Flood Damage to Historic Buildings and Structures
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 24, Issue 5
Abstract
This paper presents typical examples of damage to immovable cultural heritage due to flooding. Flooding can damage architectural heritage, historic infrastructure consisting of individual structures, buildings, and objects, as well as objects of art standing alone or firmly attached as an integral part of buildings. All these objects are subjected to various forces and actions during flood situations. These forces can be categorized according to the types of damage that they can cause: horizontal static pressure of raised water; upward hydrostatic pressure; dynamic low velocity streams; dynamic high-velocity streams; dynamic impact of waves; dynamic impact of floating objects; compacting of soils or infill; changes in subsoil conditions; saturation of materials with water; contamination of materials with chemical and biological agents; formation of barriers; ice floes; and postflood effects. These typical actions may occur in combinations and work in synergy. Typical illustrative examples of damage caused by individual actions are presented in the paper, which goes on to present some general lessons applicable for the most vulnerable categories of immovable heritage objects.
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Acknowledgments
The writer gratefully acknowledges support from Institutional Research Plan Grant UNSPECIFIEDAV0Z 20710524 and from the Cultural Heritage Protection against Flood (CHEF) Project of the Sixth Framework Program on Research and Technology Development of the European Commission (Contract No. UNSPECIFIED044251).
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 24 • Issue 5 • October 2010
Pages: 439 - 445
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 13, 2009
Accepted: Dec 23, 2009
Published online: Jul 10, 2010
Published in print: Oct 2010
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