CROMO (CROwdsourced MOnitoring of distributed Cultural Resources)
The project proposes an innovative approach to address the challenges of monitoring, managing, and governing cultural heritage assets distributed across vast territories. These often fragmented assets require complex management by the relevant authorities; the project aims to actively involve local communities to improve these processes. The initiative focuses on tangible cultural heritage (TCH) located along a section of the Via Appia in Campania, with the goal of increasing awareness of the value of this heritage and developing scalable and replicable management models. These models involve citizens and stakeholders through participatory monitoring, useful data collection, and decision-making processes.
In line with the R&D objectives of Spoke 8, Thematic Area 4, the project aims to promote sustainable and resilient governance policies by integrating capacity-building training initiatives. These activities are designed to foster knowledge sharing and support Decision Support Systems (DSS).
The project aligns with the Results and Deliverables of Spoke 8, including:
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R5.7 – More effective strategies and models for inclusive and participatory management of cultural heritage, promoting community awareness.
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R5.8 – Implementation of improved coordination actions and definition of guidelines and operating standards for interaction and cooperation between society, public and private entities, and organizations.
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R5.9 – Training of qualified personnel capable of supporting public and private entities, units, and dedicated bodies involved in the sustainability and resilience of cultural heritage.
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R5.10 – Increased user awareness of the potential and fragility of cultural heritage.
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R5.12 – Environmental and infrastructural security and core social functions.
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R5.13 – ICT technologies for: territorial/regional/urban sensing and planning, environment, territorialization of social phenomena, and decision support systems.
Innovation and Technological Solutions
Through research, industrial development, and experimentation, the project will integrate Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) and gamification tools to incentivize active citizen participation. Users will be able to geolocate images of cultural heritage, which will be analyzed using Artificial Intelligence tools for distributed monitoring and to propose targeted interventions. Augmented Reality (AR) technologies applied to mapped heritage will offer an enriching experience, expanding participants’ knowledge. Furthermore, a token-based reward system will allow users to accumulate CROMO-points, promoting continuous and rewarding engagement.
The proposed innovation is primarily based on a system intended for prototyping, validation, and demonstration (TRL 6) consisting of several components:
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Crowdsourcing Component (Mobile-based): Designed to enable the collection of geolocated and shared images. The capturing process is guided by AR to increase effectiveness and semantic value. The system will provide suggestions for framing particularly significant and original parts or views of the asset with the necessary detail. Gamification allows users to access useful AR information on their mobile devices if they provide images meeting specific criteria (CROMO-points). Potential marketing uses for CROMO-points include redeeming gadgets or additional services within the territory, in collaboration with public entities and local economic and productive businesses.
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AI Component: This collects images and provides indications regarding the status of the widespread heritage, utilizing automatic image classification tools and Large Language Model (LLM) approaches. Specifically, the component will be able to report evident changes to the asset over time by comparing new images with baseline archive images provided at time $T_0$.
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Management Console: This allows various operators—representing asset managers—to view system results and warnings. It is possible to focus on specific areas and prompt users to take photographs that earn a higher number of CROMO-points. This will improve the monitoring of areas poorly covered by traditional visits (following a “Pokémon-Go” model).
The project’s innovation develops along two directions:
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Creation of a demonstrator case for the Via Appia, ideal for CROMO monitoring due to its widespread nature. The project includes a baseline of reference images and a study on incentives to engage stakeholders, favoring point acquisition and conscious enjoyment of the territory.
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Training activities aimed at students and personnel from public and private entities to share data on platforms such as Wikimedia and Europeana, and to analyze data useful for public and private decision-making.