sustainability-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Heritage under Threat: Digital Documentation, Preservation and Sustainable Management

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 16412

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Centre (STARC), Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Labs (APAC), Nicosia, Cyprus
Interests: Digital Heritage and Archaeology; Image- and Range-Based modeling;Heritage Protection and Safeguard
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A large number of important heritage sites around the world are fragile assets, faced with different and continuous challenges threatened by natural and human-made actions.

They are vulnerable to the forces of nature in many different ways. Earthquakes, flooding, tsunamis, ranked as sudden, unpredictable and catastrophic events, have an immediate and destructive impact indeed. At the same time, rapid economic development, taking place under the boost of world population growth and increasing industrialization, leads to faster and more substantial urban expansion with its associated burden on the historic environment. Faced with social and economic change, historic sites become endangered by neglect and deterioration or surrenders to the pressures of real estate development. Similarly, without sufficient protection, many archaeological areas are affected by looters and illegal excavations. From this perspective, human-inflicted disasters are significantly more destructive than natural disasters.

This Special Issue invites papers and reviews dealing with 3D/2D documentation exploiting different sensors, platforms and machine learning algorithms, preservation strategies, and sustainable managements plans of cultural heritage at risk. The aim is to review (i) the state-of-the-art techniques used for fast and accurate digitization, (ii) preservation strategies of artefacts at different scale threatened by natural and human-made actions and (iii) sustainable managements plans for a long-term safeguard. Papers going beyond the state-of-the-art are encouraged. Case studies using modern analytical techniques and new methodological approaches which contribute to the domain of safeguard and heritage protection will be considered.

Dr. Dante Abate
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Heritage at Risk
  • Safeguard
  • Photogrammetry
  • 3D scanning
  • Remote Sensing
  • Machine Learning
  • Management

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

29 pages, 14639 KiB  
Article
Advanced Techniques for Fast and Accurate Heritage Digitisation in Multiple Case Studies
by Iñigo Leon, José Javier Pérez and María Senderos
Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 6068; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156068 - 28 Jul 2020
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4334
Abstract
All elements of heritage are exposed to more or less predictable risks. Even though they are in a good state of conservation with economic support for their repair or maintenance, they can suffer sudden accidents leading to their imminent destruction. It is therefore [...] Read more.
All elements of heritage are exposed to more or less predictable risks. Even though they are in a good state of conservation with economic support for their repair or maintenance, they can suffer sudden accidents leading to their imminent destruction. It is therefore necessary to safeguard them in all scenarios, regardless of the respective scale or state of conservation. That process must at least be based on complete and accurate 3D digitisation. The evolution of devices, software/hardware and platforms nowadays allows such information to be gathered in a sustainable manner. Various existing resources were tried and compared at several heritage sites of different scales with dissimilar risk and protection, following the guidelines of different ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) committees. Each case study addresses the choice of digitisation techniques and the characteristics of the end product obtained. The most suitable modality for each situation is analysed, depending on different factors such as accessibility and risks faced. Although the 3D laser scanner is clearly a very fast and very accurate resource, automated photogrammetry is one of the more accessible and affordable resources; along with the potential of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), this enables the digitisation to be sustainably completed. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

23 pages, 10457 KiB  
Article
Wooden Truss Analysis, Preservation Strategies, and Digital Documentation through Parametric 3D Modeling and HBIM Workflow
by Angelo Massafra, Davide Prati, Giorgia Predari and Riccardo Gulli
Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 4975; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124975 - 18 Jun 2020
Cited by 46 | Viewed by 7481
Abstract
The main focus of this paper is the most recent phase of a large research project that has studied several wooden roof structures in the area of Bologna, belonging to a set of important historical buildings, all dating back to the 16th and [...] Read more.
The main focus of this paper is the most recent phase of a large research project that has studied several wooden roof structures in the area of Bologna, belonging to a set of important historical buildings, all dating back to the 16th and 18th centuries. In particular, the behavior of the wooden trusses that support pitched roofs is analyzed, according to a methodological approach, based on generative algorithms that can help researchers and technicians to improve the comprehension of wooden structures’ behavior during their entire lifespan. While all the previous case studies concerned churches, this latest step extends the survey to the roofing system of the Municipal Theater of Bologna, which has a span of approximately 25 m. The core of the process concerns the automatic transformation of the point cloud into 3D models using parametric modeling tools, such as Grasshopper generative algorithms. Following this workflow, it is possible to speed up the creation of different truss models by changing only a few input parameters. This updating of the research protocol automatically creates a Building Information Modeling (BIM) model and a calculation model for the wooden trusses to perform a structural stress analysis by linking Grasshopper tools with Dynamo-Revit features. The procedure that has been developed from previous studies is still evolving and aims to speed up the modeling procedure and introduce new tools and methods for interpreting the functioning of these structural elements when surveyed through terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) devices. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 1910 KiB  
Article
Impact Model of Tourism Production and Consumption in Nanjing Yunjin: The Perspective of Cultural Heritage Reproduction
by Ke Zhang, Mu Zhang, Rob Law, Xuanyu Chen and Qiongyao Wang
Sustainability 2020, 12(8), 3430; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083430 - 22 Apr 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4040
Abstract
Nanjing Yunjin was included in “the first batch of non-material cultural heritage list in China” in 2006, and the city was also selected as “a list of representatives of human intangible cultural heritage” by the United Nations in September 2009. Nanjing Yunjin is [...] Read more.
Nanjing Yunjin was included in “the first batch of non-material cultural heritage list in China” in 2006, and the city was also selected as “a list of representatives of human intangible cultural heritage” by the United Nations in September 2009. Nanjing Yunjin is now a scarce tourism resource on the verge of extinction. Carrying out effective cultural tourism development and production, and informing consumers about its cultural connotation are problems worth studying. This study aims to explore and analyze the cultural reproduction process of Nanjing Yunjin in the cultural tourism production-consumption closed-cycle model. Based on the review, the study introduces word cloud tools and explores the cultural production links of heritage by means of narrative analysis, applies quantitative methods to verify the relationship among production, consumption, and reproduction, and finally, constructs the production-consumption impact model of Nanjing Yunjin cultural tourism. Results indicate that the cultural tourism production of Nanjing Yunjin has a significant positive impact on cultural tourism consumption, which, in turn, positively affects cultural reproduction. In addition, cultural tourism production has a significant impact on its cultural reproduction part, and consumption plays a mediating role in the impact of cultural tourism production on its reproduction. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop