Project description
Monitoring cultural heritage sites
Thousands of years of human history in Europe have resulted in a rich diversity of archaeological, cultural heritage sites, all important to the cultures of its countries. Unfortunately, physical and chemical ruination and breakdowns, as well as the increasing effects of climate change, including but not limited to the deterioration of soil erosion and structural stability, have led to a bigger necessity for systemic and constant observation. The EU-funded RESEARCH project aims to make satisfying that need viable for authorities. It plans to introduce a multitask platform that utilises remote sensing technologies applied with geographic information systems to map and monitor cultural heritage sites. It will be an affordable tool for authorities to monitor the degradation process, to enable preventive maintenance and reduce restoration costs.
Objective
Europe has rich and diverse cultural heritage resources, which include urban and rural landscapes, comprising standing monuments and archaeological remains. Nowadays Europe’s Cultural Heritage (CH) is at risk, endangered by environmental processes and anthropogenic pressures. Physical and chemical destruction and degradation of structures and artefacts amplify the natural deterioration and reduce the ability of the soil to preserve CH. In addition to physical damages, the intensive human activities and the effects of climate changes are responsible of the increase of soil erosion affecting structure stability and producing significant negative consequences on the conservation of the archaeological artefacts. In this scenario, authorities in charge to CH preservation have a strong requirement for systematic, effective, usable and affordable tools and services to monitor the degradation process to enable preventive maintenance and to reduce the cost of the restoration. The broad spectra of Satellite Earth Observations (EO) provide the ideal platform to undertake a wide range of effective, cost-efficient and up-to-date programmable analysis, as a support to traditional tools. RESEARCH addresses the design and development of a multi-task platform, combining advanced remote sensing technologies with GIS application for mapping and long term monitoring of archaeological CH in order to identify changes due to climate changes and anthropic pressures. The EO processing chain will address the major risks affecting CH including the degradation due to soil erosion, land movement and vegetation as well as risks due to anthropic pressure. RESEARCH will coordinate the existing expertise and research efforts of seven beneficiaries into a synergetic plan of collaborations and exchanges of personnel to offer a comprehensive transfer of knowledge and training environment for the researchers in the specific area.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringremote sensing
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyarchaeology
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Keywords
Programme(s)
Coordinator
01100 Viterbo
Italy