Bridging past and present: cutting-edge technologies for predictive conservation of built cultural heritage

Abstract

The technical provisions for protecting built cultural heritage originate from the interdisciplinary disciplines of architecture and engineering, which mutually operate despite encountering specific challenges. Therefore, the lack of adaptable applications capable of integrating the management of complex data originating from various sources has prompted the development of an Internet-of- Things-based application that enables "on-the-fly" data acquisition and information processing from distant locations, records the timeline on a remote desktop, and sends email and brief early warning text messages of alarm when a programmed threshold is exceeded. Furthermore, a dedicated platform is designed to administer and grant users access to a database containing data gathered through the analysis of diagnostic non-destructive methods (i.e., archival documentation, image processing for infrared thermography, acoustic and ultrasonic tomography, and so forth). The system architecture is distinguished by a distributed intelligence consisting of multiple nodes, which enables the remote processing of locally acquired information. The arrangement was strategically planned to optimize the utilization of the wireless digital bus connecting sensors and data storage units. This enables the examination of the case study to be conducted remotely, with all collected data accessible in a suitable semantic web environment. The data can then be analysed and interpreted following the investigation's context. Hence, the present paper aims to provide a detailed vision of the tests conducted on the case study, showcasing the prototype demonstrator's stress test, the analysis layout, and the project's architecture.