23 May 2020
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The organisers of a project that aims to use past photos of historic sites for conservation monitoring purposes is inviting people to get involved by looking through their image collections.
Monument Monitor is a collaborative research project between Historic Environment Scotland and University College London that aims to assess how visitor photographs of its properties can inform its site conservation and monitoring efforts.
The purpose of the research is to establish to what extent visitors’ images can be used for conservation monitoring. The team hope to monitor things such as:
- discolouration and algae growth on stone
- erosion of peat caps of walls and forts
- water damage, vandalism and littering
In addition, the collected data will be used to help the team understand how visitors experience the sites. It is hoped the work will lead on to an innovative way for Historic Environment Scotland to monitor their remote properties.
Since the start of the project last summer, more than 2,800 photos have been submitted, and the aim is to collect around 12,000 images by the end of this year.
What images do the team need?
Project lead Rosie Brigham is particularly hoping to source past images of:
- Machrie
- Clava
- Achnabrech
- Ness of Burgi (an Iron Age fort on the southernmost tip of Shetland mainland)
- Tarves Tomb (Or The Tolquhon Tomb)
- Caerlaverock Castle
- Loch Doon Castle
Computer vision will be used to automatically tag and place the images, which helps with the initial sorting of the images.
Images for Machrie are tagged according to how much ground water is evident in the image. This is then mapped onto weather patterns at the time, which has helped researchers build a good idea of how each site responds to different ‘weather events’ such as storms, droughts etc.
Monument Monitor is also using AI tools to measure things such as ground erosion and biological growth across a number of different sites.
If you can help, please e-mail Rosie Brigham. Visit the project website here.
