part 1 - Iccrom

MEASURING HERITAGE CONSERVATION PERFORMANCE
6th International Seminar on Urban Conservation
buildings, but for any type of building that might
house collections. Given the specificity of the object
of the research study, a deeper analysis of the history
of the building, the interventions performed
over the years and the state of conservation of the
constructive elements was incorporated into the
work.
2.1. Environmental monitoring
Environmental monitoring includes the collection
and recording of data on environmental parameters
at a particular location, measured in a systematic,
uniform and repetitive way. The collection of longterm
data allows the identification of deterioration
of relations between objects, and their causes, allowing
also verification of the effectiveness of solutions
adopted for the conservation of collections. In the
case of humid tropical climates, one of the main
agents of deterioration is water, whether through
the percolation of moisture from humid soils, the
infiltration of rainwater through the roof vents and
unsealed or high relative humidity. The presence of
moisture in the environment leads to biodegradation
of the construction materials of the buildings
and the matter that constitutes the mobile collections,
especially those of organic character.
The Moorish Pavilion has five habitable floors,
approximately 5,000 square metres of building area
and more than 60 rooms. For the development of
this research project, priority areas to be monitored
were defined: the Entomological Collection, the
Rare Books Library (room collection, room of duplicates
and reading room) and the Exhibition Hall of
the Museum of Life. An external monitoring point
on the east balcony of the building was also set.
To conduct the monitoring, equipment, specifically
data loggers that measure and register the data of
temperature and humidity every hour in each of
the defined points (Figure 4), were used. The minimum
duration of such monitoring should be a year,
so that they can evaluate the environmental characteristics
of the areas in question during all four
seasons, as each one represents changes in temperature,
relative humidity, insulation and incidence of
wind. Taking into account the duration of the study,
the team established an 18 month period of monitoring,
which began in October 2009.
The collected data were gathered monthly and
organized into sheets, with monthly charts produced
for each of the monitored points. From the analysis
of data from relative humidity and temperature
collected, and the issues raised by the conservation
assessment of the collections, it will be possible to
assess the conservation impact of environmental
conditions where these collections are housed.
Despite that the evaluation stage of monitoring
data is not yet complete, preliminary analysis
of data already allows some considerations to be
made. In the case of the Library, the evaluation of
monitoring data indicated that the existing climate
control system, although designed to ensure conditions
for the conservation of the collection, has been
unable to properly maintain the stability in relation
to relative humidity in the environment of collection.
At times, there is a variation of more than ten
percentage points in 24 hours, and also some peaks
above 65% RH, the value at which the materials,
especially those of organic base, are more susceptible
to biodegradation.
Figure 4. Monitoring equipment installed at Moorish Pavilion – 2 nd and 3 rd floors (Source: Departamento de
Patrimônio Histórico/COC/Fiocruz).
Teixeira Coelho, A. M. & .C. S. Rodrigues de Carvalho. 2012. The conservation assessment as a tool for cultural heritage identification,
monitoring, and evaluation. In Zancheti, S. M. & K. Similä, eds. Measuring heritage conservation performance, pp. 82-89. Rome, ICCROM.
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