Monumentenwacht Vlaanderen

MAKSin, a recording system for conservation assessments

Risk- and value-based priorty ranking in historic interiors

Monumentenwacht Vlaanderen vzw

Veerle Meul, advisor historic interiors

Inauguration Unesco Chair on Preventive Conservation, Maintenance and Monitoring of Monuments and SitesRaymond Lemaire International Center for Conservation, University of LouvainLouvain, Belgium, 24-25 March 2009

Conservation assessments of the historic interior

Condition survey

Currently

Visual survey, ‘quickscan’: material state and damage

Baseline (reference) report (benchmark)

Record of the extent and condition of an interior, damage

Preventive conservation assessment

Identification and assessment of agents of deterioration

10 agents of deterioration(CCI-ICC, Waller and ICCROM):

Fire Water Wrong relative humidity Wrong temperature Physical forces Light and radiation Pests Contaminants Dissociation/neglect Vandals and thieves

Problem

The report

Conservation assessment report:

Aim: document to support local conservation management planning

Recommendations with long list of activities Advice for housekeeping and cyclic maintenance planning,

mostly standard good-practice advices List of strategies to avoid, to detect, to block, or to mitigate

the effects of possible harmful agents Long list of remedial conservation activities, only those to be

done by specialists are ranked in order of urgency (ambiguous judgment by assessor)

Problem

Complexity

Selecting conservation priorities

What to do first?

Problem: methodology

Current state versus future loss

20092006

Problem

Current state versus future loss

2 months later…

Toolbox approach

Integrated methodologies

StatePast damage

On-goingDamage

ExposureSource

Environmental monitoring

ConsequenceAttackExposureCause

Damage assessment

Risk assessment Dosimetry & EWS Condition assessment

2007-2009: Project MAKSin

Tool: recording system

MAKSin Monumentenwacht

Decision-making matrix with 4 parameters:

RISK-based (principles ‘Cultural Heritage Risk Assessment’, as developed by ICCROM, CCI-ICC, CMN,

ICN)

A. Speed of continual decay processes; the frequency of incidents; probability of disasters

B. Effect of consequential damage of defects (condition survey) OR of future damage by the agents of deterioration (risk assessment)

C. Health and safety indicator

VALUE-based

D. Relative importance of the parts affected

Priority ranking

Decision-making matrix

End