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A holistic and multidisciplinary approach ensures building stability and protects archaeological remains beneath the buildings.

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Key Learnings

  • Integrated urban water management helps reduce flood risks: Sustainable urban drainage systems, including permeable pavements, swales, rain gardens, and infiltration areas, help maintain stable groundwater levels and mitigate flood risks at the Bryggen cultural heritage site. These measures reduce groundwater fluctuations and safeguard the unique cultural heritage buried beneath Bryggen.
  • Climate-responsive monitoring facilitates proactive adaptation measures: Since 2025, the implementation of climate-responsive monitoring in Norwegian medieval towns like Bergen, including the World Heritage Site Bryggen, has facilitated proactive adaptation measures. This approach ensures the sustainable preservation of archaeological remains, such as soil layers containing valuable historical documents of human activity. 

About the Region

Bryggen, a historic wharf in the city of Bergen, Norway, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979 in recognition of its historical importance. The standing buildings, along with the archaeological remains beneath them, tell the story of Bryggen’s development over the past 1,000 years. This unique combination of built heritage and archaeological remains forms the foundation of its World Heritage status. However, climate change is increasingly threatening this living piece of history, with rising sea levels, extreme temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and flooding contributing to subsidence in the archaeological remains.

Climate Threats

In Bergen, changes in precipitation levels and patterns, coupled with rising sea levels, are increasing floods. Additionally, rising temperatures are altering groundwater levels, adversely affecting building foundations. Storm surges exacerbate these issues by introducing saltwater into archaeological remains, hastening the decay of these invaluable remains of human history. Consequently, the structural integrity of the buildings at Bryggen Wharf in Bergen is increasingly compromised.

Knowledge and understanding about the preservation state and the environmental condition at a historic site are crucial before planning and implementing adaptation actions. Correct climate change adaptation ensures long-term preservation, but if done incorrectly, the measures cause damage or losses to historic sites.

Jens Rytter, Senior Advisor, Riksantikvaren

Figure 1: Bryggen Wharf in Bergen. Image Credit: Visit Norway.

Ensuring water supply for the cultural remains 

In addition to the climate challenges, drainage systems from the 1980s have further endangered the foundations of Bryggen’s historical buildings. These systems, designed for modern use, lowered the groundwater table, leading to unstable foundations and jeopardising the remains beneath the buildings. To address this, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage installed a sustainable urban drainage system with permeable pavements, swales, rain gardens, infiltration areas, and specially designed pipes at Bryggen. This system improves water infiltration and transport, which helps to raise groundwater levels and maintain the moisture content in cultural remains within the unsaturated soil layer above the water table, thereby preserving air and water balance.

These Sustainable urban drainage solutions reduce flood risks and help keep the cultural remains moist, preventing fungi and bacteria from further deteriorating the structures. An international expert group, including archaeologists, hydrologists, geotechnical engineers, and preservation experts from Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands developed the system.  Over several years, they implemented the system gradually, taking an adaptive approach by introducing one measure at a time and carefully monitoring its impact. If a measure failed to achieve the desired results, the team explored alternative solutions. What sets this project apart is its focus on climate change adaptation strategies that specifically aim to preserve archaeological remains and building foundations, while achieving clear preservation goals.

Extensive monitoring supports timely action

The Directorate for Cultural Heritage has implemented comprehensive environmental monitoring to mitigate climate change-related damage to Bryggen’s historic building foundations and archaeological remains. This proactive approach enables timely adaptation measures to be taken before climate change causes further damage to the site.

Figure 2: Lawn immersion as a Sustainable Urban Drainage System enables slow water infiltration and ensures a stable ground water level. Image Credit: Anette Ramstad.

Since 2025, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage is monitoring environmental conditions in selected Norwegian medieval towns as part of a national environmental monitoring programme. Through systematic and targeted data collection on the state of preservation and environmental conditions of archaeological remains, the programme ensures that adaptation measures can be promptly enacted to prevent further deterioration.

The Directorate for Cultural Heritage has commissioned the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research to oversee the national monitoring program, including Bryggen, while private consulting firms COWI and Cautus manage the physical monitoring at all participating sites. The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research is also responsible for interpreting the data and providing annual reports to the Directorate.

Figure 3: Sealing the sheet pile wall maintains a high groundwater level at the historically drained sites. The example shows the SAS hotel at Bryggen. Image Credit: Sponga. ©The National Archives.

Summary

Climate impacts, particularly floods, pose a significant threat to Bryggen’s cultural heritage. In response, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage has implemented a range of measures, including strategic groundwater management and continuous monitoring as part of a sustainable urban drainage system to strengthen climate resilience at the historic wharf. These initiatives ensure the preservation of its unique historical structures for future generations. Through an ongoing monitoring program, Bryggen’s management team can make proactive decisions and adapt strategies as needed, positioning the site as a leading example of effective cultural heritage preservation in the face of climate change.

Further Information

Contact

The Directorate for Cultural Heritage

Keywords

Climate Impacts

Flooding, Droughts, Sea Level Rise

Adaptation Sectors

Cultural heritage, Buildings, Urban, Water management

Key Community Systems

Critical Infrastructure, Water Management

Countries

Norway

Funding Programme

National Funding

Disclaimer
The contents and links to third-party items on this Mission webpage are developed by the MIP4Adapt team led by Ricardo, under contract CINEA/2022/OP/0013/SI2.884597 funded by the European Union and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, CINEA, or those of the European Environment Agency (EEA) as host of the Climate-ADAPT Platform. Neither the European Union nor CINEA nor the EEA accepts responsibility or liability arising out of or in connection with the information on these pages.

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