WANDERLUST NEWS

AI is now being used to safeguard cultural sites by tracking damage in real-time AI is now being used to safeguard cultural sites by tracking damage in real-time

HeritageWatch.AI will use satellite imagery to monitor threats from climate change, natural disaster and conflict

17 February 2025

The applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are endless, from search engines and machine translation to website chatbots and photo editing.

And now AI is being put to use in the cultural sector with the launch of a new tool that aims to protect heritage sites under threat.

HeritageWatch.AI will analyse high-resolution satellite images of heritage sites around the globe and detect changes and patterns, with the aim of moving to a prediction-based approach to implement mitigation measures before disasters.

For example, the tool has been set up to monitor the impact of desertification on earthen architecture in the Sahel region. It will also look at rising sea levels and their impact on coastal heritage, as well as natural disasters such as hurricanes on older sites. The Heritage Alert System will maintain a record of destruction events.

The initiative will focus on three main activities: Mapping climate change and natural disasters to predict their impact on cultural heritage; Assessing the damage caused by natural disasters, climate change, or conflicts; and identifying looting activities.

On the HeritageWatch.AI website, the founders note, “In today’s rapidly changing world, heritage faces new global phenomena and emerging risks that lead to its deterioration or destruction. Natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, urban expansion, mass tourism, as well as conflicts are increasingly putting cultural and natural heritage sites under pressure.

“There is an urgent need to better understand and monitor these threats to ensure the safeguarding of heritage for future generations, and traditional methods are no longer sufficient to keep pace with the scale and speed of these changes.

“Given the urgency of this situation, we created HeritageWatch.AI, committed to developing advanced solutions to protect and preserve our shared heritage.”

The initiative, announced at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, was set up by four founding organisations: ALIPH, the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage; Iconem, which specialises in the digitisation of endangered cultural heritage sites in 3D; Planet, which provides satellite imagery; and Microsoft.

More information: HeritageWatch.AI

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