Two years since the July 2021 floods
This day, two years ago, major floods affected parts of Wallonia, including more than 250 heritage sites and institutions. KIK-IRPA has since been working to assist the affected institutions through the CHrisis project.
This past year, colleagues from the Glass and Ceramic Studio and the Textile Studio, the Monuments and Monument Decoration Lab, as well as the Preventive Conservation and Sustainability Units have been working to restore and treat affected objects, studied affected sites, and defined protocols for enhanced response in future emergencies. The project is also looking at evolving damages over time, for instance by monitoring the continued development of molds two years after the disaster.
In recent months, the CHrisis team has embarked on a large-scale evaluation exercise aimed at assessing the sector’s response to the floods, and at identifying new scopes for advanced research and tools development. Moreover, the research involved has allowed us to start working more strategically towards the preparation of the culture sector for emergencies in line with the federal emergency planning and coordination.
Photo : © M.Moriaux (CIPAR)
More KIK-IRPA news
NEMO 2023 Conference: Driving Towards a Sustainable Future
At the heart of the NEMO European Museum Conference 2023, KIK-IRPA played a crucial role in developing concrete tools to initiate a paradigm shift in the cultural sector.
E-RIHS: Towards a European research infrastructure
Our colleague Wim Fremout coordinates the Belgian node of the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS), supporting the interpretation, documentation, preservation, and management of heritage in Europe. Explore further on the new E-RIHS website.