Inside the SD-WISHEES TAP Projects
The Thematic Annual Programming (TAP) action under the SD-WISHEES initiative supports research and innovation projects that explore sustainable, interdisciplinary approaches to protecting cultural heritage from hydroclimatic extreme events. Launched through a coordinated call involving multiple funding organisations, the TAP action brings together projects that reflect a shared commitment to understanding and mitigating the impacts of climate change on heritage sites, water systems, and vulnerable communities.
This overview presents the projects selected under SD-Wishees Tap Action, each contributing through local solutions, digital innovation, or nature-based practices to the global effort of preserving cultural and natural assets. From the restoration of historic water infrastructure in Malta to the use of 3D technologies for medieval site documentation in Romania, these projects demonstrate how targeted research can bridge tradition and innovation.
Together, they exemplify the ambition of SD-WISHEES: to enable collaboration across borders and disciplines in order to safeguard heritage in a changing climate.
Museion
Cristina Dobre – BEIA , George Sciu - BEIA
The preservation of cultural heritage is challenged by environmental degradation caused by climate change. Existing climate control measures are often inefficient, costly, or not tailored to the specific needs of different heritage materials. The project tackles these issues by implementing an IoT-based system that integrates real-time monitoring, data analysis, and mitigation strategies for optimal environmental condition.
Scan4Art
Rodica Ion – ICECHIM
This project led to the development of 3D technologies for storing information in digital format and the integral 3D reconstruction of the medieval heritage of Dobrogea built of stone (Sacidava Fortress), a monument that has not been investigated so far.
Alteraqua
Nikos Skondras – GWP Med
The Alter Aqua Project was born out of the urgent need to address Malta’s severe water scarcity while preserving its rich water-related cultural heritage. Malta is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, with limited naturally occurring freshwater resources. The increasing demand for water, especially from the agricultural and tourism sectors, exacerbates the situation. One of the core aspects of the Alter Aqua Project is the preservation and revitalization of Malta’s historical underground rainwater harvesting reservoirs. These structures, dating back to ancient times, played a crucial role in securing water for communities. Over the years, however, many of these reservoirs fell into disrepair and were neglected. By restoring and reintegrating these reservoirs into modern water management systems, the project not only ensures water security but also safeguards a critical element of Malta’s cultural identity.
Chadwick Trail & Cohesion Fund
Alexander Borg representing project coordinators – EWA
Chadwick Trail project has for objectives to restore the site and develop the trail. To do so, the restoration work consists of:
(1) Water course, embankment and rubble wall restoration works: Branch-packing and removal of excess material from water storage areas.
(2) Placing markers on protected plants and trees during the clearing of invasive and overgrown vegetation.
(3) Restoring pathways to improve access to the Valley for visitors along with information points.
Cohesion fund is about rehabilitating local freshwater springs for groundwater monitoring. The tunnels connecting the springs were hand-dug and some date back to when Malta was ruled by the Order of St. John (1535-1798) – the earliest reference to freshwater scarcity in Malta was made by the Knight Quintinus Haedus in 1536. In 1596, the Order’s Council issued an instruction for groundwater to be drawn from springs in the western region of Malta, eastwards to the capital of Valletta – by 1615, an aqueduct was built for this very purpose. The flow of groundwater in these springs is being monitored with the aim of gauging, among other things, the impact of climate change on both the availability of water resources and the springs themselves.
Extension of the Irrigation System by Constructing the Main Pipeline and 4 Lateral Branch Networks, Including the Installation of Hydrants, in the Outskirts of Telița Village, Anenii Noi District
Lucia Usuleru – ProEntranse
This project aims to expand the existing irrigation framework, thereby increasing agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner. To do so, the project will cover a minimum of 45 hectares of agricultural land, significantly boosting the irrigation capacity of the area. Then, by mitigating drought losses and ensuring a steady water supply, the project aims to enhance crop yields and farmer incomes.
The immediate goal is the successful completion of infrastructure, ensuring enhanced irrigation capacity for the designated land. Then, as part of long-term benefits, it is planned to anticipate increased agricultural productivity and income stability, with implications for sustainable economic growth.
Life-IP AdaptinGR
Vasiliki Pougkakioti – ELLINIKI ETAIRIA
Eleni Maistrou – NTUA School of Architecture
Climate change poses an increasing threat to cultural heritage worldwide, with Greece's historic sites facing growing risks from extreme temperatures, humidity fluctuations, coastal erosion and hydroclimatic extremes. Recognising the urgency of adaptation, ELLINIKI ETAIRIA Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage (ELLET) is actively involved in the LIFE-IP AdaptInGR project (2019-2025), Greece's main climate adaptation initiative, coordinated by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. A key objective of the project is to assess climate vulnerability and improve the adaptation of cultural heritage to climate change. ELLET plays a key role in this effort by developing methodologies to protect monuments, archaeological sites and historic settlements from climate-related threats. By bridging the gap between scientific research, policy recommendations and conservation strategies, ELLET ensures that heritage sites can withstand environmental change. For each one of the sites studied, ELLET developed a comprehensive climate risk assessment methodology, incorporating future climate projections under different emission scenarios, mapping vulnerabilities related to environmental stressors, and classifying risks based on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity.
DIBIM
Aurélie Talon – Université Clermont Auvergne
Climate change is altering waterways, rivers and streams, causing flooding. Interconnected urban infrastructures are essential for maintaining the vital functions of a society. The contraction of local authority budgets, the issues of risk management and aging are all major challenges. Each infrastructure is currently managed independently with little consideration of physical or functional interactions. The implementation of collaborative management strategies largely depends on the ability to deal with these interconnections, in physical and informational terms. In this context, the DIBIM project proposes a collaborative approach for the management of dykes interconnected with urban infrastructures (roads, water and sewer network) and vegetation with respect to technical and economic risks via the structuring, the centralization and the sharing of data in BIM (Building Information Modelling) between managers.
AGAPE
Valérie Grouet-Brunet – Insitut de Géographie Nationale (IGN)
With the acceleration of open data policies in France aimed at promoting the circulation and valorisation of public data, and the proliferation of information on the Internet, it is now possible to access multiple multimedia contents related to cultural and natural heritage, that describe or illustrate a place. AGAPE has the ambition of aggregating and processing such data, with a focus on visual-based documents (from iconography, videos to 3D point clouds, including textual descriptions). The tools developed with AGAPE will promote and facilitate the exploitation of geographic multimedia heritage in all domains where the territory and its evolution deserve to be documented and highlighted to various audience, for a better understanding of climate change for example.
PENATE
Pierre-Antoine Versini – Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC)
The PENATE project aims at assessing the performance and effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) as a tool for adapting urban environments to climate change. To achieve this, it proposes to develop multi-scale, multi-criteria, context-specific, and evolving evaluation tools and methods for local authorities.
Different productions have been considered, and the work has already begun! You can also found information about the TAP’s projects on the SD WISHEES website, at this address : SD-WISHEES Thematic Annual Programming action – TAP – SD WISHEES