ICT

Knowledge Graph

Digital Twin

XR APP

Climate Modelling

Design Tools

---

Cultural heritage buildings catching up with technology: BIM & knowledge graphs, Digital Twin, Virtual Reality & Mixed Reality, climate modelling.

Knowledge Graph

SINCERE introduces an innovative knowledge representation schema for cultural heritage buildings, leveraging semantic technologies for data integration, enrichment, and retrieval. The SINCERE Knowledge Graph (KG) offers a fine-grained representation of data from diverse sources, including environmental sensors and BIM information. This innovative approach brings a new dimension to data management, offering improved insights and applications through a powerful combination of ontology, semantic enrichment, and structured representation.

After the SINCERE ontology is constructed, we will develop a mapping mechanism that integrates the data into the ontology. The data will also be enriched with information from the semantic web as Knowledge Graphs like DBpedia, ConceptNet and BabelNet can offer important supplementary information about cultural heritage buildings and sites.

Heritage Digital Twin (H-DT) Platform

SINCERE develops a 7D Digital Twin platform (i.e. space, time-dependencies, cost analysis, sustainability and energy consumption, facility management dimensions) for real-time monitoring and interaction with cultural heritage (CH) buildings.

The SINCERE H-DT platform provides a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the conditions of cultural heritage sites. It is based on Building Information Modelling (BIM) static information and integrates real-time feeds from Internet of Things (IoT) devices, smart materials, environmental and operational data or other information from the Building Management System (BMS).

In addition to helping predict and prevent damage, the H-DT will also be used as a Decision Support System (DSS) tool to plan and propose maintenance and restoration work throughout the building's life cycle. By visualising the building in a digital model, its condition and the predictions provided, the conservators and other professionals will have the ability to identify areas that need attention more easily and plan the most effective and efficient course of action.

XR Application

A Virtual Reality application can visualize the full potentials of the SINCERE 7D H-DT platform and facilitate the Built Cultural Heritage (BCH) management throughout the entire life cycle, including live data from IoT, DSS, BIM and 3D models.

The SINCERE VR app will display also live data from IoT, DSS, BIM and 3D models (point clouds, or 3D meshes in open standards) which will be homogenised in the H-DT Visualization of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) files. It will also enable the professional users to go into a common VR scenario simultaneously and interact with the environment.

Climate Modelling

Within the SINCERE project high-resolution climate projections at CH site level from the CMIP6 SSP scenarios will be used. A statistical downscaling approach based on ML/AI models with bias correction to reduce uncertainties and provide enhanced capabilities for extreme events scenarios will be implemented to generate reliable and trustworthy climate models and pertinent scenarios.

A novel element of SINCERE is that it will address compound climate events to Cultural Heritage (CH) making a quantum leap forward in precisely capturing the multi-variate climate factors that impact the site degradation. The climate impacts on the CH site will be determined through an elaborate approach that will start from an extensive bibliometric review leading to the determination, by the SINCERE stakeholders, of the selection of suitable CH degradation modes for the selected sites. The selected impact models will be further validated and quantified using data from historical observations and IoT sensors, which will be used to derive customized impact models.

A novel feature of SINCERE is the introduction of the synergistic climate risk uncertainty in this process, which can be induced from the climate projections and the impact assessment approaches. These climate projections – impact models will be then coupled to determine the projected climate risks in the different future horizons, considering the induced uncertainty, and also be fed into the project’s H-DT for providing early warning signals towards the stakeholders.

Design Tools

Multiphysics and multiscale computer-modelling of cementitious composites is an advanced approach to optimize the performance and sustainability of concrete structures. In SINCERE, advanced computer models will be developed to predict and understand the thermal, hygric and mechanical performance of the repair composites developed within the project. This will include the prediction of

(i) the thermal behaviour composites with Phase Changing Materials (PCMs), that is, building materials that enhance energy efficiency by storing and releasing heat through the melting and solidifying of embedded substances at specific temperatures, and

(ii) the shrinkage behaviour of low-carbon repair composites. Predictions from these accurate models, together with the results of laboratory experiments, will serve as a base for the definition of fast-running, data-driven predictive tools.

These will enable fast estimation of material performance for a given mix design, hence informing the design of repair interventions.