Assessing cultural heritage under a changing climate : an integrated archaeological, environmental, and community-engaged approach in Florida’s Apalachicola system

This thesis examines how coastal cultural heritage can be assessed under conditions of climate-accelerated environmental change through an integrated approach that combines archaeological assessment, environmental data, and community engagement. Focusing on Florida’s Apalachicola River and Bay system, a region characterized by ecological diversity and deep cultural history, this study addresses a key limitation in existing heritage management and preservation approaches: the separation between physical vulnerability and culturally constructed understandings of heritage value. The mixed-methods design represented in this research documents the condition and vulnerability of fifteen representative archaeological sites in the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve, analyzes patterns of shoreline change through repeated high-resolution mapping along seven shorelines, and investigates Apalachicola-area community perspectives on local heritage through Community Conversations on Heritage at Risk (CCHAR) workshops and a supplemental Qualtrics survey. Together, these datasets offer a comprehensive understanding of both the material condition of heritage resources and how they are defined, valued, and prioritized by contemporary communities. Findings demonstrate that heritage vulnerability is not exclusively physical; it is instead relational and processual, shaped by interactions between environment and culture. While archaeological and environmental data reveal patterns of erosion and site degradation, community perspectives emphasize connections to place and lived experience. Their voices also speak to the consequences of heritage loss, framing it as a disruption to community cohesion and cultural continuity. Suggesting that physical vulnerability cannot independently govern preservation priorities, this thesis integrates community-defined values with archaeological and environmental data to provide a comprehensive, yet flexible, model for decision-making. The research advances an applied, interdisciplinary suite of methodologies, contributing to heritage and climate scholarship while offering a more inclusive, context-sensitive approach to cultural heritage management within rapidly changing coastal environments.