Cultural Heritage Storytelling, Engagement and Management in the Era of Big Data and the Semantic Web

The current Special Issue launched with the aim of further enlightening important CH areas, inviting researchers to submit original/featured multidisciplinary research works related to heritage crowdsourcing, documentation, management, authoring, storytelling, and dissemination. Audience engagement is considered very important at both sites of the CH production–consumption chain (i.e., push and pull ends). At the same time, sustainability factors are placed at the center of the envisioned analysis. A total of eleven (11) contributions were finally published within this Special Issue, enlightening various aspects of contemporary heritage strategies placed in today’s ubiquitous society. The finally published papers are related but not limited to the following multidisciplinary topics:Digital storytelling for cultural heritage;Audience engagement in cultural heritage;Sustainability impact indicators of cultural heritage;Cultural heritage digitization, organization, and management;Collaborative cultural heritage archiving, dissemination, and management;Cultural heritage communication and education for sustainable development;Semantic services of cultural heritage;Big data of cultural heritage;Smart systems for Historical cities – smart cities;Smart systems for cultural heritage sustainability

Museums and Heritage Sites — The Missing Link in Smart City Planning: A Case Study of Pune City, India

The process of urbanisation has dramatically increased in India in recent years. The Government of India launched Smart City Mission in 2015 which was intended to transform 100 cities into smart cities. The focus of our research is one such city in India on its path to smartification. Pune’s smart city mission focuses on techno-infrastructural development to increase mobility and digital connectivity. Social-cultural and historical indicators are not considered an integral part of this development. Given this, does the smart city mission of Pune privilege the techno-infrastructural development of a city over its social and cultural development?  In this paper, we identify museums and heritage sites in Pune as signifiers of a city's culture and analyse metro development plans through GIS to understand whether the museums' current geography mentioned above and heritage sites require alignment with Pune’s planned smart city mission. The research shows that the quest to ‘upgrade’ and ‘modernise’ is not adequately aligned with the role of key historic-cultural institutions such as museums and heritage sites. The case of Pune city shows that, without careful and inclusive development plan, a full roll-out of the smart city project will exclude a large number of historical and cultural spaces such as museums and heritage sites from emerging as an integral part of smart cities across the country and render them peripheral to modern urban life. &nbsp

Connect Smart Cities and Heritage Through Augmented Reality

This chapter aims to connect the digital resources of knowledge with the historical and cultural heritage in the context of smart cities. Specifically, combining the joint intervention in the Real Sitio of El Pardo and Aranjuez, as well as the Foundation Square of the University of Alcalá, both in Spain. Through traditional historical research and the innovative use of new technologies like augmented reality (AR), a historical, biological and cultural heritage is conserved, consisting of forests, gardens, agricultural spaces, urban centers and palatial residences. Cultural and artistic heritage is a resource of the first magnitude for the sustainable development of smart cities. It evolves with time and society; it is this that determines what goods are to be conserved and protected for posterity, according to the values attributed to them. Hence, the importance of achieving an awareness in society plays an active part in the conservation, enjoyment and dissemination of heritage. In this context, the augmented reality is presented as a powerful tool for contextualizing and disseminating the heritage, as well as to make the resources created more accessible, making an innovative use of the new technologies applied to the transfer of knowledge and the enhancement of a country’s cultural and historical heritage

Rapid urbanization and heritage conservation in Indian cities

The paper discusses the issue of heritage conservation in Indian cities in the face of current rapid urbanization trends. The urban development pressure, coupled with the lack of an appropriate conservation framework, is causing the loss of important cultural heritage in India. The federal Indian government has recently launched a program on smart cities to improve cities livability and embrace technological progress. The paper discusses the current policy situation and the role that urban heritage is having within the internal debate. It presents results from an experts’ workshop held in Mumbai in December 2016 and argues that a novel smartheritage approach is needed to support decision making in urban conservation

Alternativas inteligentes para a preservação do patrimônio cultural no contexto das smart cities

