Submit to Sustainability Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

Avoiding the Abandonment and Deterioration of Cultural and Natural Heritage: Innovative and Sustainable Methods, Materials and Strategies

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2023) | Viewed by 8477

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Valentina Roviello

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, dei Materiali e della Produzione Industriale, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy
Interests: methods and materials for cultural heritage protection; chemical methods for art and environment; biological processes for environment and human health; analytical chemistry; scanning electron microscopy; spectroscopy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current increasing demand for new sustainable materials and methodologies for restoration and conservation from the decay and abandonment of historic buildings and cultural heritage, but also of new sustainable strategies in environmental protection, has led us to launch the current Special Issue focused on “Avoiding the abandonment and deterioration of cultural and natural heritage: innovative and sustainable methods, materials and strategies.”More in detail, the decay of both natural and cultural heritage represents a huge problem globally, not only from a social-cultural perspective, but it heavily impacts also the economy for the obvious negative effects on tourism in the arts of cities, museums, historic urban and natural parks worldwide. In this Special Issue, we wish to focus on the novel experimental and theoretical approaches for materials design and development, with a particular attention being paid to the development of methods and materials to avoid the water degradation of buildings (and ancient buildings), but also for protection and restoration of cultural heritage and murals after vandal graffiti degradation. We are also open to contributions on coating strategies for the preservation from the degradation of metals, and innovative and sustainable methods, materials, and strategies to avoid urban degradation and abandonment, as well new materials, and novel cleaning methods to prevent the vandal graffiti degradation on public transport and monuments, archeological items, and monumental trees. However, contributions on new nanotechnologies for protection, consolidation and restoring of stone cultural heritage, consolidation of paper and tissue cultural heritage, diagnostics of the degradation on natural and artificial stone materials, and more in general of environmental degradation are also welcome, as they could improve overall knowledge on the conservation techniques at the interface between cultural heritage preservation and environmental applications. Other themes of interest are inherent to the protection from diseases, forest fires, and logging activities of large old trees, the patriarchs of wild forests and urban parks, that have an enormous social–cultural but also environmental importance and represent natural artworks and a living archeological treasure in need of the highest attention in protection programs. This Special Issue is open to the submission of both original articles and reviews that describe research and ideas on themes treated in this issue for new sustainable strategies for nature and cultural heritage protection.

Dr. Valentina Roviello
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

new sustainable methods for art and environment
restoration and conservation of building materials
water degradation of ancient buildings
vandal graffiti degradation of cultural heritage and murals
urban degradation and abandonment
anti-graffiti materials and novel cleaning methods
public transportation protection against graffiti
nanotechnology for protection, consolidation and restoration
stone cultural heritage
consolidation of stone, paper, and tissue cultural heritage
diagnostics of the degradation on natural and artificial stone materials
diagnostics of environmental degradation
metals coatings against degradation
monumental trees
large old trees
protection of patriarch trees from logging activities, diseases and fires
urban historic parks: a bridge from nature and archeology

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

25 pages, 12618 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Sustainable Proposal for a Cultural Heritage Declaration in Ecuador: Vernacular Housing of Portoviejo

by Raúl Vinicio Hidalgo Zambrano, Celene B. Milanes, Ofelia Pérez Montero, Carlos Mestanza-Ramón, Lucas Ostaiza Nexar Bolivar, David Cobeña Loor, Roberto Galo García Flores De Válgaz and Benjamin Cuker

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1115; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15021115 - 06 Jan 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2767

