Science and Digital Technology for Cultural Heritage - Interdisciplinary Approach to Diagnosis, Vulnerability, Risk Assessment and Graphic Information Models

The scientific and technological advances that influence the protection of cultural heritage are developing at an ever-increasing pace. Systems to explore, research and analyse their materiality, to control the different scopes, or to represent and model them have reached an unprecedented dimension in recent decades. The Network of Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage aims to promote collaboration between the agents of these systems, in order to facilitate the sharing of experiences and to foster technology transfer, with the common goal of contributing to the conservation of Cultural Heritage.

In the context of the TechnoHeritage Network, the fourth edition of the International Congress on Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage was held March 26-30, 2019, in Seville, Spain. This Congress was an international meeting of researchers and specialists from multiple areas, whose line of work is the knowledge and conservation of Cultural Heritage. Among all the topics discussed, the role and impact of digital technologies for the knowledge, maintenance, management and dissemination of cultural heritage should be highlighted. Digital media modify the way of understanding this heritage, of perceiving it and transmitting it, and offer a new horizon of strategies to make decision-making more sustainable over time.

Pilar Ortiz obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Seville in 1999 and is a Senior Lecturer at the University Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain and Dean of Science Faculty. Her expertise lies in the diagnosis of cultural heritage, risk and vulnerability of cultural heritage, non-destructive techniques applied to cultural heritage, quality management, and e-learning. Dr. Ortiz leads the Cultural Heritage, Technology, and Environment research team and her professional publications appeared in more than 100 books, conference proceedings, and journals. Reviewer of high impact journals in CH and guest editor of Scanning in Diagnostics and Novel Solutions for the Protection of Built. Heritage. Her projects have been supported by the European Union, national and regional governments, and private organizations. In 2015 Dr. Ortiz received an award from EMRS for science dissemination.

Francisco Pinto, architect since 1988, he currently holds a position as Senior Lecturer in Architectonical Graphical Expression in the University of Seville. Between the years 1989 and 1999, his part-time teaching activity was combined with professional activity. In these last 20 years he has continued to participate in restoration projects through knowledge transfer university contracts. His current research line develops multidisciplinary strategies of knowledge of architectural heritage and its application to preliminary studies and intervention, as well as management models of the processes involved in restoration and conservation of heritage buildings. These lines are linked to the research group HUM-799, (www.grupo.us.es/ecphum799). Currently, he is Main Researcher in HAR2016-78113-R project. He has directed 18 Master's thesis and 6 doctoral theses authored by archaeologists, historians and architects and, all of them, focused in the search and experimentation of transversality in heritage architecture, archaeology and technology topics.

Philip Verhagen is assistant professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, specialized in computer applications and quantitative methods in archaeology, with an emphasis on GIS, spatial analysis and modelling. He has held a position as post-doctoral research fellow at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2009-2017). Before that, he has worked as a GIS specialist in contract-based archaeology with Dutch companies RAAP (1992-2005) and ACVU-HBS (2005-2008). He has been Publication Officer of Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods (2011-2016), and is currently Managing Editor of the newly started Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology.

Andrés J. Prieto obtained a Ph.D. in Building Engineering from the University of Seville (Spain) in 2017. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile, Chile. His expertise is focused on functional service life prediction of heritage buildings and materials components using fuzzy logic. His research work has been published in more than 20 conference proceedings and international journals. From 2018 Dr. Prieto is a member of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) - Commission: CIB-W080 Service Life Prediction of Buildings Materials and Components.