Introducing the "Risk Component" in Heritage Management Planning

Albania is a country exposed to the most common hazards of natural origin such as those of geologic, hydrologic, atmospheric nature etc. On the other hand, the human actions in the global level, exploiting excessively the resources, have negatively impacted many ecosystems, causing alterations of their functions and provoking amplified worldwide cascade effects. The relations between deforestation and landslides, floods and water management regimes, climate change and the sea level rise, etc. are now evident also in Albania. The paper argues that management regimes of the cultural heritage sites should recognise the specificities of the sites related to disaster risks prevention and management. As such, heritage management planning and disaster risk reduction practices should focus on values, using them as an explicit basis for decision making. It also proposes the use of an integrated multi-hazard, multisectoral and a more people-centred approach to disaster risk reduction practices, as mandatory for the sustainable development of the cultural heritage sites.