Promoting Underground Cultural Heritage through Sustainable Practices: A Design Thinking and Audience Development Approach
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The underground Cultural Heritage is a very interesting topic as there are a lot of restrictions in relation to other Cultural Heritage sites.
This paper propose a theoretical approach for promoting Cultural Heritage. Additionally states that the authors reserve the right to test there approach in a next case study. So I think that a paper combining the results with this theoretical approach will be more beneficial for the authors than this paper. This is just a suggestion to the authors.
The English language is proper.
The authors should change some sentences to "italics" format because are the same sentences as in the referenced papers.
Lines: 71-73, 81-82, 86-90, 91-94, 94-96, 99-102, 103-105.
I accept this paper after minor revision.
Author Response
"The authors should change some sentences to "italics" format because are the same sentences as in the referenced papers.
Lines: 71-73, 81-82, 86-90, 91-94, 94-96, 99-102, 103-105."
Thank you for your comments. We have provided
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The research topic concerning the promotion of underground cultural heritage through sustainable practices is very interesting, as are the ideas proposed to develop a greater attraction to wider tourist flows. Very relevant and with precise bibliographic references is the dissertation on the role of heritage interpretation in the promotion of cultural sustainability and sustainable development, whose key concepts are presented in a clear and exhaustive way.
English is well written and easily understood.
Perhaps in the initial part of chapter 2 when the role of information technologies applied to the digital use of UBH is mentioned, bibliographic references could be inserted which cite, by way of example, works in this sense, such as those of Dr. Gabellone of the Italian National Research Council:
- 3D technologies for a critical reading and philological presentation of ancient contexts, in Archeologia e Calcolatori 28.2, 2017, pp. 591-595, https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.50
- The Palmieri hypogeum in Lecce. From the integrated survey to the dissemination of contents, in G. Guidi, J.C. Torres, R. Scopigno, H. Graf (eds.), Proceeding of the 2015 Digital Heritage International Congress, 28 Sep. - 2 Oct. 2015, Granada, Spain, vol. I, Granada 2015, pp. 247-254, 10.1109/DigitalHeritage.2015.7413878
- Self-explaining video for the Museo Egizio in Turin, in Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on Archaeology, Computer Graphics, Cultural Heritage and Innovation ’ARQUEOLOGICA 2.0’ in Valencia (Spain), Sept. 5 - 7, 2016, Valencia 2016, pp. 132-137, 10.4995/arqueologica8.2016.3550
However, some critical issues emerge regarding the setting of the article, which should preferably be remodeled according to the template of the journal.
It is recommended to publish after a minimal revision.
Author Response
We thank you for your comment. We have included additional bibliography
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The proposed study is a deepen reasoning on the sustainable valorization of underground built heritage (UHB). The theorical discussion refers to interesting methodological approaches proposed in the academic field and international commissions and to more recent experimentations as the Underground4value project.
Although the theorical frame on sustainable conservation of UBH is clearly presented and effectively discussed, still the key issue of sustainability appears weakly expressed in a practical sense. Reading the paper, it is difficult to figure real actions of sustainable valorization of underground heritage which should consider actual conservative issues as: specific environmental conditions; spaces not thought (naturally born nor shaped by human civilizations) to host a high number of visitors in safe conditions; inner fragility of closed natural ecosystem in hypogea and caves. Nonetheless, in lines 267-269 a statement in potential contradictions with sustainable valorization of UBH seems to be written in “the sites must be easily accessible to the widest range of visitors, and here too digital technology can come to the rescue, both on site and virtually”. Digital technologies can surely support the visiting experience but new ideas of management of these kind of sites needs to be tested to reach a fair compromise between conservation and access for a wide public. Could the Authors offer some suggestions in this sense?
Another point that appears unclear is the preliminary phase of U4V Toolkit: in lines 206-207 it is stated that “the assumption that the community and the stakeholders have already shared a common interpretation of the heritage”. Can the authors explain how did they reach a common interpretation of the heritage? According to the Reviewer’s experience this is not a simple task to achieve because often stakeholders and local community have different experience and different knowledge of the built heritage, especially in multi-cultural societies where different roots came into contact and some traditions and popular knowledge went lost. Is there some kind of “guided process” thought by stakeholders to involve a significative part of the population (not only people with a higher education or more connected to local history) in the recognition of built heritage?
Author Response
Concrete actions for the sustainable enhancement of the underground heritage were addressed in the COST project through several contributions. For example, 'infrared thermal imaging' can be used for civil engineering inspections to locate thermal bridges and assess thermal insulation (Olbrycht, R. 2019. Infrared thermal imaging. Priciples and applications for civil engineering in inspection in Salvarani, R., Pace, G., Eds.;, Underground Built Heritage Valorisation. A handbook, Proceedings of the First Training School; CNR Edizioni: Rome, Italy, 2019; pp. 67-76); the use of an innovative SLAM solution for rapid UBH acquisition (Perdicca R. 2019. The use og innovative SLAM solution for a fast acquisition of UBH in Salvarani, R., Pace, G., Eds.;, Underground Built Heritage Valorisation. A handbook, Proceedings of the First Training School; CNR Edizioni: Rome, Italy, 2019; pp. 77-88).
The contradiction in lines 267-269 has been overcome by adding the following text:
These new methods of exploring, visualising and manipulating intangible information represent a new stage of scholarly inquiry known as virtual heritage. Virtual heritage involves the use of digital technologies and virtual environments for the purpose of researching, preserving and transmitting our cultural heritage.
The implementation of these technologies would enable the controlled and sustained exploration of inaccessible UBH. Conversely, the availability of a virtual representation may also lead to an increase in visitation, potentially undermining conservation efforts. This challenge could be mitigated by the introduction of a quota system. One potential solution to address accessibility and preservation issues is the use of virtual reality technology, such as mixed reality, within these heritage sites. Mixed reality, a variant of virtual reality, combines computer-generated 3D elements with real-world imagery to create an immersive experience that simulates the user's physical presence in the environment.
UBH Awareness serves as a valuable resource for individuals to become advocates for their region, enabling the transfer of knowledge, awareness and, most importantly, preserved cultural assets from one generation to the next. By supporting a community-based approach to disaster risk reduction in heritage sites and emphasising a systems-oriented perspective on heritage, this approach promotes resilience and strengthens the linkages between heritage, social dynamics and environmental aspects of sustainable development.
The authors explained how they reached a common interpretation of heritage.
In response to the last question, we have provided a more detailed description of the preamble steps towards the realisation of the Living Lab. This description can be found in the text, precisely from line 200 to 226.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
