This book presents a critical review of a criterion of risk created to assess the flood risk
to heritage buildings and evaluates this criterion by applying it to the sample Portuguese
heritage buildings. In a first approach the total number of potential parameters is
effectively reduced and the selected criteria are divided into two different groups: the
monument's location in relation to a waterway and the behaviour of its construction material
in contact with water. Above all the book discusses the importance of architectural heritage
and argues for the need to safeguard it from extreme climatic phenomena such as floods. As such
the book vividly reminds the scientific community that the intensification of the global
warming and climate change will worsen throughout the 21st century and that it is therefore
necessary to adopt preventive measures to minimize mitigate and control these adverse effects
if we hope to avoid catastrophic consequences. At the same time the book takes into account a
broad range of scientific and engineering disciplines such as civil engineering and
architecture offering a synthesis of the current state of knowledge to benefit and guide
experts and practitioners in related fields.
