Harnessing digital workflows for the understanding, promotion and participation in the conservation of heritage sites by meeting both ethical and technical challenges

Abstract

Abstract The current application of digital workflows for the understanding, promotion and participation in the conservation of heritage sites involves several technical challenges and should be governed by serious ethical engagement. Recording consists of capturing (or mapping) the physical characteristics of character-defining elements that provide the significance of cultural heritage sites. Usually, the outcome of this work represents the cornerstone information serving for their conservation, whatever it uses actively for maintaining them or for ensuring a posterity record in case of destruction. The records produced could guide the decision-making process at different levels by property owners, site managers, public officials, and conservators around the world, as well as to present historical knowledge and values of these resources. Rigorous documentation may also serve a broader purpose: over time, it becomes the primary means by which scholars and the public apprehends a site that has since changed radically or disappeared. This contribution is aimed at providing an overview of the potential application and threats of technology utilised by a heritage recording professional by addressing the need to develop ethical principles that can improve the heritage recording practice at large.

Keywords

• Documentation
• Recording
• Cultural heritage
• Best practice
• Ethical commitment
• Digital workflows