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.

The concept of mock-up, which share with the drawing the expressive synthesis for the analysis of the architectural form and evolution, is an invaluable asset for the preservation of the heritage. To mark the 175th anniversary of the Práxedes Mateo Sagasta’s secondary school of Logroño (Spain), an exhibition about the history of the institution was organized at the premises of La Rioja Library. The current school building became operational in 1900 and was built on the former site of a Carmelite convent. In fact, the convent rooms were the first location for the school, after the expropriations of religious communities during the mid-19th century. For the benefit of the aforementioned exhibition, it was considered interesting to generate a three-dimensional (3D) virtual reconstruction of the convent buildings to show how it would have looked. However, the lack of sufficient contemporary graphic information was a challenge, so it was decided that an efficient solution would be to generate the virtual reconstruction from a paper craft model, which had been created by the librarian of the secondary school as a result of his research on this matter. This text describes the 3D modelling of that cut-out element by means of monoscopic photogrammetry (perspective drawing) and the use of non-realistic rendering based on the appearance of the paper mock-up (and not trying to recreate the real image of the buildings) so as to provide a suggestive view of the convent and create interactive exhibition items. Moreover, the text deals with the long-term preservation and the improvement of the re-use of the 3D models. The former by resorting to institutional repositories —from which users can download the full detailed versions— and the latter employing versions able to be visualized in 3D warehouses (such as Sketchfab) and augmented reality (AR) applications.Highlights:A significant part of the architectural heritage is represented by mock-ups of different materials (paper, wood, metal and so on).Virtual modelling and augmented reality (AR) can be appropriate tools for materializing, recovering and disseminating scale models to the public.Techniques for geometric documentation and visual representation need to be adapted in order to tackle the peculiar features of these elements (size, materials, fragility, etc.).

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.

The lack of documentation regarding conservation-restoration works is a critical issue. This article emphasizes the impact of this deficiency on standardization and awareness of past processes, as well as on the development of new interventions and the implementation of preventive conservation plans; moreover, it sets forth an analysis of the current state, future trends, and potential of information management systems within the context of the concerns, needs, and professional practices in conservation-restoration. To achieve this, the work explores the retrieval, classification, contextualization, and interrelation of dispersed documents through the structuring of a database (DB) and proposes a conceptual framework that integrates three tools: a Catalogue of Document Typologies (CDT), a collaborative 3D workplace generated by Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM), and the semantic management through knowledge graphs—with a particular focus on how the information is generated as the result of specific actions defined and developed through projects. Next, it assesses whether the proposed technologies meet current conservation-restoration requirements, their additional features, and the challenges they present. To establish a scenario applicable to a broad range of heritage typologies, the implementation in the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, de Yuso (UNESCO World Heritage Site) is used as a case study. The results demonstrate the essential role of the CDT in structuring information within a project, the advantages of HBIM in data visualization and use, as well as in fostering collaboration among diverse disciplines and, ultimately, the advancement in formalizing knowledge through semantic management. Despite these favorable aspects, the research also highlights the need to enhance the interoperability, dissemination, and reuse of solutions to ensure their effectiveness. Finally, some training areas for conservation-restoration professionals are identified to leverage the benefits offered by these technological developments.

Architectural heritage documentation is a preliminary step to address any heritage conservation and management problem. However, data collection is often isolated resulting in lack of communication between different data types and incomplete documentation. This text examines the wide-ranging collection of technical and administrative documentation concerning to the successive conservation-restoration works carried out in the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla de Yuso (La Rioja, Spain) since its declaration as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997. The main objective is to propose a document management system which can support an efficient long-lasting safeguard and also allows new uses and additional values. This aim entails the consideration of information retrieval (when the documents are scattered across many archives), classification (a normalised and comprehensive classification chart is lacking for the documents generated in conservation-restoration), and description (a list of metadata needs to be benefit of future users and any other additional uses).

En el debate sobre el empleo de redes sociales y/o repositorios institucionales para difundir los trabajos e investigaciones relativos al patrimonio cabe incluir una reflexión sobre los modelos 3D. La existencia de plataformas comerciales específicas para el almacenamiento, visualización interactiva y descarga (gratuita o de pago) es, hoy por hoy, una actividad pujante, siendo un claro ejemplo de ello, Sketchfab®. Frente a esta línea de acción, los repositorios institucionales, así como los agregadores (como es el caso de Europeana) también están dando pasos en la dirección de considerar este tipo de documentos y aportar funcionalidad a los usuarios para que puedan localizarlos y reutilizarlos de manera conveniente. El presente texto, expone brevemente la situación de ambas líneas y reflexiona sobre las posibilidades de utilización combinada que, a nivel interno, puede emplear una organización cultural con el fin de obtener el máximo rendimiento.