Semantic Representation and Internet of Things in Cultural Heritage Preventive Conservation

Abstract

Preservation of Cultural Heritage (CH) collections in the best possible condition for the longest time possible is a crucial part of CH Institutions activity, since it ensures artefacts’ effective function in perpetuity. In this context, preservation processes that do not include any physical interaction with an object or collection can be regarded as preventive conservation. Preventive conservation measures and activities include among others the monitoring and management of environmental factors, in order to reduce potential risks of collections condition. The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) can help towards this goal by automating the collection of data through sensors deployed in the cultural space and providing available services based on the IoT ecosystem. IoT technologies can facilitate the preventive conservation of tangible CH by exploiting streaming data produced by networks of sensors that keep track of changes in environmental parameters of a particular museum, in order to monitor the condition of its collections. Moreover, Semantic Web (SW) technologies could increase the efficiency of sensed data management by introducing reasoning mechanisms that will result in useful inferences regarding the combination of long-term or short-term records of sensed data and material decay. This work summarizes current state-of-the-art frameworks and monitoring systems that collect data from sensors in CH environments and the use of semantic web technologies for the efficient management of conservation and sensor data. Based on this study, it proposes an IoT infrastructure with semantic tools, which aims to enhance preventive conservation science.