CC BY
0THE NEW TECHNOLOGY APPROACHES FOR THE SUITABILITY OF CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION
Mohamed Mohamed Abdelsalam Ibrahim
Inspector of Archaeology, Ministry of tourism and antiquities - Alexandria, Egypt https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11220658
Abstract. Cultural heritage is the most important thing to be conserved that will let the communities and the cultural diversity to stay and give its historical heritage. The development of the artificial intelligence technology has created new and modern methods of the conservation of cultural heritage which are not just effective but also modern. This paper presents the main areas of application of artificial intelligence in the problems of the cloud generation by the aircraft on the cultural heritage, archaeological sites, and architecture. The technologies of the artificial intelligence are now the main ones in the digitization, documentation, analysis, restoration and preservation of the cultural objects and historical sites. AI-assisted solutions can be utilized for controlling the aircraft-generated clouds and the reduction of the environmental impacts of them. Moreover, the artificial intelligence algorithms are the main force for the identification and assessment of the potential danger that is produced by the clouds that are formed by the aircraft. AI helps experts to recognize images and patterns which in return they use for the preservation of the sensitive works of art, the artifacts and the architectural structures. In addition, the AI-aided technology is also involved in the protection of archaeological sites through the environmental monitoring that detect the temperature changes, humidity fluctuations and air pollution around the cultural sites. The live data of the events in this area facilitates the proactive measures that can be implemented to reduce the environmental impact and, at the same time, to safeguard the integrity of these sites.
The application of AI in the areas of aircraft clouds affecting cultural heritage and archaeological sites is an evidence that technological advancements are being made in the field of heritage preservation. This paper aims at delivering a more sustainable solution to preserve archaeological sites and cultural heritage through some recommendations that help solve the problem through artificial intelligence techniques.
Keywords: Contrails, aircraft, climate change, air pollution, emissions, cultural heritage, modern technology, artificial intelligence, protection.
1. INTRODUCTION
Archaeological sites and its museums, structures consignation, represent the center of the cultural heritage of the whole world historical resource or exhibiting processes etc. These are the things, which are full of surprises for us, or the things, which took place long back, and the subj ects, which still witness the downfall of the old civilization of the past and symbols of mighty empires that belonged to humankind, which is fun to know the story. Nevertheless, they are often exposed to the major risks of degradation and destruction as a result of the two process not a single one of them but that is a definition of environmental degradation which actually not only is caused by and inseparable from that process but also as a contributing factor of global warming, environmental contamination, as well as the development of humans and the transportation of goods. However, the maintenance of the status quo as an entity, as a complete unit, eliminates any possibility of difference between space areas, even while it does not seem to be subdivided and put into different places. The main mistake should go to that of every conservation regulation authority maintaining it through a measure that leads or unknowingly results to loss of nature also. The integration of innovations and proper applications of technologies such as AI are going to be the key solutions for this problem as plants and animals will still forever be essential in carrying out conservation tasks for tribal applications.
2. RESEARCH AND FINDINGS
2.1. The importance of preserving archaeological sites:
Preserving cultural heritage sites holds paramount importance in safeguarding civilizations' rich historical, artistic, and societal legacies for present and future generations. These sites, embodying the essence of human creativity and ingenuity, are invaluable repositories of identity, tradition, and knowledge. However, these precious cultural assets are susceptible to degradation and destruction in the face of rapid urbanization, environmental changes, natural disasters, and human activities. As a result, concerted efforts and interdisciplinary approaches are essential to devise effective preservation strategies that ensure the conservation and sustainable management of these sites.1
Archaeological sites are purported to be burying grounds of several human civilizations and they have a load of being just the one source to discover and write how the civilization has advanced and what legacy it leaves. However, these sites face a range of challenges and threats to destruction, the most important of which are:
a. Environmental impacts: The majority of archaeological sites that were now being or were to be excavated in different countries already experienced negative environmental effects caused by those global climate change, inundations, earthquakes, and seawater rise. They may be equally affected through tourism which may make drives around the sites of archeological ruins and pageantry in commemoration of ancestors.
b. Natural degradation: Deteriorate factors which include air and water contamination, chemical decay and some other reasons will be the element that causes monument decay in many sectors of heritage sites such facilitation of rock collapse. Just like that, the reason for antiquity site destruction is the fact it is destructive/violently or their slow progressive corrosion.