The aim of this article is to identify intelligent alternatives for the preservation of cultural heritage in a context of smart cities. For this, a literature review was conducted contemplating articles from 2004 to 2019 retrieved from the Google Scholar and Portal Capes platforms. The keywords used for search were smart cities e preservação patrimonial; cidades inteligentes e preservação patrimonial; patrimônio inteligente and smart heritage. Of the 80 articles recovered, those who proposed intelligent alternatives for the conservation of cultural heritage were selected. From then on, it was possible to identify a set of tools aimed at preserving the heritage that could be reflected in the scope of the smart cities. Through the selected content, it is identified that the 3D scanning techniques, the Building Information Modeling (BIM), the mobile applications for integrated management of asset preservation and the sensors for acquisition and analysis of data from the collections in real time are, some of the possibilities for planning the preservation of cultural heritage in the context of the smart cities.El objetivo de este artículo es identificar alternativas inteligentes para la preservación del patrimonio cultural en un contexto de smart cities. Para ello, se llevó a cabo una revisión de la literatura contemplando artículos de 2004 a 2019 recuperados de las plataformas Google Académico y Portal Capes. Las palabras clave utilizadas para la búsqueda fueron: smart cities e preservación patrimonial; ciudades inteligentes e preservación patrimonial; patrimonio inteligente e smart heritage. De los 80 artículos recuperados, se seleccionaron aquellos que propusieron alternativas inteligentes para la conservación del patrimonio cultural. A partir de entonces, fue posible identificar un conjunto de herramientas destinadas a preservar el patrimonio que podría reflejarse en el alcance de las smart cities. A través del contenido seleccionado, se identifica que las técnicas de escaneo 3D, el Building Information Modeling (BIM), las aplicaciones móviles para la gestión integrada de la preservación de activos y los sensores para la recopilación y análisis de datos de colecciones en el tiempo reales son algunas de las posibilidades para planificar la preservación del patrimonio cultural en el contexto de las smart cities.O objetivo deste artigo é identificar alternativas inteligentes para a preservação do patrimônio cultural em um contexto de smart cities. Para isso, realizou-se uma revisão de literatura contemplando artigos de 2004 a 2019 recuperados das plataformas Google Acadêmico e Portal Capes. As palavras-chaves utilizadas para busca foram: smart cities e preservação patrimonial; cidades inteligentes e preservação patrimonial; patrimônio inteligente e smart heritage. Dos 80 artigos recuperados, foram selecionados aqueles que propusessem alternativas inteligentes para a conservação do patrimônio cultural. A partir de então, foi possível identificar um conjunto de ferramentas voltadas para a preservação do patrimônio que pudessem ser refletidas no âmbito das cidades inteligentes. Por meio do conteúdo selecionado, identifica-se que as técnicas de digitalização 3D, o Building Information Modeling (BIM), os aplicativos móveis para gestão integrada da preservação patrimonial e os sensores para coleta e análise de dados dos acervos em tempo real, são algumas das possibilidades para o planejamento da preservação do patrimônio cultural no contexto das smart cities

European and Italian experience of Smart Cities: A model for the smart planning of city built

The construction of the city through smart measures is now a frontier reached from many cities in the world. The built environment requires smart planning able to relate urban realities that are relegated to a marginal change. But how does the smart cities can create a relationship between sustainable cities of the future and their heritage? The article highlights the way of smart urban transformation of reality European and Italian proposing critical comparisons from which to infer smart parameters most used and easy to apply for the sustainable construction of these smart cities focusing on the urban sources of intelligent retrieval for quality their historical and cultural heritage

smart paths for advanced management of cultural heritage

Internet and mobile communication has transformed the manner of conventionally interacting with cultural heritage, creating dynamic networks for all those involved. It provides opportunities to experiment with innovative mobile applications that, valorizing historical and environmental resources, complement the broader context of smart cities/regions. This paper aims to study an advanced virtual on-site fruition of cultural heritage by users–consumers, applied in the region of Sardinia, through the simulation of computer-based relational augmented reality (AR) applications. This case study, which is a unique regional attempt at promoting regional cultural heritage using AR technologies, is interesting because of its tourist offerings that today remain fragmented

Smart Solutions for Sustainable Tourism Pearls: How to Live Between Culture and Tourism in Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is one of the most visited destinations on the Adriatic coast. However, the large number of visits is affecting the heritage area of the city, and since the Old City of Dubrovnik have been under the UNESCO protection from 1979 it is important to achieve the balance between tourism and sustainability of the heritage site. The use of smart and open data can improve tourism flow management in cultural heritage sites. The aim of this paper is to identify innovative solutions, with the support of new technologies and big data, in order to reduce negative impacts of tourism on cultural heritage sites. The set of indicators are defined and a holistic model is proposed to analyse these data and use them in sustainable management of cultural heritage cities. The newly developed smart holistic models are presented in the case of the City of Dubrovnik since it is largely dedicated to tourism. The analysis of tourist flows in the City of Dubrovnik has been done following a system of indicators developed by the Agency for sustainable Mediterranean cities and territories in the framework of Interreg Mediterranean project HERIT-DATA that consists of 21 indicators divided into 6 groups. A large number of tourists are affecting not only space and infrastructure, but also the life of residents. Therefore, it is of the greatest importance to manage tourism in a more holistic and sustainable way and to find the balance between tourism and its economic contributions and sustainability. The proposed set of indicators and a new smart holistic model will help policy makers, destination managers, cities and sites to anticipate and manage the tourism flows in a smarter way. The results of the analysis showed that the overtourism in Dubrovnik has still not affected the infrastructure and environmental conditions, but it greatly affects the residents of the city and their quality of life. Also, the smart solution for managing the tourism flows in the Old City of Dubrovnik already exists, in the form of Application for the prediction of the number of visitors, but it should be used in a way that helps better manage the tourist flows

