As a world-renowned heritage site, the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai Province, is an example of an earthen site that is seriously threatened by a series of deterioration. Its damage assessment is the ...

Study on Damage Assessment of Earthen Sites of the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai Province Based on Fuzzy-AHP and AHP-TOPSIS

The importance of wind as a driver of earthen heritage deterioration in dryland environments

Earthen heritage constitutes 10% of sites on the World Heritage List and many of these sites are experiencing extensive deterioration caused by environmental forces, such as wind and rain. This study used a well-established test wall to investigate the impact of environmental conditions on the deterioration of earthen heritage at the remote and under-studied site of Suoyang Ancient City, Gansu Province, China, which is exhibiting widespread deterioration. Test walls have previously been used in earthen heritage research as they allow controlled experiments to be undertaken on complex, realistic structures without risking damage or loss of value to the historic material. This study used portable wind and rain erosion simulation devices to investigate experimentally (i) the comparative effect of wind, sediment-laden wind and wind-driven rain in causing deterioration to earthen heritage and (ii) how the incipient deterioration features produced by wind, sediment-laden wind and wind-driven rain on the test wall relate to the deterioration features recorded on the historic city walls. The test wall was subjected to low, medium and high intensities of clean wind, sediment-laden wind and wind-driven rain. The extent of deterioration produced was measured using repeat, high resolution laser scans before and after each test run. The deterioration features caused by each environmental force were notably different with clean wind removing the loose surface material, sediment-laden wind causing pitting and wind-driven rain causing incipient gullying. These incipient features compare well with more developed features seen on the historic walls. Wind-driven rain caused the greatest amount of deterioration while clean wind caused the least. However, as the frequency and duration of wind events at Suoyang is much greater than those of rain events, wind is likely to play an important role in the deterioration of earthen heritage over annual timescales. These findings show that conservation strategies at rammed earth sites like Suoyang need to address the impact of multiple environmental forces, such as clean wind, sediment laden wind and wind-driven rain.

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A controlled field experiment to investigate the deterioration of earthen heritage by wind and rain

The coupling effects of freeze-thaw cycles and salinization due to snowfall on the rammed earth used in historical freeze-thaw cycles relics in northwest China

Uncertainties over future climatic conditions pose significant challenges when selecting appropriate conservation strategies for heritage sites. Choosing effective strategies is especially important for earthen heritage sites located in dryland regions, as many are experiencing rapid environmentally-driven deterioration. We use a newly developed cellular automaton model (ViSTA-HD), to evaluate the environmental deterioration risk, over a 100-year period, under a range of potential climate and conservation scenarios. Results show increased wind velocities could substantially increase the overall deterioration risk, implying the need for wind-reducing conservation strategies. In contrast, predicted increases in rainfall are not likely to increase the overall deterioration risk, despite greater risk of rain-driven deterioration features. Of the four conservation strategies tested in our model, deterioration risk under all climatic scenarios was best reduced by increasing the coverage of natural, randomly-distributed vegetation to 80%. We suggest this approach could be an appropriate long-term conservation strategy for other earthen sites in dryland regions.

/pdf/deterioration-risk-of-dryland-earthen-heritage-sites-facing-62lem6cpgy.pdf

Deterioration risk of dryland earthen heritage sites facing future climatic uncertainty.

The Ming Great Wall in the Qinghai Province is an important section of the Great Wall of China. Most of this section is fabricated with rammed earth. The preserving environment of the Ming Great Wall is characterized by frequent snowfalls in winter, strong evaporation, and large diurnal temperature variations. Nearly all types of deterioration, including crazing, gully erosion, surface crust erosion, bottom sapping, and collapses, are evident in the Ming Great Wall in the Qinghai Province. Based on field investigations, the snowfall in winter and the presence of soluble salts are the primary factors causing the deterioration of the rammed earth. To investigate the coupled effect of freeze–thaw cycles and salinization on this deterioration process, a series of geotechnical tests are performed at Lanzhou University using samples collected from the collapse accumulation near the earthen sites. The test results showed that the microstructure damage in the rammed-earth materials caused by the freeze–thaw cycles and salinization is the primary controlling factor for the deterioration process of rammed-earth structures.

Snowfall-related deterioration behavior of the Ming Great Wall in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

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Snowfall-related deterioration behavior of the Ming Great Wall in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau