IT support for climate resilient cultural heritage - examples from the KERES project

Not only ecosystems are particularly sensitive to extreme weather as a result of climate change. Historical buildings, museum’s collections and historical gardens can also be affected by extreme weather conditions. Assessing the extent to which cultural assets are endangered by such weather and climate events is an interdisciplinary task that requires the collaboration of climate scientists together with cultural heritage managers, monument conservators, restorers and engineers. However, this discussion is currently hardly taking place in Germany, both on a scientific and on policy levels.

Therefore, the BMBF-funded project KERES addresses the following questions:

• What safety risks of our cultural heritage are caused by extreme weather events?
• Which practical solutions need to be addressed and managed the current and emerging impacts of climate change on cultural assets in Germany?

In close cooperation with the relevant stakeholders and potential users, such as the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (SPSG), Fraunhofer IOSB is building a web-based knowledge platform that combines the research results and best practices for adaptation and mitigation measures of the historical buildings and historical parks property. This aims to create the greatest possible degree of user orientation so that the knowledge platform can be used sustainably in the long term. This platform is able to collect and integrate multisource information in order to effectively provide complete and updated situational awareness and decision support for innovative measurements improving cultural heritage resilience, in particular new solutions for maintenance and conservation. It is based on the open source; easily configurable and extendable. It can be accessed by the wide range of users via the web interface.

Several levels of data integration, aggregation and linking are aggregated:

• integration of expert knowledge,
• connection of sensors for comprehensive monitoring

and reporting,

• data analysis of complex processes with an open interface

for easy integration of new algorithms,

• semantic and geographic linking of analysis data and
• multiple domain information.

The backbone of this information network is an ontology, which connects the data of the different domains, like cultural heritage, climate change, environmental data, crisis management, regulations, sensor data management, buildings, materials and many more. The platform is flanked by two other applications, such as a planning tool for the evacuation of art objects:

• This is a tool for creating route maps for the fire brigade to evacuate cultural objects.
• The decision-maker supports finding individual measures against damage caused by climate change.

The applications for preventive and reactive measures to deal with potential or acute damage situations are examined as well. The designed methods are tested for five case studies including historical buildings and historical gardens in Germany.