1 Akyol, Gamze & Avci, Ali Berkay. (2023). AI APPLICATIONS IN CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION: TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS FOR THE CONSERVATION. 10.6084/m9.figshare.24077862.
c. Human factors: Modern age already had brought out the identity of archaeological sites. The danger for those sites exists in so many different forms: erosion, pollution, theft, and vandalism that may destroy them. Doing such activities, which are the major actor in erasing the remains of the past, is the key factor in how much citrine is in the monuments. The article also has a tab that describes the importance of the conservation of the dig ground's heritage and integrity of technology. Additionally AI's role is analyzed too.
2.2. What are contrails?
Contrails are line-shaped clouds or "condensation trails," composed of ice particles, that are visible behind jet aircraft engines, typically at cruise altitudes in the upper atmosphere. Contrails have been a normal effect of jet aviation since its earliest days. Depending on the temperature and the amount of moisture in the air at the aircraft altitude, con trails evaporate quickly (if the humidity is low) or persist and grow (if the humidity is high). Jet engine exhaust provides only a small portion of the water that forms ice in persistent contrails. Persistent contrails are mainly composed of water naturally present along the aircraft flight path.
2.3. How are aircraft emissions linked to contrail formation?
Aircraft engines emit water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), small amounts of nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulfur gases, and soot and metal particles formed by the high-temperature combustion of jet fuel during flight. Of these emittants, only water vapor is necessary for contrail formation. Sulfur gases are also of potential interest because they lead to the formation of small particles. Particles suitable for water droplet formation are necessary for contrail formation. Initial contrail particles, however, can either be already present in the atmosphere or formed in the exhaust gas. All other engine emissions are considered nonessential to contrail formation.2 2.3.1. Challenges arising from the impact of airlines and climate change:
The climate impact of air traffic is to a large degree caused by changes in cirrus cloudiness resulting from the formation of contrails. Contrail cirrus radiative forcing is expected to increase significantly over time due to the large projected increases in air traffic.3 a) Air pollution and sediment on archaeological sites: Air pollution can have a significant impact on stone materials used in monuments, buildings, and sculptures. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides are particularly harmful pollutants, especially in carbonate stones. These oxides, reacting with moisture in the air, result in the formation of acids able to erode the stone surface and gradually compromise its structural integrity. The acids can also combine with airborne particulate matter, heavy metals, and salts, leading to the development of black crusts. These not only have detrimental effects on the stone's integrity but also affect the original appearance of the surfaces, threatening the conservation of important monuments and buildings. This review discusses the characteristics of black crusts and their relation to the environment and stone materials4. The deposition of these pollutants will alter the effects and archaeological sites thereby
2 United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2000). Aircraft Contrails Factsheet. Retrieved from the U.S. EPA.
3 Bock, L. and Burkhardt, U.: Contrail cirrus radiative forcing for future air traffic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8163 -8174, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8163-2019, 2019.
4 Ruffolo, Silvestro & La Russa, Mauro & Rovella, Natalia & Ricca, Michela. (2023). The Impact of Air Pollution on Stone Materials. Environments. 10. 119. 10.3390/environments10070119.
changing the colour, damaging the surface and thus, reducing their ability to maintain the exact details.
b) Impact of biological and chemical degradation on archaeological materials: This effect of air traffic actually generates more contrails than before, and it leads to considerable changes in cirrus cloudiness overhead. The relative imposition imposed by contrails cirrus is anticipated to grow with time proportional to the notable rise of air traffic over the world.
c) The effect of physical and mechanical degradation on monuments: The blasting degrees of solar light and the temperature and humidity haves changes caused by this moving airplane that have breakdown of this monument surface are the main reasons to be conscientious of. As well, the physical structure of the archaeological site may be altered by the aircraft flyovers straight to it and the vibrations this produce may cause fractures of elements and even damage the structure.
d) Increased number of flights and interference with archaeological sites: The surroundings of our planet are becoming more and more polluted with the rise in air traffic, leading to the enlargement of the overlap: the flights of planes and archaeological sites as well as the following danger of destruction and damage of these historical spots.
