Enhancement Of Cultural Heritage Research Articles

Cultural Heritage at Risk in World Conflicts: Digital Tools’ Contribution to Its Preservation

Cultural heritage is, today, particularly exposed to the devastation resulting from natural phenomena, but it is even more exposed to the destruction caused by man-made ones. Consequently, it is critical to adopt suitable and concrete provisions for its preservation and conservation. The conflict that has been raging in Ukraine since February 2022 has spotlighted problems related to cultural heritage, which is increasingly considered a military target. Digital transformation and technologies integrated with legal tools can contribute to making the system of protection and recovery of cultural assets more effective and efficient by redefining methodologies to safeguard and interact with them. This paper proposes a framework for integrating legal and digital tools that are functional for the preservation, conservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage. To define it, on the one hand, the legal instruments in force were analysed, and on the other, a literature review on the digital technologies currently available was carried out. The role of digital transformation in the cultural sphere was also examined, especially in light of Ukraine’s experience with the application of digital technologies to protect and recover cultural heritage during the current conflict.

Co-Designing in Cultural Tourism: TExTOUR ICT Services and Performance Monitoring System

The enhancement of cultural heritage for tourism can greatly benefit from the opportunities offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), promoting greater interaction and integration between all stakeholders and service providers. In recent years, ICT applications and platforms have tended to provide a platform to translate the strategic goals and performance metrics of cultural heritage tourism into comprehensive services tailored to stakeholders’ needs by participating stakeholders. A successful co-designed platform integrates explicit services—requiring specialized software tools—and implicit services, facilitating evaluation processes. This adaptability ensures continuous improvement and alignment with evolving strategies and business objectives. As part of the European project, the development of the TExTOUR open ICT platform marks a significant advancement in leveraging technology within cultural tourism. It exemplifies the creation of a sustainable and adaptable framework, co-designed specifically to support and amplify the strategic objectives of cultural heritage tourism. This approach not only fosters better engagement and management within the sector but also sets a new standard for innovation in cultural tourism practices.

The Spectre of Re-Fencing Off the Public Domain: Italian Copyright and Cultural Heritage Legal Scenarios

Abstract International and European Union (EU) law jointly promote cultural development as a global and cross-border value, mandating national efforts for the preservation, enjoyment, and enhancement of cultural heritage. Cultural development is also the specific objective underlying Art. 14 of the EU Copyright in Digital Single Market Directive (CDSMD), designed to ensure that works of visual arts in the public domain remain a vital source of cultural enrichment across the Union. Against this backdrop, the Italian legal system is currently showing some resistance against such legal obligations. Its transposition of Art. 14 CDSMD explicitly refers to the applicability of the Italian Cultural Heritage Code, which typically requires permission and, in many cases, a fee payment to use reproductions of works of cultural significance, notwithstanding their public domain status. Concurrently, Italian courts have engineered new forms of exclusivity over cultural heritage belonging to the public domain, ignoring copyright law and other applicable norms. The study examines the Italian legal framework on public domain cultural heritage, unveiling a significant degree of incompatibility with international and EU legal obligations. Through a literal, systematic, and teleological legal analysis, the authors unearth how the Italian legal system fails to balance norms regarding cultural heritage, copyright, and data, thus calling for coordinated EU and national interventions towards a sound application of legal rules safeguarding the public domain.

Using extended reality technologies in modern museums

This study explores the nature, core features, and evolution of extended reality (XR) technologies in the 21st century, focusing on their potential in the museum context. It examines academic research and representative examples of cultural heritage enhancement from international museum practices. The specific characteristics and properties of each technology within XR’s broader scope, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality, are identified and analyzed. In addition, the study explores designs or case studies of these technologies’ application in the museum environment, including the emerging Metaverse, which blends VR and AR within the same broader conceptual framework. Furthermore, the study examines why these innovative technologies resonate with museums and assesses their impact on relational communication between modern museums and the public, particularly younger audiences. It also highlights limitations or obstacles to their widespread adoption of XR technologies in museums, while outlining future prospects for their integration. Overall, the study provides a comprehensive overview of XR’s use in museums, focusing on how these technologies enhance cultural values. It offers reflection and suggestions for authors and museum professionals regarding the design and implementation of XR technologies in modern museums.

