WI.S.P.HER (WIreless Sensors for the Preservation of artistic HERitage)

We propose a methodology based on cooperating wireless sensors to diagnose, control, and better preserve artistic heritage. Our aim is to provide a feasible framework to balance preservation issues with usability issues, both for open air buildings and for closed ones. The proposed methodology benefits from networks of cooperating sensors in two respects. Firstly, sensors are used to diagnose accurately the state of a building, to draw accurate thermo-hydrographic maps, and to understand the dynamics of exchange between the building and the environment (caused either by natural seasonal fluctuations, or by the use of the building). Secondly, sensors are used in the management of a building to react effectively to sudden changes of the environment, thereby enabling a better preservation strategy. We present an application of our methodology to a concrete example: Arena di Verona in Italy. The rest of paper is organised as follows. The problem we want to study is defined in Section 1, while Section 2 presents the state of the art of currently employed diagnostic methodologies and preservation strategies. Section 3 introduces our framework, whose benefits are analysed in Section 4. Section 5 applies the methods to a concrete example: Arena di Verona.