Integrated documentation protocols enabling decision making in cultural heritage protection

Abstract

Documentation on cultural heritage assets is an indispensable part of an overall strategy for cultural heritage protection. Sustainable conservation and management is not feasible without a systematic data collection and registration that identifies the history of the monument, its architectural attributes, preservation state and its possible alterations during its entire lifetime. Integrated documentation protocols for data collection and organizing are developed that built upon certain documentation procedures, encompassing all parameters relating to the monument. These were developed based on the current documentation methodologies survey, revealing the prerequisite main attributes of such protocols, and the need to incorporate quality control principles. Their structure follows a three-level classification of data that reflect the overall information to be documented at an increasing complexity. They constitute a solid basis for any knowledge-based decision making process to establish priorities of cultural heritage protection, through the use of specific necessity indices that utilize the information collected and stored.