Prospects for the development of the library network in Dagestan in 1950s: a gender approach

In the modern society government authorities pay quite a lot of attention to the development of the socio-cultural sphere in the country. Despite the fact that at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, libraries began to take on the functions of abolished cultural centers due to a significant reduction in the network of socio-cultural institutions. The functions of information centers have been added to the traditional functions of an educational nature, preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage, providing access to national and global information networks and databases. Today, modern library science presents new analytical capabilities for the study and analysis of library communications. One of these is a gender perspective, which looks at the norms and cultural symbols that men and women bring to the library profession. The purpose of the research is to study this aspect in the socio-cultural sphere at the regional level, which allows us to trace the uniqueness of general processes within individual national republics. To achieve this goal, the task has been formulated to reflect the history of the development of the library network in 1950s in the region using a gender approach. In the research methods of comparative historical analysis were used, as well as the principles of objectivism and historicism, which provided the opportunity to analyze various episodes and phenomena from a historical point of view. When studying the questions posed, the author has come to the conclusion that Russian historiography today has almost no research devoted to the study of the development of librarianship through the prism of gender stereotypes. This study is an attempt to highlight the development of librarianship, with an emphasis on women's experiences in this profession.

Cultural Heritage and Tourism: The Case of Dellys in Algeria

Cultural heritage is an invaluable resource for the development of cultural tourism. It offers a wide range of economic and social opportunities, contributing to job creation, income generation and the promotion of local identity. However, to fully exploit its potential, heritage needs to be carefully integrated into an overall tourism strategy. Such a strategy must include specific measures for the preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage. Recognizing the profound synergies between cultural heritage preservation and tourism development strategies, we undertook an in-depth analysis of the current heritage situation in the town of Dellys. This analysis identified the challenges and opportunities associated with heritage enhancement in the context of tourism and local development projects. The results reveal that the implementation of the current tourism strategy in Dellys is not fully achieving its objectives. Nevertheless, its effective realization, coupled with better coordination between players in the sector, could make a significant contribution to safeguarding, revitalizing and enhancing the town's heritage.

Inclusive Merchandising. A Storyteller for an Accessible University

Following recent social and global transformations, cultural organizations have undergone a major redefinition in their role as keepers and promoters of knowledge and heritage, developing virtuous examples and reference models for the free, open, and autonomous enjoyment of all audiences. This contribution - contextualized in a current doctoral research on the enhancement of cultural heritage, promotion of institutional and territorial identities - is presented as a reflection on the recent awareness and attention to the issues of inclusiveness and accessibility in places of culture, especially higher education institutions. Through an analytical work on numerous university case studies, focused on institutional merchandising products, it was possible to outline common attitudes and effective communication strategies that promote core values related to multiculturalism, body positivity, gender equality, women’s empowerment, and integration of ethnic minorities.

Collaborative Mapping as a Tool for Citizen Participation: A Case of Cultural Heritage Management in Rural Areas

The role of citizens in the construction of knowledge is undergoing a clear transformation from a passive position, as mere observers and/or receivers, to an increasingly participatory role. This issue, which is directly related to governance policies as well as to the ICT revolution, can be seen in the field of cultural heritage and particularly architectural heritage management. The present paper aims to generate methodologies to involve citizens as active agents who must be involved in a real way in decision making concerning the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage. The results present the creation of a rural heritage interactive cartographic viewer as a collaborative mapping tool. The conclusions drawn position the citizens of rural, dispersed, or vulnerable areas as informers and builders of knowledge about the cultural and architectural heritage of their environment in terms of citizen science. At the same time, it strengthens the development of innovation strategies in the intervention, management, and communication of the existing dispersed heritage in rural areas.

