A Knowledge Json-Based Database for Integrating Multiple Disciplines in Cultural Heritage

In this work, we present the development of a database as a tool for cultural heritage information management. Additionally, the database must be suitable for the semantic analysis of the stored information permitting deriving conclusions and assessment of protection interventions. Concretely, the database should be capable of storing information regarding the conservation and restoration materials of the cultural heritage monuments, as well as the methods and techniques used each time. Technological developments in the field of non-destructive techniques have enhanced their usefulness in the field of built cultural heritage protection, and are indispensable tools for the characterisation of materials, detection of wear and degradation of materials, assessment of interventions’ effectiveness and evaluation of compatible materials and conservation interventions. For this reason, the database should be able to support, besides textual information, the storage and manipulation of multimedia information also. This means that the database will be able to store images of the optical spectrum, thermal and multispectral images describing the various aspects of application of restoration methods on specific cultural heritage sites or on specific materials in laboratory environment. Potentially, this database could support and store optical descriptors based on MPEG. Moreover, to ensure interoperability of the database with third-party decision support systems, we avoid the development of a conventional relational database. Instead, we developed the presented database using the JSON protocol. This protocol, except interoperability, provides the opportunity to perform complex database queries and respectively, get complex answers. Finally, it allows the organization of information in several abstract layers, which permits currying out appropriate ontologies that can describe the features of the stored data. Implementation of the developed interoperable semantic-based database is presented in a consolidation scenario considering conservation interventions in monuments and historic buildings in the island of Rhodes, Greece.