TEACH · Technologies and Tools to prioritize assessment and diagnosis of air pollution impact on immovable and movable Cultural Heritage

Most buildings of cultural/historical interest are located in urban environments. They undergo a number of different external forcings, which need to be addressed separately. It is important to consider local-scale variations of the urban environment, such as changes in pollutants, temperature field, relative humidity cycles, wind field, urban heat island effect etc. The most important challenge at the present time is to understand the different types of damage to cultural heritage that environmental changes will cause. In fact, the available scenarios of multi-pollutants trends in Europe and the world indicate that the effects of industrial, civil and transport emissions on corrosion and soiling will constitute a serious threat to cultural heritage. Such effects require improved methods of quantification to arrive at a more accurate damage assessment, diagnosis and monitoring of the movable and immovable cultural heritage. The high costs of preventive conservation and maintenance of the built cultural environment urgently impose the prioritization of air pollution monitoring in order to ensure a sustainable protection. For the purpose of attaining these goals, ad hoc devices and tools are necessary to identify and monitor the changing damage processes affecting immovable and moveable cultural heritage. This will be reached with TeACH developing its objectives. Among these, the main ones are: identify the multi-pollutants and prioritize the principal ones; Identify ways of improving the more reliable and efficient among existing technologies and tools, developing new devices and tools, particularly a new a compact and economical kit of instruments;deliver guidelines for the future prioritization of air pollution and disseminate the results.