Review Topic - Sustainable Heritage – Aggregates
extraction and management of the historic environment
This report reviews the impact that ALSF projects aimed at
developing new guidance, standards and best practice have had on
the aggregates industry, archaeological curators and
practitioners. The report provides a critique and summary of the
suite of guidance to industry undertaken through the ALSF,
placing such guidance in the context of wider research into the
historic environment.
This report is derived from consultation with stakeholders, a
dataset of available resources, and a literature review surveyed
over September – November 2007. A ‘route map’ of ALSF products
and related resources supports the full report.
Impact
The impact of the ALSF has been extremely positive across all
sectors. Industry and the planning sector have benefited from
the acquisition of new datasets (especially in the marine zone),
allowing for better pre-planning and risk-avoidance, allied to
the provision of enhanced management guidance. Archaeology has
benefited from new investment, supporting proactive research
into archaeological sites as well as the development of
analytical techniques. All sectors have benefited from the
experience of collaborative projects that promote best practice
in data acquisition, analysis and management.
The sum of the ALSF projects is recognised as being fundamental
in providing a sounder knowledge base for the management of
heritage resources; the ALSF is seen to be in the interests of
industry, the development of this understanding increasing the
confidence of all stakeholders.
The ALSF is recognised as being a major ‘driver’ of fundamental
research into many aspects of archaeology, with a PR benefit to
be gained from industry supporting such work through
collaborative enterprises, data-sharing and the sponsorship of
PhD students.
As a direct consequence of the ALSF, ‘UK Plc.’ is better able
proactively to manage its strategic aggregates resource as well
as reactively to deal with unexpected archaeological
discoveries.
Recognition
The recognition of the ALSF role by all sectors has
been very good; it is rare for the role of ALSF not to
be recognised in at least some format. Nonetheless, the
general consensus is that the ALSF needs an even higher
profile as there is a willingness to further acknowledge
the ALSF contribution where possible.
The absence of an instantly recognisable ALSF ‘heritage’
logo has been a major barrier to greater recognition of
the scheme, making it difficult to identify specific
ALSF funded support. Site entrance and display boards,
‘hard’ media and websites would all benefit from such a
logo. The absence of a single, dedicated web-presence
for all products of ALSF projects is similarly felt to
be a barrier to higher recognition.
On the world stage the ALSF is held up as a model of
innovative heritage management, providing proactive,
collaborative research of benefit to all stakeholders.
ALSF heritage investment represents an extremely
cost-effective form of strategic investment.
Communication and dissemination
Communication and engagement between the public and
private sectors in the marine zone has been extremely
thorough, and can be considered one of the great
successes of the ALSF; this is often in contrast to the
terrestrial ALSF.
Communication is most effective at the local level and
is usually the result of the long-term work of
individual researchers and curators being exposed to
project fieldwork. Positive lessons can be learnt from
ALSF projects where researchers have succeeded in
establishing good communication with quarry managers.
Integrated involvement of industry representatives
within the design, implementation and dissemination of
ALSF projects has provided essential reassurance to
industry. Such collaboration ultimately saves money and
time, improves the quality of advice, and reduces risk.
Some of the most useful collaboration has included
training across industry and the heritage sector, being
designed to raise mutual understanding and cross
working, and presenting heritage data and guidance in a
timely fashion and in ways that reveal the benefits to
industry.
Tight timescales and timetabling has been a problem for
many ALSF projects. The final size of the extensions to
the original fund only being known so close to each new
financial year has been a disincentive to proposing
relatively ‘high-risk’, high-capital ALSF projects
and/or those requiring major advance capital
investments. Such a short ‘window’ also makes it
difficult to get projects together in time to take
advantage of the best weather conditions for survey, a
particular problem for marine and aerial surveys.
To view and download the full review "Sustainable
Heritage – Aggregates extraction and management of the historic
environment"
please go to the Reviews & Project Reports
section of this website.
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