Many national parks and historic structures across the country are experiencing accelerating impacts from climate change, including extreme weather events, increasingly severe wetting–drying cycles, and high‐wind events. In anticipation of these pressures, the Center for Architectural Conservation (part of the Preservation Research Collaborative at Penn) is preparing a vulnerability assessment of architectural components to evaluate climate-related risks at Pecos and Tumacácori National Historical Park.
Focusing on the adobe construction typologies of the Spanish Mission churches at both parks, the study will synthesize historic and contemporary environmental data, collect site-specific weather information, and develop a first-order mitigation and adaptation plan. Recommendations for future study will be tied to projected climate scenarios at each site. The results will inform future testing on the performance of preservation materials and application techniques under anticipated climate conditions and support a transition toward proactive, rather than reactive, preservation management.
In collaboration with university partners and National Park Service staff, the outcomes from individual parks will then be integrated into a regional report representing a network of sites across the American Southwest. This synthesis will help establish a common baseline methodology for assessing resource health and identifying trends that transcend differences in structural systems, material types, preservation approaches, and environmental contexts.
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