The world is rapidly losing its cultural heritage to war, uncontrolled development, natural disasters, neglect and subpar conservation efforts. Heritage documentation offers a proactive way to combat these losses and ensure that our history is preserved for the next generation. The process involves recording and managing data about heritage places, and using that collected information to support conservation efforts.
Heritage documentation is important for a number of reasons. To begin, it allows us to better understand historic sites, which increases their cultural significance. The data also assists in the long-term maintenance and routine management of heritage places, because it gives managers detailed information describing the nature and extent of existing problems. This makes it easier to set priorities, establish budgets and protect against future losses – important initiatives that all help to keep historic sites in pristine condition.
When it comes to active conservation projects, heritage documentation is invaluable. It provides teams with a holistic and comprehensive view of the site’s condition, whichcan guide the entire project to a successful resolution. However, obtaining this information is not always easy. In many cases, the data that is readily available about the site is far from sufficient. The measurements and drawings are notprecise enough, the studies and historical surveys are incomplete, and any available assessments are outdated. In addition, because the buildings are historic, they often feature irregular forms, unfamiliar construction methods and other issues that make heritage documentation challenging.
CAD models, or computer-aided design models, offer an ideal solution to many of the documentation problems facing conservation projects. They provide researchers with high resolution documentation of historic buildings, which can be used for a number of important tasks, including determining the integrity of the structure, identifying potential issues and supporting overall conservation efforts.
In addition to delivering detailed and valuable information about virtually any historic building, CAD models are appealing because they can be generated very rapidly and without substantial manpower. Thus, researchers can quickly and accurately obtain the heritage documentation they need to restore, maintain and preserve historically significant sites for many years to come.
