Cultural Heritage (CH) is an invaluable treasure that connects humanity to its past, shaping our identities, fostering national pride, and passing down knowledge to future generations. It is also a vital contributor to national economies, mainly through tourism. For instance, in the UK, the heritage sector contributed £15.3 billion to the economy in 2022, demonstrating resilience and steady growth despite the challenges of the pandemic. However, natural wear, environmental factors, and human activity often threaten their preservation. The Internet of Things (IoT) is deployed across numerous industries – from sustainable agriculture to water management – and IoT applications in cultural conservation could significantly protect cultural legacies and ensure their endurance for future generations.

At Ignitec, we specialise in designing and developing advanced environmental monitoring technologies tailored to the unique challenges of cultural heritage conservation. Our expertise lies in creating IoT-driven solutions that provide real-time insights into ecological factors such as temperature, humidity, air quality, and vibrations—critical data for protecting historical monuments, natural parks, and artefacts. Please get in touch for more info. 

Related services

Preserving cultural heritage sites and artefacts is vital to ensuring the longevity of historical and cultural treasures. If you’re developing solutions in this space, we offer end-to-end services, including product design, prototyping, and scalable IoT system integration. Whether you need bespoke sensor networks, predictive analytics platforms, or seamless deployment in challenging environments, Ignitec’s dedicated team ensures your solutions are innovative, robust, and impactful. Call us for a free and confidential consultation with an expert on our team. 

Key IoT applications in heritage conservation

IoT connects devices equipped with sensors, software, and connectivity to enable real-time data collection and analysis. In heritage conservation, these technologies are crucial in monitoring, managing, and mitigating risks to historical assets, ensuring their preservation and accessibility for years to come. Moreover, IoT solutions can be affordably designed, developed, and scaled with user-friendly interfaces that make them easy to deploy on-site.

Different approaches can be used to apply IoT to Cultural Heritage preservation (see examples below), with the most important including:

• IoT for the enhancement of Cultural Heritage: IoT systems focused on indoor spaces aim to preserve protected areas (e.g., security systems) or improve the visitor’s user experience (e.g., crowd management, virtual tours). 
• IoT in Cultural Heritage for Preventive Conservation: Systems aim to monitor and control the site’s environmental and material conditions to preserve them optimally.

IoT in smart museums: Indoor environmental monitoring

Cultural sites are often threatened by natural wear and environmental conditions. Thus, maintaining optimal conditions to prevent damage caused by mould, corrosion, or fading is essential. IoT applications offer an ideal solution for tracking temperature, humidity, air quality, and light levels in museums, galleries, and archaeological sites. Call us for a quote to have an indoor monitoring system tailored to your needs!

Case Study 1: The Louvre Museum in Paris, France

As Europe’s most visited museum, with a record-breaking 8.8 million visitors in 2011, one of the Louvre’s goals was to keep most of its galleries open daily. To meet that goal while managing over 65,000 repairs and maintenance visits, the museum needed to make its corrective and preventative maintenance more streamlined and efficient:

• Implemented a computerised maintenance management tool to make preventative maintenance more streamlined and efficient.
• Created a single information database and shared repository for the museum staff. This helped to visualise processes, including the initial planning, cleaning, maintenance and disposal of the rooms and facilities systems such as the air-conditioning system, heating system, elevators, lights for each room or gallery and the locking system for more than 2,500 doors,
• Deployed IoT-enabled systems to monitor the microclimate of sensitive paintings such as the Mona Lisa.

IoT and historical monuments: Structural health monitoring

IoT devices monitor the stability of historical structures by detecting stress, vibrations, and material degradation. Early detection allows for proactive maintenance.

Case Study 2: The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

An unintended consequence of being built on soft foundations that didn’t set evenly, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is iconic and has endured over 800 years of earthquakes, storms, and wars. However, engineers constantly monitor its tilt and are ready to intervene if it reaches a critical inclination—for example, in 1990, it remained closed for just over a decade for stability repair as it was in danger of toppling.

By implementing an automatic structural monitoring system, sensors help to record the tower’s movements and the impact of efforts to prevent its deterioration:

• The measurements are collected and managed using a central control system.
• IoT systems provide remote assistance, maintenance and management services (e.g. data recovery and control, online and offline analysis of structural behaviour).

IoT in artwork protection: Improved tracking and security

IoT-enabled RFID tags and GPS trackers help catalogue and track artefacts, ensuring they are accounted for and protected against theft or loss. Call us for a quote for tags and trackers that we can custom-build and design cost-effectively and quickly, thanks to our in-house manufacturing facilities!

Case Study 3: The British Museum, London, UK.

