DB-HERITAGE Building Materials Data Aggregation in ARIADNE - challenges and opportunities

DB-HERITAGE provides open and free sharing of wide-ranging technical data on hundreds of samples of building materials from diverse periods, extracted from Portuguese built heritage all over the world. It has been developed to improve know-how for historic building materials and as a basis for developing best practices for built heritage conservation. It incorporates both physical and digital repositories for building material samples and related data, providing tools for the systematic recording of data concerning the history, properties, and performance of materials used in Portuguese built heritage. DB-HERITAGE targets different communities, researchers, and stakeholders involved in the preservation of archaeological and architectural heritage. It provides a systematisation of building assets, within their related environmental, social, and cultural contexts, as well as displaying technical and scientific information on structural elements, built components and their constituent materials. Although the rationale of the wide context sustaining the DB-HERITAGE concept, gathering communities and reduced time-to-value represent extra requirements for data quality, improved tools, and an efficient management plan. The participation in ARIADNEplus challenged DB-HERITAGE to get the most out of standardised procedures and the FAIR principles, strengthening its data management plan and practices. Data processing has been improved by deploying a common ontology and further developing standards, shared semantics, and identifiers. Updated protocols for data sharing and detailed information on provenance have also been developed to enhance data reuse. This article presents an overview of the aggregation process of DB-HERITAGE data into ARIADNEplus. It includes a summary of DB-HERITAGE’s strengths and of the challenges faced within the scope of the aggregation process, with examples of some of DB-HERITAGE’s major outputs. Additionally, it considers the benefits and opportunities provided by participation in ARIADNEplus.