This master’s thesis investigates the role of cultural heritage in the context of climate-driven catastrophes, focusing on the devastating 2024 floods in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The research explores how heritage can drive community engagement, resilience, and healing amidst unprecedented environmental destruction. Using a multidisciplinary framework that combines Critical Heritage Studies with landscape biography and "heritage futures," Levine evaluates the divergent responses of authorized institutions and grassroots communities to the disaster. The methodology centers on qualitative fieldwork conducted in Porto Alegre, including in-person interviews with museum professionals, community leaders, and heritage managers, alongside walking tours and media analysis. The study examines three primary case studies: authorized national and regional cultural institutions (IPHAN and MARGS), the Museu do Hip Hop RS, and the socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhood of Vila Farrapos. The findings reveal a significant gap between institutional preservation and community-led resilience. While authorized bodies struggled to protect tangible monuments from climate-induced loss, grassroots organizations activated heritage as a "lived practice" for survival and recovery. The Museu do Hip Hop RS rapidly transformed into a community aid hub, while Vila Farrapos residents leveraged place-based solidarity and Afro-Brazilian cultural memory—specifically the philosophy of Ubuntu—to foster collective healing. Levine concludes that heritage must be redefined as an active, community-centered process rather than a static collection of objects. By embracing the inevitability of climate-related loss and prioritizing intangible practices, heritage management can provide vital strategies for resilience in the Anthropocene.

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