In the case of the British Museum, the challenge was two-fold. Firstly, to secure an enormously diverse range of objects and to enable full integration with other security systems. In addition, there were also vast, old, and architecturally unique spaces to be protected, including the 1651.3 m2 Round Reading Room at the centre of the museum, built in 1857. IoT applications for heritage conservation included:

• Flexible, fully integrated systems to protect permanent spaces, cover temporary exhibitions and enable staff to adapt and re-deploy our systems to cover similar exhibitions in the future. 
• Old and new display cases were fitted with wireless motion & door tamper tags.
• 2D pictures, 3D sculptural artefacts, and delicate furniture were protected with vibration and tamper tags and pressure sensors incorporated into plinths. 
• Security sensor tags were integrated with existing volumetric, CCTV motion detection, and pressure-sensing technology.

IoT for disaster prevention and response: Real-time alerts

IoT is emerging as a powerful tool in enhancing disaster management efforts by serving as an early warning system (EWS), a highly efficient emergency response mechanism, and a resilience enabler – providing real-time alerts for natural disasters like floods or earthquakes.

Case Study 4: Data loggers monitor water levels in Venice, Italy.

Venice’s need to monitor water levels stems from its unique vulnerability to flooding due to its geographic and architectural characteristics. The city is built on a network of canals and low-lying islands in a lagoon, making it particularly susceptible to high tides and rising sea levels. Periodic flooding poses significant risks to historical landmarks, infrastructure, and daily life. Monitoring water levels enables early warnings and informed decision-making for flood prevention and mitigation measures, such as activating barriers in the flood defence system. Data loggers for monitoring water levels offers several benefits:

• Continuous monitoring: Data loggers provide real-time and long-term data on water levels, helping authorities identify trends and respond promptly to potential threats.
• Accuracy and reliability: Advanced sensors can detect subtle changes in water levels, even in challenging environmental conditions, ensuring precise data collection.
• Integration with prediction models: The data collected by loggers can feed into hydrological models to forecast future flooding scenarios, aiding in proactive planning.
• Heritage preservation: By understanding flooding patterns, conservationists can better protect Venice’s cultural heritage sites from water damage. IoT applications in heritage conservation technologies are crucial for a city like Venice, where maintaining a balance between modern urban needs and preserving its fragile environment is essential.

The challenges and benefits of IoT in Heritage Conservation

IoT applications in heritage conservation bring numerous advantages and optimise how cultural assets are preserved and managed. One of the most significant benefits is proactive preservation. IoT devices enable real-time monitoring of environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and vibrations, allowing conservators to detect and address risks before they cause irreversible damage. This capability ensures that artefacts and historical structures remain intact, maintaining their integrity for generations.

Another transformative aspect is the power of data-driven decision-making. IoT devices generate continuous information streams, providing conservators with actionable insights into maintenance needs and long-term preservation strategies. This level of detail not only supports more effective resource allocation but also reduces the likelihood of unexpected issues that could result in costly interventions. Additionally, IoT solutions offer enhanced security for heritage sites and artefacts, with real-time tracking and alerts that safeguard against theft or unauthorised access. Together, these benefits underscore the crucial role of IoT in protecting cultural legacies efficiently and effectively.

Despite its many advantages, implementing IoT in heritage conservation has notable challenges. Cost is often a significant barrier, as deploying sophisticated IoT systems in remote or large-scale sites requires substantial investment. This expense can be particularly challenging for institutions or governments with limited budgets dedicated to cultural preservation. Beyond financial constraints, the technological complexity of IoT systems presents another obstacle. Installing, maintaining, and managing these technologies demand skilled personnel, and a lack of expertise can hinder their effectiveness.

Moreover, the ethical use of data collected by IoT devices is a pressing concern. As these systems gather vast amounts of information about heritage sites, it becomes essential to handle this data responsibly, ensuring privacy and compliance with legal frameworks, local communities and indigenous groups. Striking a balance between leveraging IoT for preservation and conservation on the one hand and safeguarding sensitive information and the rights of local communities, on the other hand, is critical to building trust among stakeholders. Addressing these challenges requires collaboration, investment, and innovation to ensure IoT solutions are accessible, ethical, and sustainable for heritage conservation.

The path forward: The Internet of Cultural Things (IoCT)

The Internet of Cultural Things (IoT) is emerging as a transformative approach to cultural preservation, leveraging IoT, AI, and 5G technologies to create a seamless network of cultural assets, services, and platforms. This interconnected framework enriches human experiences, bolsters the economic value of the cultural sector, and provides innovative tools for heritage education and conservation. As cultural sites and resources face increasing environmental, social, and technological challenges, the IoCT offers a forward-thinking solution to protect and celebrate humanity’s shared legacy. Embracing this vision will not only safeguard historical treasures for future generations but also inspire new ways to engage with and appreciate our collective cultural identity.

Collaboration is key to fully harnessing the potential of IoT applications in heritage conservation. Governments, conservationists, and tech companies must collaborate to develop cost-effective and scalable IoT solutions. Additionally, raising awareness about the importance of preserving cultural heritage can drive public and private investments in these technologies.

If you’re looking for a tech partner to help you develop bespoke conservation and cultural preservation solutions, please get in touch. Designing technologies that benefit people and the planet is core to our work, and we’re here to do the same for you!