Abstract
The in situ promotion and preservation of underwater cultural heritage sites is one of the main ideas of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. Currently, most shipwrecks are found in water shallower than the 50 m contour. The continued technological advances and increases in technical diving and deep-water exploration point towards a shift in this statistic, which is set to increase exponentially in the not-too-distant future. Thus, it is imperative to look at ways in which such directives can be implemented. This paper will highlight the synergy between existing remote sensing technologies and the management of underwater cultural heritage with examples of on-going research projects, such as Malta’s approach to surveying and implementing a scoring system for historic wreck sites based on local and global considerations of historic and natural conditions of site elements. Such an approach allows for the scaling of sites based on a number of parameters and provides instructive information for the creation of management strategies. The intention here is to demonstrate how large-scale remote sensing surveys can make major contributions to site management, which, in turn, facilitates the decision-making process in terms of how and what information is transmitted to divers and members of the public.
Highlights
This article presented the process through which the University of Malta (UM) team maps and evaluates
The synergy between remote sensing and the management of underwater sites was presented through a presentation of how large-scale remote sensing projects, such as the UM project of mapping the entire territorial seabed of Malta, can make major contributions to site management, which, in turn, facilitates the decision-making process in terms of how and what information is transmitted to divers and the members of the public
The article traced the importance of remote sensing and, in particular, side scan sonar (SSS) as a large-scale mapping tool
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Since 2006, the University of Malta (UM), in collaboration with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH), Malta’s cultural heritage regulator, has been systematically recording Malta’s territorial seabed This is very much a budget-based initiative, and the areas and sites explored are reliant on the available funding. The more data are gathered, the larger the available database will be, resulting in an increase in knowledge-based decisions This is a primary reason for why Malta has placed a strong emphasis on systematically recording its territorial seabed. On the other hand, such elements have to be taken into consideration when conducting diver surveys This does not mean that remote sensing has replaced diver-based surveys; on the contrary, it has enhanced ‘the effectiveness of diver investigation and extended the range of environments in which underwater surveys can be undertaken’ [6]
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