Monitoring Object and Visitor Environments (MOVE)

Museums are repositories for our cultural heritage and are responsible for the care of precious collections for the benefit of present and future generations. Key to this stewardship role is the management of indoor conditions to prevent deterioration of vulnerable objects. Preventive control measures are required to keep the indoor climate within conservation limits by maintaining environmental conditions within certain parameters and by minimising environmental fluctuations. Visitors and staff also demand excellent thermal comfort, access to natural light and good air quality to enable them to access these collections. Conflicting environmental requirements often require a degree of compromise, and managing these environmental demands will become ever more challenging for museums as the impact of climate change leads to more frequent extreme weather conditions. Where environmental control and management systems in museums fail to respond to adverse and unstable climatic conditions vulnerable artefacts will inevitably deteriorate, and the need to accurately monitor microclimatic variations over time is fundamental to good museum practice.

The safe preservation of cultural heritage is an essential mission of Egyptian museums where some of the world's most ancient and valuable artefacts are conserved (Ingo et al, 2015). The lack of environmental control programmes in the region is generally attributed to resource limitations and skills shortages, which often result in compromised indoor environmental quality leading to the accelerated deterioration of vulnerable objects. These risks can be mitigated with adequate knowledge of the indoor environmental parameters required for collections care and with robust and accurate monitoring programmes. New user-friendly methods of monitoring using cutting-edge technology are needed if Egyptian museums are to take action in response to changing external conditions and reduce the threat of damage to artefacts from extreme weather patterns.

Our research project proposes to develop a visual live environmental dashboard of digital data that is aimed at assisting museum curators in achieving stable and controlled indoor conditions to address seasonal variations and unpredictable weather patterns. The project will contribute a new application for the use of real-time environmental data as a means of supporting actions to reduce risks to artefacts and improve comfort in visitor areas. A key principle of the digital platform will be its ease of use. One case study museum in Salford, UK and two in Cairo, Egypt, will provide the basis for prototyping the dashboard. Internal environmental parameters recorded at each site will be used to assess the performance of the case studies against relevant conservation requirements, comfort standards and energy benchmarks, and to develop a user-friendly prototype sensor management live dashboard that can be replicated in other museums across Egypt. The proposed dashboard will provide accurate measurements of a range of criteria including exposure and illumination in natural and artificial light, pollution levels (CO2 and dust particles), relative humidity, solar ultraviolet radiation, internal operative and air temperature, external temperature, and energy use figures. In-situ detailed live monitoring of this environmental data will inform decision-makers and staff on curation, exhibition design and safe storage environments while optimising consumption of resources.

The current Egyptian cultural strategy aims to develop the capacity to display its large reserves of heritage and artefacts. The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is an excellent example to achieve this objective. Cutting edge display technologies, indoor environment instant monitoring systems, and robust management protocols are essential components of a contemporary museum that preserve the artefacts as well as improving the users' satisfaction. The MOVE (Monitoring Object and Visitor Environments) project aims to develop a visual digital live environmental dashboard that aims at assisting museums curators in achieving stable indoor conditions at various seasons and weather patterns. This instant monitoring and visualisation of environmental factors will enable careful setting of variables that ensure maximum protection of artefacts.

The MOVE project brings together various stakeholders including academic institutions (the University of Ain Shams in Egypt, the Universities of Salford and Portsmouth in the UK), governmental actors such as the GEM - Conservation Centre GEM-CC, and Salford Museum. Bringing together academics, curators, technicians and managers of museums enriches the exchange of ideas and ensures practical application of academic and cutting edge knowledge.

The current ambitious museum strategy in Egypt requires growth and upskilling of human resources. MOVE will encourage and facilitate the participation of personnel and trainees in this endeavour. The project will develop training and learning courses for wider distribution on local, regional, and national levels; ensuring continuous capacity-building and offering access to expertise, and promoting industrial partnership. The project will also have wider impact for staff upskilling in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Due to similar climatic, culture, and human resources conditions, museums across the MENA region would be able to benefit from the development of the monitoring dashboard, creating a sustainable and concrete vision and training networks across the region.

MOVE will disseminate the outcomes of the project to a wide audience of stakeholders in academia, research, governmental institutions and enterprise. The planned exploitation strategy ensures internal and external dissemination of the project outcomes at four levels of dissemination: awareness, information, engagement, and action. These dissemination levels are carefully planned and are outlined in the relevant work packages of the project. Raising public awareness of the project is planned to take place with the preliminary kick-off event through a number of tools. A website will be launched in the early stage of the project, providing background information and tracks the progress of the project objectives.

Through the collaborative work, data sharing, visits and training of the academic and research staff, partners will have the opportunity to disseminate the knowledge and experience acquired to colleagues at their institutions and gather constructive feedback through seminars and workshops. Trained museum staff will also have the opportunity to cascade the acquired knowledge to other fellows in their cohorts through conferences, discussion groups, voluntary work, and sharing material acquired from their training.

The continuous alignment and benchmarking of the MOVE project with UK standards will guarantee a high quality transfer of knowledge and training. The training will not be limited to staff employed in the selected case studies but will be further extended to include staff from more museums across Egypt.
The final planned international conference will be the apex of the dissemination plan of the project. The conference will provide opportunities for creation of further global networks and exchange of knowledge and expertise in the area of preservation of cultural heritage.