The sustainable development of smart cities through digital innovation

The ‘smart city’ concept has been wrought from distinctive theoretical underpinnings. Initially, this term was used to describe those cities that utilized advanced computerized systems to provide a safe, secure, green, and efficient transportation services and utilities to meet the demands of their citizens (Caragliu, Del Bo & Nijkamp, 2011; Hall, Bowerman and Braverman, Taylor, Todosow and Von Wimmersperg, 2000). A thorough literature review suggests that several cities are already using disruptive technologies, including advanced, integrated materials, sensors, electronics, and networks, among others, which are interfaced with computerized systems to improve their economic, social and environmental sustainability (Camilleri, 2015, 2017; Deakin and Al Waer, 2011; Hall et al., 2000). These cities are increasingly relying on data-driven technologies, as they gather and analyze data from urban services including transportation and utilities (Ramaswami, Russell, Culligan, Sharma and Kumar, 2016; Gretzel, Sigala, Xiang and Koo, 2015). Their underlying objective is to improve the quality of life of their citizens (Ratten, 2017; Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2015). Hence, ‘smart cities’ have introduced technological innovations to address contingent issues like traffic congestion; air pollution; waste management; loss of biodiversity and natural habitat; energy generation, conservation and consumption; water leakages and security, among other matters (Camilleri, 2019; 2014; Ahvenniemi, Huovila, Pinto-Seppä and Airaksinen, 2017; Ratten and Dana, 2017; Ratten, 2017). Ecologically-advanced local governments and municipalities are formulating long-term sustainable policies and strategies. Some of them are already capturing data through multisensor technologies via wireless communication networks in real time (Bibri, 2018; Bibri and Krogstie, 2017). Very often, they use the Internet’s infrastructure and a wide range of smart data-sensing devices, including radio frquency identification (RFID), near-field communication (NFC), global positioning systems (GPS), infrared sensors, accelerometers, and laser scanners (Bibri, 2018). A few cities have already started to benefit from the Internet of Things (IoT) technology and its sophisticated network that consists of sensor devices and physical objects including infrastructure and natural resources (Zanella, Bui, Castellani, Vangelista and Zorzi, 2014). Several cities are crunching big data to better understand how to make their cities smarter, more efficient, and responsive to today’s realities (Mohanty, Choppali and Kougianos, 2016; Ramaswami et al., 2016). They gather and analyze a vast amount of data and intelligence on urban aspects, including transportation issues, citizen mobility, traffic management, accessibility and protection of cultural heritage and/or environmental domains, among other areas (Angelidou, Psaltoglou, Komninos, Kakderi, Tsarchopoulos and Panori, 2018; Ahvenniemi et al., 2017). The latest advances in technologies like big data analytics and decision-making algorithms can support local governments and muncipalities to implement the circular economy in smart cities (Camilleri, 2019). The data-driven technologies enable them them to reduce their externalities. They can monitor and control the negative emissions, waste, habitat destruction, extinction of wildlife, etc. Therefore, the digital innovations ought to be used to inform the relevant stakeholders in their strategic planning and development of urban environments (Camilleri, 2019; Allam & Newman, 2018; Yigitcanlar and Kamruzzaman, 2018; Angelidou et al. ,2018; Caragliu et al., 2011). In this light, we are calling for theoretical and empirical contributions that are focused on the creation, diffusion, as well as on the utilization of technological innovations and information within the context of smart, sustainable cities. This Special Issue will include but is not limited to the following topics: • Advancing the circular economy agenda in smart cities; • Artificial intelligence and machine learning in smart cities; • Blockchain technologies in smart cities; • Green economy of smart cities; • Green infrastructure in smart cities; • Green living environments in smart cities; • Smart cities and the sustainable environment; • Smart cities and the use of data-driven technologies; • Smart cities and the use of the Internet of Things (IoT); • Sustainable energy of smart cities; • Sustainable financing for infrastructural development in smart cities; • Sustainable housing in smart cities; • Sustainable transportation in smart cities; • Sustainable tourism in smart cities; • Technological innovation and climate change for smart cities; • Technological innovation and the green economy of smart cities; • Technological innovation and the renewable energy in smart cities; • Technological innovation and urban resilience of smart cities; • Technological innovation for the infrastructural development of smart cities; • The accessibility and protection of the cultural heritage in smart cities; • The planning and design of smart cities; • The quality of life of the citizens and communities living in smart cities; • Urban innovation in smart cities; • Urban planning that integrates the smart city development with the greening of the environment; • Urban planning and data driven technologies of smart cities.peer-reviewe