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CICRP – Centre Interrégional de Conservation et Restauration du Patrimoine
[CICRP - Interregional Centre for Heritage Conservation and Restoration]

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StegoSIG
A geographic information system
and an application designed to raise awareness and aid
in the prevention of infestations in heritage collections

• Geographic information systems: Principles and definition
• StegoSIG
• Visit the portal

Geographic information systems: Principles and definition

A GIS is a system for bringing together, organising and analysing geographically referenced information contributing to resource management, logistics and environmental impact assessment.

A GIS is used in five ways:

• Entry of geographic information in digital form (data acquisition)
• Database management (archiving)
• Accessing, processing and querying geographic data (analysis)
• Formatting and viewing information (display)
• Representation of the real world (abstraction)

A GIS is used to answer five different questions:

• Where?: location of the study area and definition of its extent of geographic coverage
• What?: type of elements that may be found in this area
• How?: spatial distribution of these elements and their interrelationships (spatial analysis)
• When?: indication of the age of an object or the time span of a phenomenon (temporal analysis)
• What if?: development of scenarios to explore different possibilities

StegoSIG

In connection with its research programme "Understanding infestation and reinfestation of relining adhesive by Stegobium paniceum", the CICRP's Preventive Conservation Department has adapted a geographic information system to be used as tool, called StegoSIG, in order to raise awareness and as an aid in preventing infestation in heritage collections.

The first objective of StegoSIG (2005–2007) is to build knowledge of Stegobium paniceum in its environmental and etiological context (limited to Marseille and its region), mainly in grain mills and semolina plants.

StegoSIG has been developed using information technology resources specific to GIS, so as to have access to the most suitable mapping tools, linked to a database allowing for the best possible retrieval of results, notably including the display of forms or charts.

For mapping, we have chosen to use orthophotographs (aerial photographs in which all distortions are corrected), specifically the IGN's BD ORTHO® and scanned images (the IGN's SCAN 25®). So as to make the best possible use of working data, the scale of 25/1000^ths was selected.

In its second phase (beginning in 2008), StegoSIG will be used to study infestation and reinfestation phenomena affecting heritage collections. StegoSIG is thus also a diagnostic GIS tool for locating and counting flight holes, the monitoring of their development and the tracking of objects as they are moved from one museum to another. It is a reliable tool and may serve as the basis for the analysis of all collections.

The tool's architecture is founded on a conceptual data model defined on the basis of three main processes:

• Tracking the movement of cultural heritage objects that either may already have been shown to be infested or may be in danger of infestation, the motivation for these relocations being either internal (hanging in galleries, renovation work in the institution) or external (loans for exhibition purposes, restoration).
• Monitoring and pinpointing of flight holes in these works.
• Monitoring of trapping campaigns targeting Stegobium paniceum and other insects, within the geographically referenced sites.

StegoSIG may also be used to keep a record of all eradication efforts directed against these insects (types of treatments and dates of implementation). This aspect is particularly of interest for heritage collections since the GIS thus provides information to be added to the records for these works and their sanitary profiles by storing data gathered during interventions (restoration or disinsectisation) and relating to the artists and their specific practices, the restorers, the storage or exhibition location, and relocations, thus providing the ability to track infestations.

Visit the portal at stegobium.cicrp.fr

Page last updated on 4 July 2008.

CICRP – Centre Interrégional de Conservation et Restauration du Patrimoine
Groupement d'Intérêt Public à Caractère Culturel
21, rue Guibal, F-13003 Marseille FRANCE

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