In the last part of the article, the author will also give some points on how to apply artificial intelligence to these tasks and to effectively save archaeological sites.
2.4. Air pollution and deposition on effects:
a) The airline environmental pollution includes a wide range of factors as aircraft releases the Volatile oil pollutants and carbon emissions as another major source. You can consider this sort of contaminants as nitrogen oxide (N2O), sulphur or micro particle gases that are spread to the traces or archaeological sites and this impacts negatively the their quality and appearance.
b) Sites are affected by the dust layer on each artefact and stone, thus the materials colour change and their surface are stained with the dust layer that is usually black and unappealing. In addition, plants and trees surrounding archaeological sites may be affected by contaminated air depositions, leading to the death of plants and changes in the surrounding ecosystem.
2.5. Impact of biological and chemical degradation on archaeological materials:
a) The sedimentation of dirty air negatively affects many marine organisms by encouraging the growth of algae, fungus and harmful microbes. These types of microorganisms could be the reason for the degradation of organic mammoth materials like wood, fabric and skins.
b) The air containing chemicals of the contaminated sediments can react with archaeological materials in their molecular level causing the material to degrade thus, altering the chemical and physical properties noticed.
c) Our monuments and historical remnants may be threatened by the effect of physical and chemical breakdown on the archaeological materials. This will result in destroying the heritage of those monuments and sites that make it impossible to uphold the cultural and historical ties of the sites. This gives an impression that not only the air pollution but also the biological and chemical impact risks could contribute to the degradation of the
archaeological materials that be considered as an eventual loss of the cultural and historical value.
Hence, the aircraft exhausts contamination result in degradation of environment and discoloration of archaeological sites, which has to act upon by legislators or other stakeholders to make sure the valuable cultural and environmental assets stay preserved.
2.6. The role of artificial intelligence technology in the preservation of archaeological sites:
a) Observation and analysis of environmental and climate changes:
The procedure in which A.I technologies could be employed to either survey and analyse a weather change and climate which would alter the physical form of an archaeological site form one thing to another could be done. As an example, aerial images and ground optical technologies which are used for overlooking how is the process of climate change entering the water and soil of the selected archaeological site.
b) Detecting the potential damage, and then taking preventive steps:
AI in this case may watch for and hence benefit from possible environmental issues emerging and changing the archaeological sites making them rust, corroded or heated. Research carried in relation to this matter will serve as a guide for action in terms of the procuring of the best mitigation measures and excavation methods that are safe for the preservation of the sites.
c) Approach data mining and prescription of automated decision-making framework:
AI digital mining tools give the expert an opportunity to identify variables in their bad influence on the cultural heritage state if the expert will use them on large-scale archaeological data.
First but not last, the AI can be regarded as a technology that does not only shows its efficiency in solving emergency problem (like the challenges of adapting to changes in the environment (i.e., warms, floods) among others, but also it tells of what damage may likely occurs and analyses/reads big data.
2.7. Using AI to Mitigate Aircraft Exhausts and Protect the Environment
Google has many possibilities that can be used to control aircraft exhausts and to preserve the environment and archaeological sites. It often happens that while flying very high, we see momentarily streaks, which are then rolling behind aircraft and called tail stream. The fact that aircraft trail unusual contrails becomes so important that it influences the world climate in its fullest capacity. The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2022 sees that clouds formed through the contrails make up for one-third (around 35%) of the Global radiative forcing, which has arisen from aviation. In contrast, people travel with Avia and contribute to the growing problem of jet fuel emissions (a growth in aviation jet fuel emissions that burns around 2.5% more than the worldwide jet fuel used in the same period), which mean a sizeable impact to global warming. For the creation and examination of arrays of contrails that pilots can avoid, Google Research, American Airlines, and Breakthrough Energy established a collaboration between them. They gathered hundreds of gigabytes of data, including satellite imagery, weather data, and flight paths. Next, AI was utilized to forecast conditional contrail probabilities in the form of maps. • Reducing the warming impact of contrails
A group of pilots at American flew 70 test flights over six months while using Google's AI-based predictions, cross-referenced with Breakthrough Energy's open-source contrail models, to avoid altitudes that are likely to create contrails. After these test flights, we analyzed satellite
imagery and found that the pilots were able to reduce contrails by 54%. This is the first proof point that commercial flights can verifiably avoid contrails and thereby reduce their climate impact.5
Visual explanation of nighttime and daytime contrail radiative effects. Nighttime contrails are often more warming
Google's Environmental Innovation: Monitoring, Analysis, and Preservation for a Sustainable Future:
1) Atmospheric sensing technology:
Google has various tools and apps for environments that monitor air quality, all of which translate into the use of Google Earth, Google Street View and similar atlas creation. The use of these techniques allows us to detect the rate of contamination by harmful gases and exhausts produced by aircraft at any particular point and allows us to use these data for analysis of where it is necessary to intervene to preserve the environment and the archaeological places.