Abstract

Vernacular houses treasure the knowledge and traditions of nations. They express the cultural heritage of different generations, including local materials and non-professional designs evolved by resident communities. In South America, vernacular houses often are designed in rural areas. These are influenced by the customs of the indigenous people who inhabited this region for centuries before colonization. In the coastal area of Ecuador, particularly in the canton of Portoviejo, belonging to the province of Manabí, there is an architectural typology called “housing of the three spaces”, which has not been valued as cultural heritage. This article responds to the research question of how to structure a sustainable architectural solution, which observes the patrimonial values of the housing of the three Manabí spaces, and which contributes to the resolution of the housing problem in rural Ecuadorian areas. The research was descriptive. The questionary technique was used to characterize these housings and analyze their sustainability criteria and historic heritage values. The results contribute relevant information for the consideration of the housing of the three spaces as cultural heritage. Furthermore, we explored a conceptual and analytical transition of the modern housing named Biosuvernacular (bio meaning life, su for sustainability and vernacular for traditional design) with reasonable economical solutions for resolving the housing problem in the study area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Avoiding the Abandonment and Deterioration of Cultural and Natural Heritage: Innovative and Sustainable Methods, Materials and Strategies)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 4796 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Suitability and Sustainability of Anti-Graffiti Treatments on Natural Stone Materials

by Valentina Roviello, Aurelio Bifulco, Abner Colella, Fabio Iucolano, Domenico Caputo, Antonio Aronne and Barbara Liguori

Sustainability 2022, 14(1), 575; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14010575 - 05 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2753

Abstract

Graffiti vandalism represents an aesthetic and structural phenomenon of degradation both for buildings and cultural heritage: the most used sprays and markers can permeate the stone materials exposing them to degradation. Hence, great attention is being currently devoted to new non-invasive chemical approaches to face this urgent problem. This work is aimed at deeply examining the effects of some of the most sustainable chemical protective methods on the physical properties of natural building materials (e.g., tuff and limestone) by testing two commercial anti-graffiti products. It was found that the nanotechnological product Ector (E) was more effective than Nord Resine (NR) in anti-graffiti applications even if its permanent character hinders its application to the cultural heritage. Conversely, the less performant NR could be used in this field due to its sacrificial behavior, according to the guidelines of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism. The findings highlight the importance of developing new sustainable methods for the preservation of cultural and building materials from vandal graffiti, which should combine the high hydrophobia, the ecological characteristics, and the effectiveness of E, with the sacrificial properties of NR. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Avoiding the Abandonment and Deterioration of Cultural and Natural Heritage: Innovative and Sustainable Methods, Materials and Strategies)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

11 pages, 2298 KiB

Open AccessReview

Graffiti Paint on Urban Trees: A Review of Removal Procedures and Ecological and Human Health Considerations

by Valentina Roviello, Melinda Gilhen-Baker and Giovanni N. Roviello

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4022; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15054022 - 22 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1847

Abstract

Mature trees play a fundamental role in nature and are crucial to maintaining good air quality in the urban ecosystem where they reduce air pollution, lower the surface temperature, and emit medicinal volatile organic compounds which combine to improve human health and mental wellbeing. From an aesthetic and cultural point of view, they are true living monuments to be preserved. In both rural and city environments, it takes numerous years for trees to become mature enough to have a significant impact on our health and the current global climate changes together with high levels of pollution in urban environments and other anthropic factors such as vandalism constitute important obstacles to new tree growth. This clearly makes existing trees, especially old growth, far more valuable than we often realize. Regardless of their artistic quality and in some instances their positive messages, graffiti are still unacceptable on living organisms, especially older urban trees. They also have a significant environmental impact due to the emissions related to graffiti that are primarily based on anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone. We reviewed the literature on graffiti and paintings applied on tree bark and ultimately found that oil-based paints in particular can damage tree life support systems. We herein also discuss graffiti prevention, the potential impact on human health related with graffiti removal, as well as methods for tree bark cleaning including, as suggested by different urban forestry specialists, the application of citrus-based products for 20–60 min before rubbing and rinsing or multiple 1–2 h treatments, in the case of recent or old graffiti, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Avoiding the Abandonment and Deterioration of Cultural and Natural Heritage: Innovative and Sustainable Methods, Materials and Strategies)

► Show Figures