Building Cultural Heritage Resilience through Remote Sensing: An Integrated Approach Using Multi-Temporal Site Monitoring, Datafication, and Web-GL Visualization

Abstract

In the American West, wildfires and earthquakes are increasingly threatening the archaeological, historical, and tribal resources that define the collective identity and connection with the past for millions of Americans. The loss of said resources diminishes societal understanding of the role cultural heritage plays in shaping our present and future. This paper examines the viability of employing stationary and SLAM-based terrestrial laser scanning, close-range photogrammetry, automated surface change detection, GIS, and WebGL visualization techniques to enhance the preservation of cultural resources in California. Our datafication approach combines multi-temporal remote sensing monitoring of historic features with legacy data and collaborative visualization to document and evaluate how environmental threats affect built heritage. We tested our methodology in response to recent environmental threats from wildfire and earthquakes at Bodie, an iconic Gold Rush-era boom town located on the California and Nevada border. Our multi-scale results show that the proposed approach effectively integrates highly accurate 3D snapshots of Bodie’s historic buildings before/after disturbance, or post-restoration, with surface change detection and online collaborative visualization of 3D geospatial data to monitor and preserve important cultural resources at the site. This study concludes that the proposed workflow enhances the monitoring of at-risk California’s cultural heritage and makes a call to action to employ remote sensing as a pathway to advanced planning.

Architecture research in urban heritage resilience: a systematic literature review

“…The 19 articles included in this systematic literature review provide insights into the relationship between architecture and urban heritage resilience. These articles cover various dimensions of urban heritage resilience, such as the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings [20], the role of intangible cultural heritage in enhancing urban resilienceb [19], [29], [31] and the integration of heritage conservation into urban planning processes [12], [16], [18], [21], [32]. Additionally, the articles explore different approaches and strategies for achieving urban heritage resilience, including community engagement [33], stakeholder collaboration and the use of innovative technologies .…”

An Open-Source Web Platform for 3D Documentation and Storytelling of Hidden Cultural Heritage

“…This open-source library, supporting different data formats, is optimised for rendering large point clouds in web browsers and for easily sharing online georeferenced products of laser scanning and photogrammetric surveys. Thanks to its native functionalities that ranges from the visualisation of classified point clouds to the execution of simple geometric measurements, Potree is widely used in data sharing and visualization of digitised CH sites for management [27,39] or restoration planning purposes [40,41], enhancing its potential in team cooperation. This approach is particularly useful also for sharing information on sites located in remote areas or affected by limited accessibility [13,24,30,42] as well as for visualising the results of multisource 3D data integration [43,44].…”

Multi-Scalar Oblique Photogrammetry-Supported 3D webGIS Approach to Preventive Mining-Induced Deformation Analysis

“…Although the flowcharts of these studies are similar to the MIDA applications, they do not fully cover GIS data collecting, storage, and spatial analysis, and thus, GIS functionality is not deeply involved in these studies. It should be noted that, recently, the 3D webGIS-based approach to preventive conservation of heritage buildings has become a hot topic [15][16][17][18]. These studies took full use of GIS and WebGL visualization techniques by integrating multiple sources, i.e., building information modeling (BIM), 3D point clouds, real-scene 3D models, 360 panoramas, or the data of the Internet of things (IoT), to carry out building information management and health monitoring.…”