Photonics and Digital Twins for Sustainable Cultural Heritage Diagnostics and Conservation
A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 225
Special Issue Editors
Interests: multimodal approaches to the analysis of cultural heritage; digital twins; laser spectroscopy; sustainability of laser cleaning technologies; risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: development of spectroscopic instrumentation; heritage science diagnostics; cultural heritage; in-situ analysis
Interests: heritage science; X-ray fluorescence; laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy; multivariate data analysis; optical coherence tomography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In contemporary Heritage Science, photonics-based technologies have become foundational tools for the non-invasive diagnosis, monitoring, and predictive assessment of cultural assets. Encompassing laser-based analytical techniques, spectroscopic methods, optical imaging, fiber-optic sensing, and photonic measurement systems, photonics enables high-resolution, contact-free interrogation of materials, structures, and environments under the strict constraints imposed by heritage conservation.
This Special Issue focuses on the integration of photonic data acquisition with digital twin frameworks and sustainability-driven conservation strategies. Digital twins are understood here as dynamic, data-enriched representations of heritage assets, continuously informed by photonic sensing and imaging, and capable of supporting temporal analysis, degradation modelling, and predictive risk assessment.
The Issue invites contributions that advance photonic methodologies while embedding them within green conservation paradigms, climate-responsive monitoring, and energy-efficient diagnostic workflows. Emphasis is placed on research that demonstrates methodological robustness, interpretable data fusion, and tangible relevance to conservation decision-making. Studies integrating artificial intelligence, semantic modelling, and FAIR-compliant data infrastructures are particularly encouraged, as they enable scalable, transparent, and sustainable heritage management.
Dr. Monica Dinu
Dr. Anastasia Giakoumaki
Dr. Luminita Ghervase
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- laser–matter interaction diagnostics
- photonic sensing and spectroscopy
- heritage digital twin architectures
- non-destructive optical characterization
- predictive degradation modelling
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