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Environmental Protection Is Closely Related to Cultural Relic Protection

Environmental protection in the process of archaeological works deserves attention. On the basis of protecting cultural relics, the staff should fully consider the protection of the archaeological excavation area and the surrounding ecological environment to ensure the sustainable development of the ecological environment. Before carrying out archaeological works, the staff should do a thorough investigation. Archaeological survey not only involves the basic situation of cultural relics, but also needs to have a detailed understanding of the hydrogeological conditions through field exploration and investigation, so as to ensure the implementation of archaeological activities and achieve a balance situation between ecological environment and archaeological work. What’s more, staff need to design a perfect before mining excavation plan, full consideration to the physical characteristics of topsoil, to formulate scientific and reasonable mining scheme; they should also pay attention to the ecological balance after mining, striving to restore the ecological environment and soil state to the original state.

The protection of cultural relics needs to be divided into different categories. For dispersed cultural relics, it is recommended to build museums to keep them. For large sites, they can be preserved by constructing ancient site parks, which is also an important measure to achieve ecological sustainable development. The construction of archaeological park requires to take into account the ecological environment and site protection. Therefore, site parks built on the outskirts of the city and in the center of the city can be used as the first choice for urban green space, whereas many ancient city sites with long history can be comprehensively planned through modern design approaches. Simultaneously, government could carry out urban greening construction and great site protection work, realizing the maintenance of the ecological environment.

The Importance of Heritage Conservation

Heritage was long absent from the mainstream sustainable development debate despite its crucial importance to societies and the wide acknowledgment of its great potential to contribute to social, economic and environmental goals. The protection of exceptional heritage properties cherished by people all over the world (such as great natural sceneries and landmark monuments) can be considered as an intrinsic contribution to human wellbeing. It would be hard to imagine our countries without the familiar remnants of our past, a witness to continuity through the passing of time, and the presence of nature, to inspire us with a profound sense of wonder and joy.

In addition to its intrinsic value for present and future generations, World Heritage and heritage in general can make also an important instrumental contribution to sustainable development across its various dimensions. Preserving natural resources, including outstanding sites containing some of the richest combinations of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, is a fundamental contribution to environmental sustainability. Most of these sites, on the other hand, have developed over time through mutual adaptation between humans and the environment, and thus demonstrate how biological and cultural diversities interact with and affect one another in complex ways in a sort of co-evolutionary process.

Environmental Protection Is Conducive to The Preservation of Cultural Relics

Recently, an archaeological study published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that climate change may have intensified the decomposition of ancient rock art in Indonesia, including the oldest known handprints dating back 39,900 years. In fact, the cycle of day and night, the change of temperature and seasons, climate change are laws of nature and are ongoing phenomena. Almost everything exposed to the environment will be corroded by climate change. Therefore, for those monuments and cultural relics exposed to nature, the occurrence of corrosion itself is a natural phenomenon, which is why conservation of cultural relics attaches great importance to restoration and prevention currently.

However, with the destruction of atmospheric environment by human activities and the emergence of climate problems such as the greenhouse effect, climate has changed in a few decades, and these changes also speed up the corrosion of cultural relics. Moreover, the occurrence of acid rain and other disastrous weather further threatened the safety of cultural relics. In the previous report, the authors argued that protecting rock art in the tropics requires long-term monitoring and conservation. Thus, the impact of climate on archaeological works may reflect the importance of environmental protection and the urgency of tackling serious environmental problems.

Although the environment protection awareness has been risen, and necessary measures have been taken to alleviate the negative impact of climate change. However, these measures are still insufficient. For example, the greenhouse effect has caused serious impact. Although a number of policies have been introduced to curb carbon emissions and the concept of low-carbon life has been constantly promoted among the people, atmospheric carbon concentrations remain grim and further exacerbate the greenhouse effect. Actually, the key to the problem is that the existing policies and regulations only constraining rather than solving problems caused by greenhouse effect.

Advances In Modern Scientific Research and Technology Help Preserve Cultural Relics and Protect Environment

Existing measures can only alleviate the greenhouse effect but cannot really solve it. However, with the progress of modern scientific research and technology, relevant research has made two progresses. Firstly, the root cause of the greenhouse effect lies in the carbon emissions generated by human activities. Although many carbon emissions are inevitable at the present stage, at least it proves that as long as technological breakthroughs can be made in these carbon emission links, the carbon neutrality plan can be accelerated. Secondly, the development of clean energy plays an important role in environment protection. Nowadays, with the increasing popularity of natural power generation, a series of new energy products, including new energy vehicles, have gradually replaced the original product chain, and the ideal energy has achieved a phased breakthrough. Overall, energy has begun to transform from the traditional energy with high carbon emissions and high energy consumption to the clean energy with low or even zero emissions.

In summary, the impact of climate problems on archaeological works cannot be ignored at present, but with the development of cultural relics protection and environmental protection related industries, and the continuous improvement of technology and equipment, these problems should be actively solved.

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