UNDERGROUND HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION: THE CASE STUDY OF GROTTA ZINZULUSA IN CASTRO (LECCE-ITALY)

Abstract. 3D documentation of the Underground Built Heritage (UBH) is always fundamental for knowledge, management, conservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage, but the challenges involved in documenting this kind of site are many and various, With the aim of providing an accurate and reliable representation of the surveyed area without employing time-consuming processes, Mobile Mapping Systems (MMSs) based on SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) technology have now the potential to overcome these challenges, proving to be a useful alternative to traditional surveying techniques. The underground site of Grotta Zinzulusa in Castro (LE), Italy, is an anchialine cave system difficult to access and document due to its narrow passages, large rooms, and poor illumination. Within this case study, the effectiveness of using an MMS approach, employing the STONEX® X120GO SLAM Laser Scanner system, to document the cave system and integrates the data with those obtained from other traditional geomatics techniques, such as UAS (Uncrewed Aerial System) and TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanning) surveys, has been proved. The study aims to define the best practices and operational methodologies for enhancing the speediness, usability, and cost-effectiveness of using MMSs in underground settings for 3D documentation of heritage sites to provide metrically correct and accurate products for researchers, scientists, and the wider public.

METHODOLOGY FOR THE DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE: APPLIED RESEARCH ON ÁLVARO SIZA’S WORKS FOR THE WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Abstract. Digital Revolution is strongly impacting the safeguarding and enhancement of Cultural Heritage through the techniques and tools available for its documentation and communication. Specifically, modern heritage is a potentially fertile laboratory of work in this field because of the availability of the documental, physical, and oral sources required for its critical study and interpretation. This article aims to present an integrated methodology supported by combined techniques for the comprehensive digital documentation of modern architecture implemented on 18 buildings of Álvaro Siza included in the World Heritage Tentative List since 2017 supported on combined techniques: i) photogrammetry; ii) virtual tours through 360° photos; iii) didactic models in BIM iv) other digital tools, such as virtual reality. This holistic and integrated multi-methods approach provides better documentation and communication of the attributes of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), as well as of Alvaro Siza’s design principles as a guiding framework for the future management of change.

Digging Up Jericho: Past, Present and Future

Digging Up Jericho: Past, Present and Future

Accessibility and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage: Examples of Best Practices in Europe

Premise. The essay will report on actions promoted at international and national level, to ensure accessibility in different sectors of social life and reduce obstacles in this field in European regulations and in the practices of Member States.
 The Convention adopted by UNO in 2006, stating that people with different abilities must enjoy fundamental rights and (political, economic, social, cultural) freedoms, constitutes the first great treaty of the twenty-first century concerning the change in attitude and strategies towards people bearing handicaps, to increase respect of their dignity through every possible measure.
 Intercultural dialogue. In light of a greater awareness on environmental issues and possible solutions, we are, therefore, all called upon to contribute to changes in the relation with our one and only Planet in order to build a new conservation ethics, which may include the values of Cultural Heritage and accept, for its protection and enhancement, the contribution of Communities, favouring intercultural dialogue.
 Best practices. The essay intends to stress the importance of integrated policies in promoting accessibility and the enhancement of cultural heritage, also through the examination of the best practices implemented in different European Countries. Specifically, it shall highlight how one of the criteria informing the Management Plan of the ‘Archaeological Area of Pompeii and Torre del Greco’ is based on the conservation of the archaeological heritage, with the purpose of making it accessible to the public while conserving the testimonial, formal and material features of the site, and addressing conservation issues as well as the design quality of accessibility improvements.
 Integrated Conservation. The quality of conservation and restoration interventions on cultural heritage will, therefore, have to be perfected through an aware fact-finding analysis, favouring the application of scientific and digital technologies, paired with a diagnostic approach capable of including the digitalisation of processes, energy efficiency, accessibility, leading to the digital management of anamnesis and control of the restoration project, based on adequate knowledge of the cultural property and its state of conservation.

Participação social e território: diálogos possíveis para a gestão sustentável do patrimônio cultural

Abstract Based on the concepts of culture, territory, integrated conservation, and sustainability, this article analyses the meaning of social participation in the recognition, appropriation, preservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage. The object of analysis is the Manguinhos Historical Architectural Site, at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, and its Requalification Plan, which aims to transform it into a “park campus.” A diagnostic study was conducted of social participation in this heritage, which found that greater participation should be encouraged if the complex is to be consolidated as science and health heritage and also appropriated by the territory as an asset of symbolic, cognitive, and identity values and a structuring element for sustainable development.