2) Artificial IQ applications and auto-learning:
Proposed Google stratagem combines highly developed applications of machine learning including self-learning in a research performed at remote areas. These methods may be employed for identifying the route of aircrafts over the area and showing where the highest level of environmental impact is initiated, and that will be helpful for enacting management and interventions in order to preserve the natural environment and historical heritage places.
3) Collaboration with stakeholders:
The Google technology can build up communication link and alliance between the numerous environmental protection actors and the archaeological sites such as Governments and the environment and the archaeological protection organizations. With the help of the Google's various tools, we can unite the efforts in terms of data collection and data analysis, establish a common intent to reduce aircraft's fumes and preserve nature and cultural heritage. These abilities and techniques will gear up the technology of Google to contribute considerably to aircraft exhausts control and preservation of the environment
5 Google. (n.d.). Using AI to help airlines reduce contrails and fight climate change. Retrieved from https://blog.google/technology/ai/ai-airlines-contrails-climate-change/
and archaeological sites by monitoring and analysing data and indicating actions to take for preserving those natural and cultural sites that are in extant and will continue to be protected for the present and future community. • Lowering the effect of contrails on warming
US pilots took part in the dual role in this 70-flights testing over 6 months, and the testing was with the supervision of the Google AI tools which were combined with the Open-source modelling stage of contrails by Breakthrough Energy to avoid the altitude where the triggering contrails takes place. The data from the pictures of the satellites taken during the test flight were also impressive. It turned out that with the creation of 54% contrail there was a 90% reduction in contrail production. Therefore, it's going to prove latter is true that commercial aviation planes really do avoid leaving their patterns which when minimize their effect on the climate.
Our test with American also revealed an important finding: whereas the contrail formation occasioned an extra discharge of energy to the tune of 2% more than in the case of gasoline utilization. According to the last research findings, the entire climatic heating may miss the plane contrails only if the air travels are viewed from a rising point. Thus, a starting point of the whole fuel affects covering all flights as low margin as 0 for the airline that proceeds to passive biofuel campaign can be theoretically created. 3%.
Here we demonstrate airline can achieve a reduction of up to $5-25/ton CO2e by employing a different type of contrails and hence providing a cheaper method for warming reduction compared to industrial processes. Improvements are anticipated.
Contrails detected over the United States using AI and GOES-16 satellite imagery.
3. CONCLUSION
It is quite obvious that technology, such as digital technology and artificial intelligence, takes a pivotal role in preserving archaeological sites. Before now, the survey approaches have been mainly used for such purposes as gaining a deeper understanding of harmful dangers and climate on the one hand and developing effective measures that preserve cultural heritage and make cultural traditions beneficial to people both now and in the future.
Technologies are largely influencing the conservation movement intersection with methods of the past along with ensuing challenges like aviation and climate change. However, to have a breakthrough, the following is to be considered: development of new technology that will undoubtedly combat the impacts of aviation, cooperation amongst the scientists, cultural and
environmental awareness to improve our lives as well as international cooperation on the issues of technology and knowledge exchange.
Through this article, we find that Google's artificial intelligence techniques may contribute to reducing gas emissions from aircraft contrails, which may contribute to reducing environmental pollution and reducing global warming, which creates more sustainable solutions to preserve the environment and cultural heritage.
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