“ BIM e gestione della conoscenza per la rappresentazione del patrimonio archeologico ” - “ BIM and knowledge management for archaeological heritage representation ”

The presented research aims at extending current Building Information Modelling (BIM) approach to built cultural and historical heritage in order to provide a modelling environment where all the knowledge related to the artefact can be integrated, formalized, managed and made available to the different professionals involved in the investigation and restoration processes. The representation of the knowledge related to the artifact deeply influences all the activities concerning restoring, conservation and maintenance. While in this area digital approaches have focused more on the development of virtual reconstructions of built heritage objects, few research explored the value of BIM in the management of heritage buildings. Similarly to its impact on the AEC sector, the introduction of BIM in the built heritage field can lead to interesting benefits related to the object representation by integrating in a single modelling environment its three-dimensional representation with non-geometric knowledge provided and used by the various actors involved in the process. The proposed system aims at improving the availability and accessibility of any information related to the archaeological artefact, making easier to interpret its nature, monitor its changes and document any investigation and intervention activity. To represent all the knowledge related to the object we chose to integrate BIM environment with a knowledge management system based on ontologies to reach a higher level of semantic representation. In order to test its effectiveness, the proposed model has been applied to the process of investigation and documentation of the roman temple of Castor and Pollux in Cori (Italy).