Social participation and territory: possible dialogues for the sustainable management of cultural heritage.

Based on the concepts of culture, territory, integrated conservation, and sustainability, this article analyses the meaning of social participation in the recognition, appropriation, preservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage. The object of analysis is the Manguinhos Historical Architectural Site, at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, and its Requalification Plan, which aims to transform it into a "park campus." A diagnostic study was conducted of social participation in this heritage, which found that greater participation should be encouraged if the complex is to be consolidated as science and health heritage and also appropriated by the territory as an asset of symbolic, cognitive, and identity values and a structuring element for sustainable development.

Declinul laboratoarelor de investigații fizico-chimice și condiția ultimilor investigatori

Heritage science and conservation science represent interdisciplinary fields that weave together exact sciences (chemistry, physics, biology, geology) and humanistic sciences, thus providing essential information for researching, recording, classifying, preserving, restoring and enhancing cultural heritage for exhibition purposes. Unfortunately, only 13 scientific investigators (physical-chemical investigations) certified as experts currently work in the Romanian museum network and, according to the author’s knowledge, about 5 others are in training, extremely few relative to the mobile heritage they are responsible for studying. The situation is all the more worrying as the number of certified investigators is decreasing every year through retirements and transfers. The training of investigators requires many years of practice. The concern is also accentuated by the lack of posts, of specialist courses and of the equipment needed for investigations. Moreover, the museum investigator / researcher is omitted from the COR (Classification of Occupations in Romania), and the idea of investigation seems to be disappearing from the collective mind. Museum labels, exhibition catalogues, conservation-restoration events, museum databases do not include and are not based on research data, even when research results exist. These problems concern the entire museum network and the passivity of decisionmakers and specialists inevitably contributes to the deterioration of cultural heritage. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to draw attention on this situation, and to justify the importance of physicochemical investigations for the knowledge, conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage.

Digital heritage consolidation and innovation, three case studies between documentation and divulgation aims

In recent years, the need to digitize and create digital twins of the ar-chitectural and artistic heritage has been confirmed and accelerated. In this con-text, the DIDA-LXR (Laboratory for eXtended Reality) of the DIDALABS sys-tem, has carried out a series of research on the use of Virtual and Augmented Reality solutions to create and support activities in digital surveying, workshops for architects, and the establishment of a common knowledge basin regarding the existing architectural heritage. In this paper, several experiences are presented, and their workflows and results are shared. The selection focuses on the virtual reconstruction of the Gothic apses in the Cathedral of Fabriano; the reconstruc-tion of the frescoes in Santa Maria dei Bianchi in Gubbio and the virtual recon-struction of the Horrea Agrippiana at the Roman Forum in Rome. Despite these four case studies being different, they all aim at creating a series of products that document the state and possible aspects of the past of significant elements of the architectural heritage. In their own way, they fix the state of knowledge and con-dition of these complex artefacts, preserving their memory and creating a valua-ble basis for any further interventions. Simultaneously, the use of today's digital tools in structures geared towards both sharing in working groups and dissemi-nation activities makes this content available for a wide variety of processing. The technologies for the visualisation of digital works are to be considered ex-cellent tools for the use and enhancement of Cultural Heritage.

The ‘Kalamata 1821: Roads of Freedom’

