Learning from the past and preparing for the future: cases and tools for cultural heritage during disasters

Disasters affecting cultural heritage are one of the greatest threats to humanity; damaging or irreversibly destroying our collective memory. To increase the efficiency of response by utilizing digital technologies, this dissertation addresses three questions: What lessons can be learned from the past initiatives about crowdsourcing in cultural heritage during disasters? How do people respond on social media to cultural heritage affected during disasters? How can social media data be used for rapidly evaluating the situation on the ground when a disaster affects cultural heritage? The main body of this dissertation is in three distinct parts: the past, the present and the future. Firstly, to understand the efficient application of crowdsourcing in the past, this research analyses the case of the 1966 Florence Flood. The purpose is to understand people’s responses and motivations to recuse the cultural heritage damaged by the floods. Secondly, to understand the response to the cultural heritage damaged in present times, this dissertation analyses 201,457 tweets (including retweets) and 6,529 images posted on Twitter during the 2015 Nepal earthquake. The purpose is to understand the underlying themes and patterns in text and images of cultural heritage sites posted on Twitter. Lastly, this dissertation describes a method for early detection of disaster-related damage to cultural heritage based on data from social media. The findings of this research suggest that the notion of heritage and the approach towards heritage is context-dependent. The cases examined in this dissertation explore two kinds of disasters (flood and earthquake) which tremendously impacted cultural heritage in two different time periods and geographical locations. The difference in time and location provides an in-depth understanding of the overlapping patterns and the impact of technological changes in people’s response. This research contributes to a better understanding of the crowd and crowdsourcing for cultural heritage during disasters and promises to aid the experts by providing them with a tool for rapid post-disaster damage assessment.