Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property
The conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property involve meticulous efforts to extend the lifespan and preserve the authenticity of culturally significant structures. This field is championed by a dedicated individual known as an architectural conservator-restorer, who faces crucial choices regarding when and how to act for the optimum preservation of heritage. These determinations are rooted in value judgments that take into account aesthetic, situational, and informative factors. Sometimes, refraining from any action may be the most beneficial path to safeguarding cultural heritage.
In a restricted view, an architectural conservator must focus on the challenge of lengthening the durability and maintaining the essence of the architectural identity involving its shapes, styles, and construction materials like stone, brick, glass, metal, and wood. This approach integrates the use of science, art, craftsmanship, and technology for the purpose of preservation, and it has strong ties to the broader fields of historic environment conservation and art conservation.
Expanding this view, architectural conservation encompasses not only design and art/science issues but also entails recognition, policy, regulation, and advocacy that involve the entire cultural and built environment. This widened perspective acknowledges that societies have methods in place for recognizing valuable historic resources, enacting laws for their protection, and formulating policies and plans for their interpretation, safeguarding, and educational promotion. Typically, these activities are incorporated into a society's planning system, with the professionals in charge being known as built or historic environment conservation specialists.
Lastly, architectural conservation is characterized as a systematic endeavor to protect and maintain individual structures or sites of cultural importance.
Longwall mining constitutes a technique for extracting coal deep underground, where an extensive section of coal, known as a longwall panel, is removed in one continuous piece. This panel can span up to several kilometers in length and a few hundred meters in width. Originating in 17th-century England, the method has prehistoric roots in practices of the Hopi people in North America. The process involved undercutting coal from the seam and using wooden supports to manage the subsequent collapse of the overhead rock, a method once referred to as the Shropshire method.
Technological advancements have reshaped this mining approach since around 1900, namely through mechanization. By the 1940s, the process was commonly associated with conveyor belts that facilitated coal removal, and this necessitated mining along a straight line. Other key machinery included electric devices for cutting and drilling to remove the coal. Despite automation, manual labor remained integral to load the coal and to position supports for safety.
Interestingly, some of these lower-tech mining operations persisted into the 1970s, with the New Gladstone Mine in Iowa, USA, notable for its continued use of animal labor instead of conveyor belts. This represents one of the final instances of such traditional longwall mining in the region.
Habitat conservation is the practice of safeguarding, maintaining, and restoring natural environments to avert the extinction of species, the breaking apart of ecosystems or the shrinking of natural habitats. This endeavor is a key focus for various organizations and transcends simple categorization by ideological lines.
Historically, nature was perceived primarily as a resource for human exploitation and economic benefit. Plants and animals were valued mainly for their utility — in providing sustenance and raw materials. The intrinsic worth of land was largely measured by its agricultural and extractive potential.
However, during the 18th and 19th centuries, societal attitudes began to shift, and the concept of conservation started being applied practically, particularly within the forests of British India. A burgeoning conservation ethos emerged, centered on three fundamental ideas: human activities have detrimental effects on the environment, society has an obligation to preserve the natural world for succeeding generations, and scientific methods should be employed to fulfill this obligation.
A key figure in shaping this conservation philosophy was Sir James Ranald Martin. He produced comprehensive reports revealing the negative impacts of widescale deforestation and lobbied for the official inception of conservation efforts. His work led to the creation of Forest Departments in British India. The earliest systematic conservation initiative based on scientific principles began in 1842 under Alexander Gibson, a botanist in Madras.
Pioneering state management of forest conservation was further solidified by Governor-General Lord Dalhousie, who, in 1855, implemented a comprehensive and enduring program that not only influenced forest management in other British colonies but also had a consequential impact on conservation in the United States, evidenced by the opening of Yellowstone National Park in 1872.