A review of the tools and techniques used in the digital preservation of architectural heritage within disaster cycles

Abstract

Architectural heritage is vulnerable to disasters. Digital technologies can fight destruction and can ensure integrity by monitoring, managing and protecting architectural heritage from disasters. In this paper, we clarify the relationship between disasters, digitalization and architectural heritage conservation for the sustainability of cultural heritage. This study used the PRISMA process, and bibliometric tools VOSviewer and Citespace to explore the potential of digital technologies in the protection of architectural heritage—especially during disaster cycles, from the perspectives of both universal and typicality; the results revealed that digital twins, deep learning, and preventive conservation are currently hot topics in digital preservation research (especially that research which relates to disaster cycles). On this basis, this paper summarizes the relevant technologies involved in architectural heritage preservation from the perspective of the disaster cycle and the digital phase, and proposes three future research directions: accurate prediction of multi-disasters, automatic early warning of structural damages, and intelligent monitoring of human–computer interaction. This paper constructs a new research frame for digital preservation of architectural heritage during disasters, providing theoretical reference and practical guidance for architectural heritage conversation.

Digital preservation of Rumah Tukang Kahar for cultural heritage tourism

“…Apart from recording the physical condition and appearance of the heritage objects, the digital preservation documentation process creates new knowledge that serves as a "critical investigation with the potential of bringing about new insights into the interpretation of the object: its authenticity, provenance, historical use, and transformation" (Bentkowska-Kafel & MacDonald, 2017, p. xiii). The digital preservation documentation process has been introduced to replace 2D drawings of architectural heritage monuments with three-dimensional representations that are more accurate and precise (Shih et al, 2007) and enable costeffective measures (Khalid, 2022;Li et al, 2023;Shih et al, 2007) both in the documentation process and in conservation.…”

“…In the age of digitisation and globalisation, digital preservation of architectural heritage offers new user experiences (Khalid, 2022;Thwaites et al, 2019) such as in interactive storytelling (Psomadaki et al, 2019) and provides democratic access to heritage objects, while creating "over time a balanced and equitable representation" of local heritage for remote audiences or virtual visitors on a global scale (Colin, 2003, p. 14). Digital preservation is an act of raising awareness (Li et al, 2023;Thwaites et al, 2019), which could present itself as a conceptual object that gives meaning to people (Colin, 2003).…”

“…As Rumah Tukang Kahar is located in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, both the research team from Malaysia and Indonesia were unable to visit the site during the COVID-19 pandemic due to travel restrictions. Laser scanning or LiDAR technologies for heritage conservation (Khalid, 2022;Li et al, 2023;Shih et al, 2007) were useful but not necessary at this time, but alternative resources such as existing virtual tours and online imagery provide initial data. Therefore, the research relies on the data of previous online and digital documentation of previous projects and the collection of measured drawings at KALAM 2 for the digital development and reconstruction of the threedimensional version of Rumah Tukang Kahar.…”

“…It requires further collaboration with others from the technology sector and the cultural heritage tourism industry. Architectural heritage benefits from this multidisciplinary engagement as potential technologies could be adopted and implemented to ensure the preservation and sustainability of the cultural heritage (Li et al, 2023) of Malaysia's traditional architecture, which is notoriously short-lived.…”

Deep learning based approaches from semantic point clouds to semantic BIM models for heritage digital twin

“…Fig 15. Visualization results of KP-SG and its original network architecture KP-FCNN[46] on the Taoping dataset…”