The ARCHYTAS Intelligent Decision-Support System for the Protection of Monumental Structures

Abstract

The ARCHYTAS platform is based on using (i) reliable mechanical models and damage thresholds for assessing structural performance (ii) a network of sensors for updating the model parameters, (iii) detailed estimates of earthquake and flood hazard at the sites of interest and (iv) a state-of-art approach for multi-hazard risk assessment that can deliver accurate pre/trans/post-event evaluation of the risk at multiple geographically distributed cultural heritage sites. The core of the proposed system comprises a cloud-deployed computational platform, where data obtained from on-site measuring systems is processed, critical environmental actions are identified and flags are raised to provide alerts on the predicted monument structural condition. The decision-support system is fully uncertainty-aware, employing the concept of the mean annual frequency of limit-state exceedance under specified confidence levels to offer monument-specific courses of action based on the convolution of the current state of the monument (as determined by its best-estimate fragility, and updated by current or past measurements) and the predicted, recorded or evolving hazard. All-in-all, the platform can assist the relevant authorities to prioritize inspection, maintenance and rehabilitation actions before or after events subject to limited available resources.