Sustainable Restoration of Cultural Heritage in the digital era

Abstract

The reprocessing, preservation, and maintenance of Italy’s extensive historical architectural heritage, represent a relevant challenge for digitalization, considering that it is not only among the oldest in Europe but is also widespread across the country, encompassing both urban and rural areas. The care of such an aging-built environment needs a carefully planned approach that can take advantage of new technologies such as Historical/Heritage Building Information Modelling (H-BIM) and Digital Twin (DT). The final goal is to promote a long-term sustainable restoration, implying high qualitative standards. The topic of sustainability is often focused on new constructions, where it is of fundamental importance to save materials, energy, and land use, as well as decrease the carbon footprint. However, it is important to apply innovative digital management technologies to historical buildings in Italy, which are way more fragile if compared to modern ones. Cultural heritage is in general subject to specific challenges that need to be addressed, especially considering extreme events such as the earthquake that occurred in the L’Aquila Region in 2019, or in the area of Amatrice in 2016 affecting Marche and Umbria Regions. Digital technologies can be used to prevent or at least mitigate the effects of those kinds of catastrophic events, limiting damages and saving human lives, but also providing valuable information, and creating tools to be shared among stakeholders, to restore the physical and cultural value of a historical building, even in case of extreme events.