Recording the physical characteristics of historic places and landscapes is a cornerstone of preventive maintenance, monitoring and conservation. The information produced by such work guides decision-making by property owners, site managers, public officials, and conservators. Rigorous documentation may also serve a broader purpose: over time, it becomes the primary means by which scholars and the public apprehend a site that has since changed radically or disappeared.

With this in mind, CIPA was founded in 1968 jointly with ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) to facilitate the transfer of technology from the measurement sciences into the heritage documentation and recording disciplines. CIPA’s mission is to encourage the development of principles and practices for the recording, documentation and information management for all aspects of cultural heritage; and to support and encourage the development of specialized tools and techniques in support of these activities.

We are pleased to invite you to participate in CIPA2017, the 26th biennial symposium, being held from August 28 to September 1, 2017, in Ottawa, Canada. CIPA2017 will focus on Digital Workflows for Conservation.

The rapid rise in new digital technologies has revolutionized the practice of recording heritage places. Digital tools and media offer a myriad of new opportunities for collecting, analyzing and disseminating information about heritage sites. With new opportunities, there are also conflicts, and an intense effort to incorporate digital media into the education of conservation professionals. Issues regarding the proper, innovative and research-focused uses of digital media in heritage conservation are urgent topics in the global heritage conservation field, and CIPA and its partners have played a leading role in this area of cross-disciplinary research and practice. The symposium will offer a unique opportunity for educators, professionals, heritage institutions, and managers of heritage places to share, exchange, and explore new approaches, best practices, and research results in the area of these workflows.

Contributions in the form of papers and posters are invited for the following forums:

  • Identifying Heritage places for posterity and preparedness: this track will deal with issues concerning heritage inventories, documenting cultural landscapes, risk preparedness and emergency recording.
  • Digitizing heritage places: this track will focus on techniques for capturing (or mapping) detailed physical characteristics of historic structures (e.g. Airborne and terrestrial 3D scanning – Photogrammetry, Mobile sensors – UAV – Sensor and data fusion).
  • Managing, valourizing and disseminating heritage information: this track will deal with the use of advanced information systems, such as building information modelling (BIM), coupling life cycle assessment with BIM, real-time simulation, geographic information system (GIS) and augmented reality applications.
  • Monitoring, simulation and resilience: this track will deal with issues of building simulation to assess the impact of design, rehabilitation and retrofit options using computer-assisted approaches. Also dealing with preparedness, conflict and post conflict, Prevention, maintenance and monitoring policies, Non-destructive diagnosis tools and treatment for assessing heritage monuments and places, Building sciences sensors for energy simulation, and structural diagnostics and risk assessment.
  • Assisted fabrication of artifacts for posterity and conservation: this track will deal with the digitization and fabrication of artifacts from heritage places for the purpose of conservation(e.g.. 3D printing – assisted fabrication – reconstruction)
  • Rehabilitating heritage places: this track will focus on approaches to building condition assessments (building envelope, materials deterioration and structural integrity), designing monitoring strategies and the implementation of effective rehabilitation mitigation strategies for conservation. As well as, Marine heritage and Cultural heritage of war.
  • Special Sessions: this track will focus on emerging topics, such as Digitizing World Heritage Sites, Teaching and learning, and Intangible Cultural Heritage. As well as, International cooperation and large projects for heritage documentation and conservation.

The symposium will provide a platform for professionals, site managers and researchers to showcase their work and obtain feedback from knowledgeable symposium attendees.

The targeted audience consists of professionals involved in heritage conservation practice (architects, engineers, landscape architects, archaeologists, conservators, and ), as well as, researchers, educators, historians, archivists, librarians, museologist and students. Oral presentations will be limited to 20 minutes each and will address the Why, When, Where, What and How (in that order of importance) of digital workflows. Papers can address the conservation of any aspect of the entire spectrum of the built environment.

Speaker’s and poster contributions should clearly provide:

  • Why: the need(s) or issue(s) being addressed;
  • Where or Context: the site or application background;
  • What: the type of heritage resource being documented (eg. a historic building, an archaeological site, an artifact, etc);
  • When: to which step in the heritage conservation process has the digital workflow been applied (eg. analysis, diagnosis, dissemination, therapy or control);
  • How: the digital workflow that has been applied to address the “Why”;
  • Effectiveness: the results and assessment of the approach; and Lessons learned.

On August 27, CIPA Ottawa will be organizing a number of important workshops, this include (registration deadline July 14, 2017):

Important dates:

  • Extended to 24 February 2017 – deadline to submit extended abstracts and full papers
  • 30 April 2017: Notification of Extended Abstract and Full Papers acceptance (Paper or Poster)
  • May 30th, 2017: Deadline to submit If your paper has been accepted to be published in the ISPRS Annals (Double blind peer review)
  • 15 June 2017: Deadline to upload papers from the accepted papers and extended abstracts (ISPRS Archives and revised Annals)
  • Symposium: August 28 – September 1, 2017

Looking forward for your contribution and participation