Resilient cultural heritage through digital cultural heritage cube: Two cases in South Korea

Recent developments in geospatial information technology have prompted researchers to utilise geospatial information for decision making in disaster situations. Cultural properties should be preserved because they reflect the local characteristics and knowledge of their creators. Therefore, damaged cultural properties, which are difficult to restore, should be among the first considerations in a disaster situation. In this paper, we propose a method for using geospatial information to promote cultural heritage resilience with respect to disasters. Images from satellites, drones, and terrestrial sensors are available in various forms and provide various types of information. The acquired data can be formed into a digital cultural heritage cube, which enables timely access to any desired data. Additional information can be derived from the accumulated data through image fusion processes and the ancestors’ knowledge encapsulated in cultural properties. To verify this, we explored two disasters—arson and forest fires—in Korea. We concluded that, if the proposed method is applied to cultural properties, the damage to culture assets can be minimised and their resilience can be enhanced.