In this paper some examples of conservation problems in several rupestrian sites characterized by different geological contexts, from the mountainous regions of Georgia to the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, are presented, with the aim of evaluating the potential of the proposed integrated approach. The final aim is to provide conservators, practitioners, and local authorities with a useful, versatile, and low-cost methodology, to be profitably used in the protection and conservation strategies of rock-carved sites.

The current Copernicus evolution aims to meet horizontal users’ needs in order to widen uptake of the Copernicus monitoring products by non-traditional users. In 2019, the European Commission initiated a coordinated action to evaluate the current and potential uptakes of Copernicus products, and for the monitoring and protection of European Cultural and Natural Heritage in a future climate change scenario. An interaction matrix was developed, circulated to and fulfilled by users in order to collect their needs and identify the main gaps in terms of monitoring data and information. The results show what users require from Copernicus to face the daily challenges of preserving and protecting CH features. Moreover, the interaction with users identified a data and information access model that best maximizes uptake by the users. The present work illustrates the user requirement coordination mechanism adopted by the European Copernicus Cultural Heritage Task Force; synthesises the results achieved in terms of gap analysis; and assesses the current and potential uptake of Copernicus data, services, and products in support of the monitoring and protection of European cultural heritage. It also provides recommendation about the implementation of infrastructural solutions to improve Copernicus services data and information access by cultural heritage users.

The High City of Antananarivo is one of the most important cultural heritage sites of Madagascar, on the UNESCO Tentative List since 2016. Built on the hilltop of the Analamanga Hill, a granite ridge overlooking the Ikopa River valley, it is renowned for its baroque-style palaces, such as the Rova royal complex, and neo-Gothic cathedrals dating back to the nineteenth century. During the winter of 2015, the twin cyclones Bansi and Chedza hit the urban area of Antananarivo, triggering floods and shallow landslides, as well as causing thousands of evacuees and many casualties. Between 2018 and 2019 several rockfalls occurred from the rock cliffs of the Analamanga hills, destroying housings and killing over 30 people. Both events showed that landslides can pose a high risk to the safety of the inhabitants, the infrastructure, and the cultural heritage of the High City. To assess the landslide hazard in the Analamanga Hill area, an integrated approach was adopted by means of the following actions: (i) creation of a multitemporal detailed scale landslide map; (ii) geotechnical characterization of the involved materials; (iii) analysis of landslide susceptibility in soils/loose deposits; (iv) runout analysis of debris flows channeling within large creek gullies; (v) landslide kinematic analysis of the rockmass; (vi) simulation of rockfall trajectories; (vii) analysis of rainfall data. The results show that the main factors affecting landslides are slope, lithology, creek-gully erosion, and anthropization, while most of the landslide events are clearly triggered by heavy rainfall. The landslide-prone areas (the phenomena include shallow landslides, rock falls, and debris flows) are located primarily along the cliff bounding the western hill slope, the southeastern sector (where abandoned quarries form large slope cuts), and subordinately in the steep creek catchment just east of the Rova. The thematic maps produced represent fundamental land use management tools to be used in Geo Disaster Risk Reduction (GDRR) by scientists, practitioners and the decision-makers involved in the High City protection and conservation. The study conducted represents an important contribution for improving the knowledge on landslide processes in an area with limited data such as Madagascar, and may be reproduced in cultural heritage sites characterized by similar geomorphological and urban scenarios.

Rupestrian settlements were among the first man-made works in the history of humanity. The most relevant masterpieces of such human history have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. These sites and their associated remains are not always in equilibrium with the environment. They are continuously impacted and weathered by a variety of internal and external factors, both natural and human-induced, with rapid and/or slow onset. These include major sudden natural hazards, such as earthquakes or extreme meteorological events, but also slow cumulative processes such as the erosion of rocks, compounded by the effects of climate change, as well as the role of humans, especially in conflict situations. Many rupestrian sites have been carved into soft rock, generally with UCS < 25 MPa (ISRM in Int J Rock Mech Min Sci Geomech Abs 18:85–110, 1981 ), in vertical cliffs, and show major conservation issues in the domain of rock slope stability and rock weathering. This paper reports the experience of rock fall mitigation in rupestrian sites, mainly from the UNESCO World Heritage List (Bamiyan in Afghanistan; Lalibela in Ethiopia; Petra in Jordan, Vardzia in Georgia and others). The general approach, implemented in the activities, includes a very detailed interdisciplinary study, with the objective to understand degradation processes and causative factors, followed, as a subsequent step, by proper field conservation work. The latter is mainly related to re-discovering and potential application of traditional knowledge and sustainable practices, and is primarily based on local conservation techniques.

This study assesses the static stability of the artificial Sabereebi Cave Monastery southeast of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. The cliff into which these Georgian-Orthodox caverns, chapels, and churches were carved consists of a five-layered sequence of weak sedimentary rock—all of which bear a considerable failure potential and, consequently, pose the challenge of preservation to geologists, engineers, and archaeologists. In the first part of this study, we present a strategy to process point cloud data from drone photogrammetry as well as from laser scanners acquired in- and outside the caves into high-resolution CAD objects that can be used for numerical modeling ranging from macro- to micro-scale. In the second part, we explore four distinct series of static elasto-plastic finite element stability models featuring different levels of detail, each of which focuses on specific geomechanical scenarios such as classic landsliding due to overburden, deformation of architectural features as a result of stress concentration, material response to weathering, and pillar failure due to vertical load. With this bipartite approach, the study serves as a comprehensive 3D stability assessment of the Sabereebi Cave Monastery on the one hand; on the other hand, the established procedure should serve as a pilot scheme, which could be adapted to different sites in the future combining non-invasive and relatively cost-efficient assessment methods, data processing and hazard estimation.