Digital Integration of Environmental, Socio-Economic and Hazard Data for Heritage Resilience

Cultural heritage is exposed to a wide range of risks arising from natural processes, extreme events and human activities, making heritage resilience a challenging and complex issue. Existing risk assessment and management approaches often lack cohesion, difficult to access or insufficiently aligned with the everyday needs of heritage managers and local communities, resulting in gaps in understanding, as well as preparedness and response capacity.

This contribution focuses on addressing these challenges by merging scientific knowledge, field-based experience, and community generated awareness through an integrated digital environment. Within the European project THETIDA, a web-based visualization and decision-support platform has been developed with the main objective of supporting a holistic understanding of cultural heritage resilience. The platform integrates hazard information, environmental monitoring data, socio-economic indicators and spatial representations within a single, accessible interface, enabling users to explore and understand how multiple risks interact and affect heritage assets and their surrounding environments.

The platform delivers three main categories of services: (i) Remote Sensing–Based Services, including inundation and flood prediction, coastal erosion monitoring, material degradation mapping, land-use change detection, and geo-hazard assessment; (ii) In-Situ Sensing Services, supporting on-site monitoring and material characterization; and (iii) a Decision Support System providing seismic hazard analysis, multi-risk assessment, and socio-economic impact evaluation. Interactive geospatial functionalities allow users to explore datasets through structured spatial representations, such as hexagonal grid systems and visualize multiple data layers simultaneously. The system operates through standard web browsers without the need for specialized GIS software, ensuring accessibility for diverse user groups, including heritage professionals, decision-makers and local communities. Multiple data formats, such as GeoJSON, TIFF, PDF, 3D models and imagery, are processed and visualized in near real time within the platform.

Τhe results demonstrate that the integration of digital tools is not only considered as a technological advancement but also as a key enabler for collaboration, participation and sustainable heritage management. Interactive and cooperative digital environments can significantly enhance the resilience of cultural heritage sites to climate and disaster-related risks, supporting informed, inclusive and actionable management strategies.

 

Acknowledgement:

This research has been funded by European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under THETIDA project (Grant Agreement No. 101095253) (Technologies and methods for improved resilience and sustainable preservation of underwater and coastal cultural heritage to cope with climate change, natural hazards and environmental pollution).