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Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Potential Impact Summary: April 6, 2022
CHML and SCRI are monitoring over 26,000 cultural heritage sites in Ukraine. This effort began in April 2021, and it employs a combination of remote sensing, open-source research, and satellite imagery tasking to gather evidence of cultural heritage damage. This report provides a summary of potential impacts to cultural heritage sites following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
About CHML
The Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML) is a partnership between the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) and the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI). The CHML provides global monitoring capability for cultural heritage sites threatened by armed conflict and natural disaster. It is housed on the first floor of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, and it operates through a distributed workforce of archaeologists, art historians, GIS experts, and other heritage practitioners. Among other technologies, the CHML utilizes high-resolution satellite imagery provided by industry partners to rapidly identify destructive events and active threats to monuments, museums, archives, historic buildings, archaeological sites, and landscapes. Through its partnership with the SCRI, the CHML works with the US Army Reserve's recently reactivated Monuments Officers (38G/6V), and other NGO and government stakeholders at research and response-oriented organizations.
Our Capabilities | CHML Internship Program
In Partnership with
The CHML supports SCRI's mission to protect cultural heritage threatened or impacted by disasters and to help U.S. and international communities preserve their identities and history.
Our Supporters
The Culture Conflict Research Network (CCRN)
USGS National Civil Applications Center (NCAC)
Iridium Communications Inc.
Contact
Hayden Bassett, Ph.D.
CHML Director
hayden.bassett@vmnh.virginia.gov
Kate Harrell, Ph.D.
CHML Director of Education
William Welsh, M.A.
CHML Director of Business Development & Public Outreach
william.welsh@vmnh.virginia.gov
Damian Koropeckyj, M.A.
CHML Senior Analyst
Madeleine Gunter-Bassett, M.A.
CHML Senior Analyst
