The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) upholds the development and implementation of measures to reduce hazard exposure and vulnerability to disasters. Among other aspects, the SFDRR recognizes the importance of cultural heritage and its irreplaceable value for society, thus emphasizing the need to assess the impact that potential hazards may have on cultural heritage assets. One of the challenges for the disaster risk management sector is to integrate losses that are difficult to monetize into loss estimation procedures to obtain a sound quantification of disaster impacts. In this context, the losses to cultural heritage and the relation between them and society are particularly important. In light of this, a new indicator is proposed that provides a quantitative estimate of the loss in value of cultural heritage assets damaged by hazardous events. The loss in value is estimated as a function of the (physical) damage that cultural heritage assets sustained and of the positive estimated economic impact that cultural heritage has in a given country or region. The proposed indicator is not meant to reflect the true value of economic losses. Instead, it reflects a standardized measure of potential economic losses that is comparable across countries or regions. Details of the methodology are presented along with an illustrative application to a case study.

In a changing world where the frequency of natural hazards is increasing, the consequences of disasters on cultural heritage assets are still not well understood. This can be attributed to shortcomings in existing risk management practices and to the fact that disaster consequences in the cultural sector are seldom recorded in a structured manner. On 15 October 2017, an extreme wildfire event took place in Portugal, causing significant human and material losses. However, little information is available about its impacts on cultural heritage. This article describes a study that was carried out to identify cultural heritage assets affected by the event in inland central Portugal, and the types of impacts that they withstood, based on local information collected from a sample of municipalities estimated to have been the most affected. The municipalities were selected based on a geospatial analysis supported by maps of estimated burnt areas and national datasets of cultural heritage. The information provided by the municipalities is comprehensively reported and discussed. Although the consequences of the wildfires on cultural heritage were not particularly severe, relevant direct and indirect damage occurred, and further indirect consequences may arise in the future as a result of the event. Improved knowledge and awareness regarding wildfire risk management for cultural heritage assets, supported by research initiatives such the one presented here, are called for.