Knowledge, Diagnostics and Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Most of the worldwide cultural heritage is in Italy, giving us the duty to preserve this heritage in the

frame of a sustainable development. The safeguard of cultural heritage must be ensured for future generations not only in reason of the cultural identity of the population it represents, but also because cultural heritage is a driving force of the economy, especially in a period of economic global crisis.

This challenge is not easy. Both in the past and recently, cultural heritage was seriously damaged due to different causes. The natural aging process is worsened by the combined effects of air pollution and the ‘normal’ impact of visitors and tourists, as well as by the absence of adequate maintenance and natural disasters such as earthquakes..

Fortunately, nowadays new technologies offer effective tools for a wide range of analyses related to the knowledge and diagnosis, modelling, evaluation on the one hand, and those related to restoring and improving interventions on the other.

The multidisciplinary approach is the basis of the ENEA intervention in the cultural heritage. More than 1500

diagnostic interventions on historical structures and objects of art in collaboration with Restorers, Art Historian, Archaeologists and officials of the Italian

Ministry of Culture have been carried out in the past few years.

This special issue of the ENEA Magazine gives a brief overview of some activities performed by ENEA in the knowledge, diagnosis and preservation of cultural heritage. It is organized in three sections.

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