Central to the entire discipline of heritage restoration and conservation is the concept of information management. Nevertheless, traditionally, conservation and restoration has been a poorly documented discipline, which has led not only to a lack of standardization and awareness about the processes carried out in the past, but also poses problems both when new restoration works are necessary and for the preventive conservation of the elements of heritage. This study sets out to propose a conceptual framework to explore the relationship between conservation of heritage and information management on the basis of case studies; in particular: a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) of a regional government concerning an endangered plant (wild grapevine) with an important potential for cultural and touristic uses in a wine-making region; an open data guide—the Digital Guide of Andalusian Cultural Heritage; a university repository connected to Europeana, which contains reports and outcomes of projects of geometric documentation of elements of heritage; a repository of an organization in charge of the protection and care of the heritage; and finally, two examples of the use of heritage building information models (HBIM) in complex monuments. After discussing the characteristics of each case, this paper concludes that, although the availability of information and tools is growing, further progress is still necessary concerning the interoperability, outreach and reuse of the different solutions.

During the last decade, we have witnessed an increased interest in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), including the so-called “Historical GIS”, 3D GIS heritage and its subcategory of “SDI for cultural heritage”. Specific literature reviews, gathering and analysing the scientific production for Culture Heritage and GIS based research questions, are currently lacking. Therefore, the overall goal of this article is to provide an objective summary of the current state-of-the-art concerning how GIS has been used and what methods and analysis have been applied in the field of cultural heritage. In this sense, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of the literature on the application of GIS in cultural heritage is carried out. To do so, the WOS and Scopus databases were considered. The results show that the dominant application of GIS is in the realisation of inventory and cataloguing of archaeological and architectural heritage. As a result of the quantitative analysis, we also verify the principal sources in which most studies have been published, highlighting the “ISPRS Archives” with 14 publications, the “Lecture Notes in Computer Science” with 9, and “Proceedings of Digital Heritage” with 6 publications. These data show that the sources that most publish mainly belong to the field of IT and Computer Science. In addition, the SLR shows that in the last three years there has been a greater tendency to use GIS to solve more specific problems of heritage through its use in conjunction with other tools such as BIM and photogrammetry.

The current digital technologies development makes it possible to apply new forms of studying historical events considering the geographical point of view. They rely on the location and the relationships among the different elements that took part in them over a recreated space (e.g. relief, roads, rivers); once these elements have been laid out on the virtual space, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to analyse several factors, such as distances, visibility, connectivity and so on. Nevertheless, the development of the actions was also driven by the aims, needs and beliefs (either wise or misguided) of the people/actors involved in those situations; therefore, some ways of including reasoning would significantly improve the actual recreation and understanding of the episodes. In this sense, “linear programming” is a very versatile tool for system modelling and optimization that is broadly used in many fields (e.g. industry, transports, agriculture, etc.). Likewise, this technique can also be applied to past scenarios to simulate dynamics and cross-check sources. In this text, two models regarding the distribution and the allocation of supplies during the siege of Bilbao, in the framework of the Third Carlist War (1872-1876), from both parties —beleaguerer and besieged— were established based on the war front textual reports. In these models, the scenario is recreated through the system variables (which define the alternatives that can be or could have been taken) and the constraints (which limit the range of action); moreover, the actors’ goals that guided the course of events are defined by the objective. Despite the simplification in the modelling, the results show very interesting hints about the dynamics involved during the processes and are able to highlight some critical issues that significantly conditioned the final results. Besides, the modelling process itself proved to be an opportunity for collaboration between historians and computer scientists.Highlights:Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow studying past events through the recreation of the geographical space and the interactions between the elements.Linear programming can be a suitable option to include actors’ reasoning as a part of the modelling process.The usefulness of the system models also enables the identification of critical issues, testing alternative scenarios and sharing information.

This article examines the implementation of the Conceptual Reference Model of the International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC CRM) in cultural heritage by performing a systematic review of the literature. We have analysed publications that describe one or more case studies, collections, archives and so on concerning the implementation of the CIDOC CRM. Among other aims, the review sought to identify the heritage categories in which the CIDOC CRM is usually implemented; the degree to which the studies are accessible to humanist readers; whether extensions or new ontologies models have been proposed; whether new tools have had to be created for the implementation; and whether the published studies have included a quantitative or qualitative analysis of the implementation. The results suggest a much greater degree of implementation in movable heritage and low application in intangible heritage. They also suggest that most of the published studies demand an advanced level of computer literacy from readers, which somewhat hinders access by humanist professionals and researchers, thus deterring their collaboration and/or interest. Furthermore, the results indicate that one-third of the studies developed a full or complete extension to the CIDOC CRM and that in approximately half of the studies a new tool was developed and created for the purpose pursued in a specific project or by a specific institution. Following a review of the literature, the article presents a series of considerations and recommendations for future lines of work with a view to extending the implementation of the CIDOC CRM in the cultural heritage sector and contributing to the construction of a more integrated information infrastructure ecosystem.

The use of geospatial technologies to identify and document architectural heritage, with the associated benefits for managing information, is already relatively widespread. However, there has been little discussion about the difficulties, decision-making process and problems encountered when using GIS to digitize data, identify and document this heritage. This study sets out to propose a conceptual work to explore the relationship between immovable industrial heritage documentation and GIS application on the basis of case studies, in particular: the identification and documentation of the industrial heritage in the Eurocity of Guadiana and the olive mills in Écija. After discussing the workflow developed, the difficulties and problems encountered, and how these determine the structure of the GIS model, the decision-making process and the results, this paper concludes that further progress is still necessary to acquire a more pragmatic vision of the use of GIS in the field of industrial archaeology.