Heritage Conservation Future: Where We Stand, Challenges Ahead, and a Paradigm Shift

Abstract

Global cultural heritage is a lucrative asset. It is an important industry generating millions of jobs and billions of euros in revenue yearly. However, despite the tremendous economic and socio-cultural benefits, little attention is usually paid to its conservation and to developing innovative big-picture strategies to modernize its professional field. This perspective aims to compile some of the relevant current global needs to explore alternative ways for shaping future steps associated with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. From this perspective, it is conceptualized how emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and digital socio-technological models of production based on democratic Peer-2-Peer (P2P) interactions can represent an alternative transformative solution by going beyond the current global communication and technical limitations in the heritage conservation community, while also providing novel digital tools to conservation practitioners, which can truly revolutionize the conservation decision-making process and improve global conservation standards.