Author(s)

JOHNNY LUGO VEGA, DANIEL DÍAZ

Abstract

Puerto Rico was declared a disaster area by the United States Government, after the pass of Hurricane María on September 2017. The University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico (UPR RP), Archired a non-profit organization and the Puerto Rico Planning Board have proposed to develop a risk assessment model for a disaster planning, response, recovery and mitigation GIS based plan. The stewardship of archives, art and Puerto Rican cultural heritage collections was very vulnerable to natural events such as hurricanes and flood in mostly all Puerto Rico’s Island. This study was brought in order to show the feasible steps to develop this important tool as part of an integrated effort in developing sustainable planning. The study consisted in the relations of some natural events in the tropics, and the cultural heritage collections at five (6) archives with different locations and buildings type. Base data was collected using an electronic in-house “app” questionnaire with key questions related to the attributes of the collection, the building and the surrounding biophysical characteristics. We design a space-location mapping of each location using a Geographic Information System, in collaboration with the Puerto Rico’s Planning Board interactive Map resources. The results showed a highest correlation for urban flood and earthquake risk and vulnerability estimation while volcanism and Sahara dust represents the contrary, by now. This tool represents a necessary planning tool for the development of a master sustainable conservation planning project in Puerto Rico.

Keywords

Puerto Rico, historic archives, risk assessment, GIS, sustainable heritage conservation, survey