Title: Applications of Geospatial Technology in the Management of Cultural Heritage Sites – Potentials and Challenges for the Indian Region
Abstract: Cultural heritage management can be defined as all
the processes in understanding (through knowing and
identifying), conserving and managing various expressions
of cultural heritage. These expressions could
be intangible like traditional skills, crafts, folklore,
rituals, etc. or tangible like objects or places. Objects
including artefacts, murals and sculptures are defined
as movable cultural property, while structures,
monuments, precincts, water bodies and canals are
called sites and also termed as immovable cultural
property. Emerging technologies and scientific
developments are increasingly being used in the management
of these different expressions of cultural heritage.
For example, heritage object databases that link
source, provenance and current location are proving
useful in museum contexts, predictive technologies are
being used to fill in partially missing sections of murals/
inscriptions or aid virtual reconstruction of object
remains or even something as basic as mapping indigenous
processional routes. However, the expression
of cultural heritage as immovable cultural property or
heritage sites appears to render itself most to analysis
through various techniques available under the large
umbrella of geospatial technology. This is because of
the nature of such heritage – structures are necessarily
built in particular geographical and cultural settings,
presumably based on appropriate site selection
in order to suitably locate them and their components,
and the initially planned layout and subsequent additions
would have a spatial spread – these factors combined
with the locational permanence of the structures
relative to movable property make built heritage welldisposed
for geospatial analysis. This review article
therefore explores the use and applicability of geospatial
technology for the management of built cultural
heritage, including its context and environment.