ORCID

Abstract

The destruction of heritage elements during war leads to the loss of cultural and historical information. In Mosul's Old City, the 2014-17 conflict caused extensive damage to architectural and cultural assets, creating significant challenges for preserving and reusing their heritage elements. Although several studies address condition diagnosis, most rely on theoretical frameworks and rarely consider elements affected by war and conflict. Because the condition of a component directly influences its reusability, this lack of field-based diagnostic research represents a significant knowledge gap. A review of the literature on heritage documentation, condition diagnosis, and reuse assessment identified a clear research gap in the absence of an integrated, field-based framework linking detailed inventory, condition diagnosis, and reusability assessment in post-conflict heritage contexts. To address this gap, a tailored methodological framework (HEIR, U-A-S/ECL, and HECI/ECI) was explicitly developed for war-damaged heritage elements in Mosul. A tailored mixed-methods methodology was developed. Initially, it involved planning, inventory (Heritage Elements Inventory Record (HEIR)), and diagnosis, followed by evaluation, which included field surveying, qualitative visual inspection, photogrammetry, and quantitative measurement and indexing. The condition of each element part was evaluated using the staging system (U-A-S), which describes the repair interventions to be undertaken. The reusability of each element was also assessed using the HECI and the Elements Circularity Index, which classified elements as direct reuse, repair-and-reuse, or an element bank.This developed framework was applied to seven heritage elements made of local marble (Fariesh) from stone-framed residential buildings in Mosul and demonstrated effectiveness by inventorying 559 elements (1,267 units; 2,057 models; 7,787 parts) across the following levels: element, style, parts-in-style, and parts-in-element. At the elements' level, superficial breakage was most frequent (38.6%); missing parts were (8.55%); damage was dominated by the intermediate category (38.05%). Performance grading indicates that (56.13%) of parts are very good or good and can be reused immediately with routine maintenance, while (39.98%) exhibit severe defects requiring urgent intervention. Reusability assessment using HECI scoring (9/6/3) indicates high deconstruction potential for corbels and corners (70.02%, 68.40%); windows, arches, friezes, Madamic, and entrances fall within the medium category. The study contributes a standardised, replicable documentation and diagnostic framework, with indicators for evaluating reusability. Overall, the results demonstrate, through a large-scale field application and consistent quantitative outcomes, how condition diagnostics can be systematically translated into repair priorities and circular-reuse scenarios, enabling risk-informed conservation planning and selective deconstruction of war-affected heritage elements.

Awarding Institution(s)

University of Plymouth

Supervisor

Steve Goodhew, Sana Murrani, Omar Al-Hafith

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2026

Embargo Period

2026-05-27

Deposit Date

June 2026

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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