Digital surveying for historic buildings repair and maintenance: two demonstration projects from Scotland's built heritage

Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, Scott McGibbon, Ying Liang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Scotland’s built heritage (pre-1919 residential and non-residential building stock) is exhibiting varying levels of disrepair caused by continual neglect and poor practice, in particular for stonemasonry works. The nature of historic buildings Repair and Maintenance (R&M) is increasingly complex and necessitates a multidisciplinary approach, yet current surveying practices tend to be ad-hoc and unstructured. This paper thus reports on the application of digital surveying (an e-Condition report -upheld in a common project repository- and deployment of relevant digital technologies, such as laser scanning and thermography) on 2 live demonstration projects in the Glasgow area in Scotland. We argue that digital surveying facilitates multi-disciplinary collaboration for buildings’ R&M and providing value for money to the client. An e-Condition report provides a structured approach for capturing objective data on buildings thereby informing timely and cost-effective repairs. The deployment of laser scanning resulted in up to 30% in time and cost savings compared to traditional surveying methods. We also report on our future plans (work-in-progress) that involves the development of an App prototype for the e-Condition report. We envisage the App to facilitate the scalability of data capturing whereby data analytics could be employed for informing timely repairs of historic buildings. Failure to provide timely repairs for buildings endangers the historic value of Scotland’s built heritage.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHeritage 2018
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 6th International Conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development
Place of PublicationGranada
PublisherGreen Lines Institute for Sustainable Development
Publication statusPublished - 12 Jun 2018

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