Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation

The RLICC and the University College St. Lieven have organized 10 versions of teh Architectural Heritage Documentation for Conservation Workshop (ARCHDOC), the last one from January 10 to 14, 2011. Twenty-five students from the RLICC and University of Aachen RWTH (Germany) were given hands-on training on heritage recording techniques by instructors from the Getty Conservation Institute, Muhlenberg College, Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, National Technical University of Athens, and Public Works and Government Services Canada.

As reported in the July, 2009 issue of the Newsletter (Issue IV, pgs. 35-39.), three – then second year – students of RLICC have been engaged for their internships as Project Assistants at the Council of Europe (CoE).

This project dealt with the organization of an "Intensive course on Recording, Documentation and Information Managements of Built Heritage in Jerusalem", which involved lectures, field training and the production of manuals for the capacity building of Palestinian experts. It was financed by the Welfare Association with funds form the European Commission and implemented by the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation and the University College St. Lieven.

The UNESCO Office Amman has signed a partnership agreement with RLICC and in cooperation with the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority (PDTRA) and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan (DoA) to prepare an approach for risk management at the Petra Archaeological Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Property.

The main objective of the project is the identification of risks within the property. The project consists of 6 phases: (1) Definition of the boundaries of the World Heritage Property, (2) Outline of guideline and usage regulations for the Buffer Zone, (3) Definition of Risk Criteria and Risk Categories, (4) Core Risk Mapping workshop, (5) Definition of Risk Zones, (6) Delineation of a proposal for a Risk Management Plan of the PAP. Among these phases, the definition of the site boundaries and buffer zones responds to the call of UNESCO on the Retrospective Inventory, while the definition of risk criteria and categories serves as preliminary phase towards the mapping of the risks in the property. At all project stages integration between local and international experts was foreseen building capacity among the DOA and PDTRA.