Defining the benchmark for measuring physical change to buildings, collections and sites – characterising the condition of materials and assemblages.

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Nancy Bell

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Abstract
This presentation briefly describes the environmental factors that give rise to changes to cultural heritage and considers how physical change will alter perceptions of values and authenticity. It offers a brief overview of the some of the metrics used to measure changes to buildings, sites and collections and considers the effectiveness for measuring and monitoring change to buildings, sites and collections.

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Understanding human effects on sites, buildings and collections

Sarah Staniforth

Abstract
This paper examines the interaction between humans and the materials that make up cultural heritage including sites, buildings and collections. It looks at the social, economic and environmental factors that influence these interactions and considers how these may change in the short, medium and long term.

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Understanding how the environment causes physical change.

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Peter Brimblecombe

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Abstract
A variety of external factors induce deterioration of heritage. These can be reduced to a simpler set of processes that act through accumulation, cycles and impulses. Deterioration may have both psychological and physical dimensions that have often remained unaddressed. The imposed stress on our material heritage can often arise from the nature of the society we live in. This interaction between the science and human society means research has to be interdisciplinary to bring together the right balance of skills and expertise. We need research that addresses philosophical, social and management issues in parallel with that of science and technology. Heritage science in the UK has lacked overall research strategy in the past and effective journals for dissemination along with a slow translation as research into policy and practice, although improvements are becoming evident.

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Understanding extreme social and environmental impacts on cultural heritage materials and assemblages.

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Heather Viles

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Abstract
Cultural heritage materials are affected by a range of extreme events (natural and cultural hazards) and long-term environmental and social changes.  A simple conceptual framework is used to illustrate the complex, non-linear interactions between different extremes, cultural heritage materials and the day-to-day processes which affect them.  A review of recent research focusing on cultural heritage in stone illustrates progress in understanding individual cases, alongside the role of collaborative research and general reviews in providing a broader picture.  Three major challenges for the future are identified, i.e. to develop new approaches that would enhance research on extreme events and long-term changes which are inherently hard to study, to develop innovative methods to study the highly interrelated impacts of extremes and day-to-day processes, and to facilitate interdisciplinary methodologies to encourage work on the many interdependent social and environmental extreme events and changes.

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Conservation solutions for the 21st century.

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Alastair McCapra

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Abstract
This paper considers some of the new technologies expected to come on line in the next few decades, and suggests how they may have applications in heritage science.  It also describes how innovation processes are expected to change in the 21st century, which will have an impact on how new technologies emerge and can be transformed into marketable products which heritage scientists can use.  Lastly it suggests the need to question assumptions about the future relationship between the public and authentic historic materials, and indicates that there may be challenges ahead for the heritage movement in general and heritage science in particular.

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