Digital Preservation for UNESCO Architectural Heritage: History
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Subjects: Architecture And Design | Construction & Building Technology
Contributor:
Asma Khalid Khalid

Architectural heritage includes built structures that are of outstanding value of natural and cultural identity and require conservation, preservation, presentation and transmission to the future generations. In this regard, UNESCO has enlisted six World Heritage Sites in Pakistan that need to be preserved. Moreover, the heritage sites are undergoing theft, vandalism, natural decay and other socio-cultural harms. One of the state-of-the-art methodologies is the digital preservation of the historic sites. Amongst the various available computer technologies, photogrammetry is the quickest and most cost-effective method that can be used for digital preservation. The research will focus on the digital preservation of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which is an emerging trend in an architectural context. Developing countries have limited funds and resources and most historic sites are being neglected by the lack of financial resources. This research suggests digital preservation as an emerging solution, identifies its challenges and suggests photogrammetry as a cost-effective solution to six UNESCO enlisted historic sites of Pakistan. It also suggests that once digitally recorded, information of historic sites can also be used in diverse applications to generate further finances. 

  • digital heritage
  • UNESCO
  • conservation challenges
  • photogrammetry
  • architectural heritage

1. Introduction

After the energy crisis in 1970, the world realized about the purity of the natural environment, renewable resources and ecological footprints of humans on earth. The sustainable development, as defined by Brundtland in 1987, our common future, is the equitable balance between environment, social and economic aspects, with a consideration for future generations. In this context, sustainable heritage is the identification, conservation, preservation, presentation and transmission of the natural and cultural environment to future generations. The true sense of historic architectural vernacularism is the celebration of design of climate responsive historic buildings. Buildings that stand out in their time, best respondent to climate, social, economic and cultural values are time-tested sustainable heritage. There exists empirical evidence between cultural heritage and sustainable development. Culture is developed over a long period of time, either in the past or present, sharing common goals and objectives for developing a civilization. Several studies [1][2][3][4][5] support the idea of safeguarding and protecting historical sites of cultural and historical character, connecting tangible and intangible values. Bob [6] also claims positively celebrating the importance of cultural diversity in the world heritage process for setting the future direction on the basis of past grounds. Religion, social development and geographical locations are a few considerable factors bonded to the heritage community and diversity.
Cultural heritage is more threatened by a globalized world, technological advancements, population explosion and political and economic instability [7]. A new set of challenges that have emerged more recently are the documentation, protection and proper management of cultural heritage. Additionally, the use of heritage information is not sustainable as it lacks a policy framework. Cultural heritage in the last few decades has been supported by international charters, conventions and principles, but with recent digitalized trends, it has extended towards various disciplines, tools, technologies and methodologies. This has come along with the exhaustive understanding of risk assessment and risk monitoring of historic sites, structures and monuments. However, there is a strong gap between the geomatics professional, cultural heritage creators and conservation practitioners [8].
Climate change, greenhouse gas emission and other environmental problems are adding an additional challenge. The historic buildings have also encountered the catastrophic effect of natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, climatic conditions, etc. The magnitudes of these disastrous effects are paramount to the historic sites and structures. In developing countries of Asia, people and societies rarely value a heritage, e.g., demolishing historic sites due to religious issues, which is also creating a social chaos in world heritage vocabulary [9]. However, the solution to many problems lies in the conservation and preservation process that must be ensured through community participation, engaging local labor and using a hybrid mix of traditional and modern techniques. For example, The Burra Charter is the theoretical and practical application of cultural heritage management that provides an understanding about the cultural site, community involvement and practically implementing polices [10]. The existence of old traditional techniques to preserve and conserve the architectural building are worth admiring, whereas the true character of building geometry that has been built and developed in ancient times is far more important. The artisans and craftsmen have forgotten this and, more precisely, stopped the practices of earlier construction, such as Naqashi and Kashi Kari, etc. The solution to the forgotten knowledge partially lies in the digital preservation, where many of the conservation and preservation practices can be documented. For example, building geometry has a significant role in identifying the traditional footprint that reflects its true essence. The international practices exist that successfully demonstrated the potential of digital conservation and tools and trainings for conservationists.

1.1. Digital Heritage

The digital technological boom has brought advancement to the documentation, conservation and preservation techniques in the field of architectural heritage. Digital heritage, as defined by many authors [11][12][13][14], is the use of digital media in the service of preserving cultural or natural heritage. The UNESCO Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage in 2003 also explains it further as: “The digital heritage consists of unique resources of human knowledge and expression. It embraces cultural, educational, scientific and administrative resources, as well as technical, legal, medical and other kinds of information created digitally, or converted into digital form from existing analogue resources.”
Digital architectural heritage is the protection of the cultural heritage using digital technologies to keep intact the integrity and beauty of the built environment [15][16]. The advancement in technology has also provided a solution to the conservation and preservation of national and international cultural heritage. These emerging tools have given a new insight into the development and improvement in the methods of conservation and preservation of cultural values. The state-of-the-art technologies can play a vital role in the conservation, preservation and safeguarding of immovable cultural heritage. Hatzopoulos [17] used different surveying and photogrammetry techniques such as digital camera, Lidar scanner and GPS for The Tholos in Delphi, Greece, which was further used in the game application for different educational scenarios and situations.
Another problem in conservation is the requirement of funds and sponsorship, and lack of finances has led to the decay and even sometimes collapse and perish of whole historic sites and structures after a natural disaster. A cheap method of immediate recording for such sites in developing countries can be through digital conservation. For developing countries, one such example of its solicitation is at Marinids’ Royal Necropolis City of Fez, Morocco [18], where they took advantage of close range photogrammetry using DSLR and smartphone cameras as low cost 3D modelling of historic sites. The digital conservation is also helpful in saving a high risk marine archeological site, using transdisciplinary approaches to preserve the Kastrouli–Antikyra Bay Land and Sea Project, Phokis, Greece [19].

