Cultural heritage is very important source of identity and therefore needs to be protected and managed for the future generations. However, recent natural and human-induced hazards have caused serious and irreversible damage to movable and immovable cultural heritage properties. Damage to the World Heritage Site of Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System due to recent Sichuan Earthquake in China (May 2008) illustrates the issue very well.

Therefore, comprehensive risk management of cultural heritage, which includes pre disaster preparedness, emergency response and post disaster recovery, is essential. Towards this aim, the Cultural Heritage and Risk Management programme of the Research Center for Disaster Mitigation of Urban Heritage, Ritsumeikan University (Rits-DMUCH) organizes an international training programme to develop scientific support network as part of the activities by Global COE for Education, Research and Development of Strategy on Disaster Mitigation of Cultural Heritage and Historic Cities, in order to build the institutional capacity for formulating comprehensive risk management plans that are based on the specific characteristics of cultural heritage sites and their exposure to natural hazards in the regional context.