Interfaces of Protection: Training Collaboration Between Cultural Heritage and Emergency Responders

When disaster strikes, cultural heritage often stands silent at the margins of emergency response. This book changes that perspective. Bringing together more than a decade of applied research, field exercises, and international cooperation, it reveals how interfaces between cultural institutions and emergency services can be created, trained, and sustained to protect what is irreplaceable. Combining academic insight with hands-on experience, the author traces the evolution of cultural property protection as a cross-cutting discipline, shaped by the realities of climate change, crisis management, and transnational collaboration. Drawing on case studies from Austria and Central Europe, as well as European projects such as ProteCHt2save, STRENCH, and INACO, the book demonstrates how theory becomes practice-through training, simulation, and joint exercises with firefighters, civil protection units, and the military.