1.2. Historical, Natural and Cultural Heritage of Pakistan

Pakistan is blessed with vast historical, natural and cultural heritage still to be explored and it requires international attention. (UNESCO) and the World Bank appreciate the importance of the nation’s cultural heritage in Pakistan [20]. Pakistan heritage has a long history of diverse cultural assimilation of Muslims, Hindus, Sikh and Britishers. The far-reaching impact of heterogeneity among the art, architecture and historic evidence exists in Pakistan architectural heritage. The deep-rooted effect of Indus Valley Civilization is reflected in the famous architectural sites of Mohenjo daro, Harappa and Texila. The Indus archaeological sites and architectural structure in various cities of Pakistan are promoting multi-faceted relations of history and built environments. The Gandaha art is a legacy of buddish civilization in Pakistan’s region. Similarly, the diversity of culture is reflected in Mughal architecture and pre-partition construction. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has enlisted 6 World Heritage Sites (Figure 1) and 18 on a tentative list in Pakistan. These places are of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the world heritage community. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972 in Paris. Pakistan endorsed the convention on 23 July 1976, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list.
Conservation 02 00003 g001 550
Figure 1. Location of World Heritage Sites on Pakistan’s map [20].

2. Photogrammetry, a Quick Resource of Digital Preservation

Photogrammetry is another way through for quick digital documentation for the remaining five UNESCO enlisted monuments in Pakistan. It is a quick, cheap, easily available resource that requires software training to professionals. Photogrammetry can be defined as “the art, science, and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the processes of recording, measuring, and interpreting photographic images”. Photogrammetry is the most recent and efficient way of taking measurements using photographs. This creation of a 3D model is possible because of recovering the exact positions of surface points. Various studies [21][22][23][24] demonstrated the successful application of photogrammetry on various historic buildings and antiquities worldwide. Lee and Dorcic [25][26] use personalized smart phone technology for the study of photogrammetric application. These studies provide a quick overview of a photogrammetric collection of virtual 3D models. Among the six listed sites in Pakistan on the UNESCO world heritage list, Shalimar Gardens is selected for the application of digital technologies. The survey of the Shalimar Gardens will be conducted to document its architectural detail using photogrammetric techniques. The camera photography can be used to record the physical configuration of the exterior facades, interior walls, detail of mural, frescos, geometric patterns at the floor and roof paintings and carvings. This technique will also allow capturing detailed views of the site and environment of Shalimar Gardens with high-resolution photographic images.
The PhotoModeler software is a cost-effective way for accurate 3D scanning, measurement, surveying and reality capture. In order to create a detailed 3D geometry, the photographic images of Shalimar Gardens will be imported in PhotoModeler software. The software uses bundle adjustment methods to create 3D models of Shalimar Gardens. The photographs are manually matched for the common features or smartly matched to create dense cloud points from overlapping different surveyed photos [27]. Through the application of photogrammetric, the digital model of Shalimar Gardens will be created and documented. The construction of the detailed geometry and its architectural minutiae and intricacy of facades and other landscape features can be documented and preserved through PhotoModeler simulation. Finally, a theoretical framework model will be developed as a futuristic approach for the application of digital heritage studies of different buildings in Pakistan. The framework will use multistage methodology to achieve its objectives and will become a baseline study for the further investigation, improvement in digital preservation and conservation of Shalimar Gardens. Shalimar Gardens can be conserved for its historic landscape using the low cost high-resolution DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) cameras, commonly available and documented using a cloud to cloud method as used in [18]. The degree of accuracy will be higher for ground control points and bundle adjustments in 3D coordinates.

3. Diverse Application of Digital Preservation

Digital preservation is also being used as the tool to educate students about the technological advancement in the field of conservation, as we have seen an example of such application in [17]. This practice is being adopted by many institutes all over the world to educate and train students in the field of digital preservation. Liritzis [28] demonstrate the potential emergence of digital technologies in cultural heritage that have brought a revolution in the virtual world, such as digital fabrication and cloud computing, and have become trans-disciplinary in nature to adapt the naturistic influences. The most diverse and recent application of the digital conservational technologies is in various fields of cyber archaeometry, virtual archaeology, gamification through virtual and augmented reality. This will help to increase digital access for the museum audience through web possibilities at any location in the world to experience Pakistan culture [18]. After the successful development and implementation of copyright laws that can be universally practiced through the UNESCO platform, the digitally preserved heritage can be used in IMAX and virtual reality experiences for historic and valuable architectural sites. It will increase the charity donation at UNESCO and UN ambassador level, especially in developing countries where these historic sites are being neglected by the lack of funds, and retaining its original geometry, material colors and texture in digital formats. In addition to that, the virtual experience of various sites will be available where it is not possible for many individuals to physically go there and experience those places due to financial issues and medical reasons. Digital preservation will also make a strong emotional bond with old classical built heritage through the virtual environment.

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/conservation2010003

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