The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of the Cultural Heritage Enhancement project “Kalamata 1821: Roads of Freedom” after its completion. “Kalamata 1821: Roads of Freedom” has been a co-financed by Greece and the European Union project which was placed under the wider scheme “Research, Creation and Innovation” NSRF (ESPA) 2014-2020. The pro-ject was implemented during the 2018-2021 period, i.e. by taking advantage of the celebration of the landmark of two centuries (1821-2021) since the uprising which led to the establishment of the Greek State. It was executed via a tripartite research association which consisted of the University of the Peloponnese, which assumed the role of the coordinator, the Community Enterprise of the Municipal-ity of Kalamata (ΦΑΡΙΣ) and the film production company View Master Films. The project’s aim has been to augment the footprint of Kalamata’s unique mod-ern heritage and make it known and accessible to wider and diversified audiences.The paper outlines the historical background and the conjuncture that inspired the project and thereafter traces the course of its deliverables, namely the produc-tion of the feature-length film “Wind of Freedom 1821”, the “Kalamata 1821 Digital Museum”, and the “Kalamata 1821” brand. It discusses how the pandemic affected the filming of the movie but despite the imposed delay it was fulfilled and screened in Kalamata’s Dance Hall in July 2021. It shows how the “Kalamata 1821 Digital Museum” set an example for raising the awareness of a city’s herit-age via the employment of new technologies. It presents how the “Kalamata 1821” brand attempts to set in motion the various cultural currents of the city in order to blend the historical tradition with the contemporary creativity. Addition-ally, it showcases the most successful aspect of the “Kalamata 1821” brand, i.e. the “Flavours of ‘21” and it discusses the digital applications that were developed but eventually were not used due to the ramification of the pandemic-related re-strictions.

An Internet of Things approach for Cultural Heritage enhancement

The emergence of the Internet of Things has led to the creation of technological environments thatsmartly manage various applications, such as those typically in a Smart City. These applications canenhance the administration of various services by providing dynamic responses based on sensor datato suggest, for instance, where to park, which public transportation to use, or which event to attend.In this scenario, even the world of Cultural Heritage could benefit. This paper aims to introduce anew approach, based on the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, to enhance Cultural Heritage fruition.One of the most significant challenges in this sector is classifying and predicting visitor behavior bycollecting their activities, preferences, and needs. The proposed approach aims to present an Internetof Things framework geared toward data collection, which feeds a model capable of reproducing andtherefore predicting the dynamics associated with visitors’ interactions with cultural heritage, i.e.,points of interest (POI), and with the available technologies. A prototype was developed and testedin the Salerno downtown area for experimental purposes, obtaining promising results.

Outside, Around, Inside. New Paths to Discover San Michele Castle (Cagliari, Sardinia).

In the framework of conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage, accessibility plays a crucial role. Architectural heritage peculiarities call for specific approaches: the same care must be adopted to improve accessibility to historic architecture, designing actions case by case. Starting from these considerations, the contribution is aimed to discuss the accessibility of fortified architecture, a not easily accessible heritage, to make it accessible both in a physical meaning as well as in cognitive, cultural and social. Particularly, the authors propose some reflections about alternative ways of usability for inaccessible architectures due to their typological configuration and as a consequence of previous conservation design. The case study is the medieval castle of San Michele in Cagliari (Sardinia), which was transformed several times during its life and restored at the end of the 20th century. The contribution analyses how a multidisciplinary approach is necessary for the formulation of effective accessibility solutions, especially in complex cases such as fortified architecture. This multidisciplinary approach must be accompanied by the widest possible consideration of the causes limiting accessibility, whether they are physical or related to motor, perceptive or cognitive disabilities.

FROM QGIS TO PYTHON: COMPARISON OF FREE AND OPEN TOOLS FOR STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE AND DATA REPRESENTATION

Abstract. The onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020 changed the approach to work, research, and study. This period has been a wake-up call for public administrations, the private sector, and the academic community, to digitise their data. In Italy, digital and information technologies for the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage, which were an imperative for more than a decade, have been accelerated. This paper aims to collect and to process openly available data on patrimony from OpenStreetMap and the Lombardian Geoportal. The study is divided into two phases: a simple statistical analysis of cultural heritage in Monza is obtained, and the results are presented graphically. Firstly, built-in tools and Python Console of QGIS are evaluated, to filter attributes and add geometrical values to the downloaded material. Secondly, plug-in DataPlotly and an online coding application named Replit are assessed. The results are presented and compared in terms of their flexibility, quality of visual representation, customisation, and simplicity of use. Tools developed through and for QGIS are easy to use and available to everyone. Additionally, coding applications can be integrated for more refined results. This approach fosters interdisciplinarity, bridges the gap between professionals and non-expert users of GIS, and opens a range of opportunities for future collaborations. The citizen, as a mapper, can be involved in the administrative decision-making process, contributing with data collected in situ. Collaboration between these two sides can potentially produce the better for evaluating the contemporary built environment and its undividable part of cultural heritage.