States of knowledge: a basis for spatio-temporal model of cultural heritage information

Modelling cultural heritage information is a common requirement when considering heritage
documentation. The digital documentation is now considered as the first step to heritage conser15
vation. The replication of a geographical information model to cultural heritage information is
not trivial. Most of proposed spatio-temporal information models do not encompass the diversity
of some complex situations encountered in heritage documentation. This diversity remains both
on the strong relation of heritage information with time and the necessity for researchers to
record not only physical remains but also the planned projects that may never occurred or vir20
tually reconstructed objects for which geometric information is incomplete. In this paper we
propose a spatio-temporal information model that considers heritage objects that existed in the
past, continue to exist, were planned or planned and never realized. This diversity is of a high
importance for heritage research where the relationships between actual space and past states of
planned project is their main concern. The developed model is based on the distinction between
the existence, the physical realization and the geometrical definition of modelled objects. The
proposed model defines the concept of state knowledge which is a cumulative representation of
the documented information related to build heritage.
2012 ACM Subject Classification Information systems