Engineering and Technological Heritage in the Digital Era: Documentation, Preservation, Interpretation and Futures

Dear Colleagues,

Engineering and technological heritage represents the critical legacies of human innovation, including massive structures like bridges, railways, canals, factories, vessels, aerospace facilities, and large-scale infrastructures. Unlike conventional architectural heritage, these sites are defined by their functional complexity, immense scale, and technical integration, imposing unique challenges for documentation, conservation, and interpretation.

In the digital era, advances in reality capture (e.g., laser scanning, photogrammetry, UAV-based surveying), modeling (e.g., HBIM, digital twins, memory twins), AI-driven analysis, and communication (e.g., immersive visualization) are providing powerful tools to record, analyze, and communicate this heritage. These methods address significant technical and conservation challenges while opening up new opportunities for structural diagnosis, asset management, technical storytelling, and public engagement.

This Special Issue welcomes theoretical and applied contributions that explore how digital tools can effectively safeguard and reinterpret engineering and technological heritage for future generations.

Relevant themes include the following:

• Unique characteristics of engineering and technological heritage and their digital documentation.
• HBIM, digital twins, and memory twins for analysis and management.
• Digital methods for conservation, risk management, asset management strategies, and structural diagnosis.
• Immersive visualization and innovative interpretation of these sites.
• Theoretical and ethical perspectives on digital preservation.

We invite scholars and practitioners to share their innovative research, case studies, reviews, and interdisciplinary perspectives that advance our understanding and the future of engineering and technological heritage in the digital age.

Prof. Dr. Junshan Liu
Dr. Danielle Willkens
Prof. Dr. Miaole Hou
Prof. Dr. María Viñals
Prof. Dr. Antonio Galiano-Garrigós
Guest Editors

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