SHM & Cultural Heritage

The Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (JCSHM) and ISHMII are pleased to bring to your attention and share the knowledge contained in issue No. 4/2016 of Energia Ambiente e Innovazione, the magazine of the ENEA (Italy). Dedicated to cultural heritage, this issue contains several articles of different kind; among these is the paper by JCSHM Editor-in-Chief Farhad Ansari with Paolo Clemente et al. “Structural analysis of historic constructions: some notable examples.” The paper reports the most important aspects of the structural analysis applied to monumental and historic constructions. The most important typologies are identified (such as towers, monuments, bridges, religious and historic buildings) and, for each of them, the different structural aspects are analyzed with reference to notable examples: the minaret in Jam, Colosseum in Rome, Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, Duomo of Orvieto and the Iran Bastan Museum in Tehran.

This is not the first time that ENEA published a special issue dedicated to cultural heritage. A comprehensive illustration of the ENEA activities was given in the Special Issue of Energia Ambiente e Innovazione Knowledge, Diagnostics and Preservation of Cultural Heritage, edited by Clemente P., Di Lazzaro P. and Giorgi R., published in 2012.

There, the multidisciplinary approach of the ENEA intervention in the cultural heritage is evident. Since the pioneering studies in the 1980s by a small group who began to analyze materials and structures of works of art using technologies developed for the nuclear sector, the range of applications enlarged greatly, both in terms of works of art studied and of technologies and methodologies – now including new anti-seismic technologies, in situ and on shake table seismic tests, geomorphologic survey, environment monitoring, biotechnologies, laser technologies, photonics, information and communication technology. More than 1500 diagnostic interventions on historical structures and objects of art in collaboration with restorers, art historians, archaeologists and officials of the Italian Ministry of Culture have been carried out in the past few years. Research projects with national and international funds have been performed, and education and training programs in collaboration with different universities have been carried out.

This special issue gives a brief overview of some activities performed by ENEA in the knowledge, diagnosis and preservation of cultural heritage. It is organized in three sections. The first one is dedicated to the safeguard against natural risks, such as earthquakes and landslides, the second to several interdisciplinary approaches to conservation and the third to diagnostics and imaging by lasers, optics and photonics.

 Dr. Clemente may be contacted at paolo.clemente@enea.it.

Dr. Ansari may be reached at FAnsari@uic.edu.

 

Energia Ambiente e Innovazione, No. 4/2016

http://www.enea.it/it/pubblicazioni/EAI/anno-2016/n-4-ottobre-dicembre-2016

Clemente P., Di Lazzaro P., Giorgi R. (eds) (2012). Knowledge, Diagnostics and Preservation of Cultural Heritage, Special Issue of Energia Ambiente e Innovazione.

http://www.enea.it/it/pubblicazioni/EAI/anno-2012/knowledge-diagnostics-and-preservation-of-cultural-heritage

 

 

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