Surface monitoring measurements of materials on environmental change conditions

Climate Change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time and the burdened cultural heritage of Europe is particularly vulnerable to be left unprotected. Climate for Culture2 project exploits the damage impact of climate change on cultural heritage at regional scale. In this paper the progress of the study with in situ measurements and investigations at cultural heritage sites throughout Europe combined with laboratory simulations is described. Cultural works of art are susceptible to deterioration with environmental changes causing imperceptibly slow but steady accumulation of damaging effects directly impacted on structural integrity. Laser holographic interference method is employed to provide remote non destructive field-wise detection of the structural differences occurred as climate responses. The first results from climate simulation of South East Europe (Crete) are presented. A full study in regards to the four climate regions of Europe is foreseen to provide values for development of a precise and integrated model of thermographic building simulations for evaluation of impact of climate change. Development of a third generation user interface software optimised portable metrology system (DHSPI II) is designed to record in custom intervals the surface of materials witnessing reactions under simulated climatic conditions both onfield and in laboratory. The climate conditions refer to real data-loggers readings representing characteristic historical building in selected climate zones. New generation impact sensors termed Glass Sensors and Free Water Sensors are employed in the monitoring procedure to cross-correlate climate data with deformation data. In this paper results from the combined methodology are additionally presented.