Potential of Hbim to Improve the Efficiency of Visitor Flow Management in Heritage Sites. Towards Smart Heritage Management

Abstract

Abstract. Providing public access to heritage promotes a social interest in its conservation but, at the same time, it poses a risk to the conservation of resources. The biggest challenge in managing public use of heritage is to establish a sustainable relationship between heritage and tourism. The multidisciplinary teams involved in visitor flow management generate and exchange information about the heritage property without an integrative vision. The lack of a reliable, unified and up-to-date source of information generally hinders decision-making, causes errors and leads to inappropriate practices in heritage visitor flow management, thereby putting the conservation of resources at risk because of the impacts derived from visitation while the quality experience is also affected. Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides a collaborative framework where multidisciplinary teams share geometric and documentary information about the building in a coordinated way. This tool applied to heritage (HBIM) is demonstrating how it is able to improve efficiency in documenting, intervening and managing heritage. Beyond these aforementioned skills, the objective of this study is to identify the potential of HBIM to improve the efficiency of the visitor flow management. The methodology includes a literature review, qualitative data collection and technical documentation analysis. The results indicate that the use of HBIM can optimise the planning and management of visitor flows, by virtually foreseeing the possible risks derived from visits. It can also calculate recreational carrying capacity and analyse alternatives to itineraries that minimise the deterioration of the most fragile spaces.

The Integration of HBIM-SIG in the Development of a Virtual Itinerary in a Historical Centre

“…Salvador-García's [5] research has already pointed to the feasibility of managing the public use of a monument through HBIM. Following this research, it was possible to verify that the Autodesk Revit software fully allows the incorporation of information, both geometric and semantic, generated by the individuals involved in the planning and management of a cultural visit in the HBIM model.…”

“…The scientific literature has since revealed the potential of HBIM for documenting existing buildings [3] and managing various aspects related to the maintenance and preventive conservation of property [4]. Recently, it has been found that HBIM offers a great capacity for the management of public use and, specifically, of cultural tourism [5].…”

Geospatial Tools for Determining Visitor Carrying Capacity in Tourist Streets and Public Spaces of Historic Centres

“…Among these new tools and methodologies that can help calculate the carrying capacity of heritage sites, Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM) stands out, as exhibited in the work of Salvador-García et al [34], who analyse and zone visiting areas in a digital model. On the other hand, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) should also be mentioned, as applied in the studies of Makhadmeh et al [35] and Simou et al [4], who analyse the density of visitors to archaeological sites.…”

“…Next, we determined the Usable Surface for Visitation (USV), which is defined as the area that remains available for recreational visiting activities after discarding all spaces that are not useable for reasons of conservation, safety, fragility, incompatibility of uses, or due to the distribution of their components [19,34]. Similarly, areas parallel to walls and other edges have been excluded from the calculation of the Usable Surface for Visitation (USV), either for conservation reasons or because of the repulsive force that obstacles exert on people when deciding where to walk [42].…”

Development of a Virtual Itinerary With Hbim and Gis

“…Currently, limited research exists on the use of HBIM and GIS methodologies for managing tourist visits, with the exception of Salvador's team's work (Salvador-García et al, 2020).…”