ABSTRACT
The chapters in this volume from the SWAPNET'99 Conference at Wolverha mpton provide further dissemination of the problems of stone pollution in urban environments. This collection of papers adds further dimensions and developments to proceedings from earlier SWAPNET conferences (Smith and Warke, 1996; Geological Society, 1998; Jones and Wakefield, 1999). The industrial history of West European countries, the changing preferences of fossil fuels and environmental protection legislation have provided researchers with opportunities to investigate the effects of air pollution in urban areas on stone buildings. In Western Europe, most of the attention has been given to buildings of architectural and historical significance, which are parts of the national heritage, especially in major cities. As well as historical stone buildings and monuments described in this book, other Western European cities have also experienced serious accelerated weathering due to air pollution from coal and diesel. Research, similar to that in the UK, has been undertaken by architects, conservators and academics in many of these cities, for example Lisbon (Figueiredo et al., 2000; Aires-Barros and Dionissio, 2000), Venice (Camuffo et al., 1984; Zendri et al., 2000; Fassina, 2000), Rome (Camuffo and
Land Reconstruction and Management Vol. 3, 2004, pp 253-264 ISBN 1-57808-295-1 Science Publishers, Inc., Enfield, USA
Bernardi, 1996; Albertano et al., 2000), Madrid (Gonzalez-Limon and Alvarez de Buergo Ballester, 1996), Stockholm (Nord, 1995) and Paris (Ausset et al., 2000). In these and other cities, preservation of historical buildings and monuments has long been of paramount importance but degradation of building stones and carvings continues, partly due to the residues of earlier pollution episodes and partly due to new traffic-related pollutants, such as diesel.
