Project summary

DEMOTEC – project: DEvelopment of a MOnitoring system for cultural heritage Through European Co-operation. The project is supported by the European Commission under the 5th Frame work programme as an accompanying measure, and contributing to the implementation of the Key action 4: “City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage”. The project is co-ordinated by NIKU (Norway) in collaboration with Italy, Estonia, Switzerland and Sweden.

See also :
· Demotec front page
· Project tasks
· Partners
· Project results
· Workshops and meetings
· Partners only (restricted area)

The Nemi basin with Lake Nemi, situated in the Alban Hills south-east of Rome has been chosen as a pilot study area for the DEMOTEC project. The area is an extraordinarily well defined landscape room, involving natural- and cultural heritage interests of great importance. The educational side to the choice of the Nemi area for the pilot model is well founded as the interrelationship between natural processes, human activity and the preservation of the cultural heritage sites is striking.

Problems to be solved
DEMOTEC aims to establish a network of experts and users to discuss and outline a common European observation system for comparative assessment of the state of preservation of cultural heritage. Large scale monitoring of cultural heritage on site is a relatively weakly developed field of research throughout the world, no international standards exist as of today.
In near urban areas cultural heritage suffer from lack of integration and decay as the cities expand. At the other end of the scale, cultural heritage environments are left to natural degradation, overgrowing and loss of meaning, where areas are left abandoned or due to the effects of changing agricultural policy. These landscape development trends represent a serious challenge to cultural heritage management throughout Europe (ESDP 1999: 30; OECD 2001). Also the "Landscape Convention" ( ETS 176) encourages public authorities to adopt policies and measures at local, regional, national and international level for protecting, managing and planning landscapes with their heritage contents throughout Europe. The user side to the development of a monitoring system is therefore very important and heavily stressed in DEMOTEC .
Scientific objectives and approach
The main objective is to initiate the development of a European monitoring system that establishes links between the various scales of monitoring site today. These scales most often are a landscape level, a monument or building level and a very detailed level (example: decorated surfaces)

Satellite photo of the Nemi region (Lake Nemi to the right) taken by the IRS-satellite in 1999. Satellite- and aerial photographs of the Nemi basin are used as a basis for measuring landscape indicators that influence Cultural Heritage Preservation, at a landscape level
 

Parts of a Roman villa complex dating to the 1st century BC, situated at the shore of Lake Nemi are one of several sites used for medium scale measurements.

The San Michele Chapel in Nemi is decorated with several frescos dating from the 15th century, and is used for detailed scale measurements. Detailed analysis and documentation is done by digital photography and GIS-analysis together with other monitoring methods on selected parts of threatened decorated surfaces.


The basic innovative idea of the project is to develop a better understanding of how data obtained in different scales relate to each other and how data from different disciplines can be integrated into one monitoring system of inherent information at a reasonable prize. This includes traditional registration, monitoring and condition assessment in the fields of archaeology, architecture/engineering and conservation combined with geographic information systems (GIS). GIS secures efficient application of integrated geographic and statistical analysis to large sets of data. A joint European execution of such a system-development offers both economical as well as scientific benefits. Related to monitoring of cultural heritage values such a development would implicate application of international standards related to techniques, methodology, threshold values and reporting standards as well as structuring a pathways towards the community.
Expected impacts
The main objective of the accompanying measure is through exchange of experience, research results and testing towards a pilot model, to develop the framework for a European monitoring system based on co-ordinated indicators that help assess in a standardised way the state of cultural heritage preservation. The goal is to provide the basic concepts and framework for such a system that will, eventually, when developed, visualise the state of preservation of the European heritage to citizens, management and politicians as well as facilitating management decisions. In total DEMOTEC aims to establish a common framework for further development of tools to protect the diverse cultural values linked to European landscapes as part of Europe’s

Oppdatert 27.03.2003  Utskrift