Rocio Ortiz

Universidad Pablo de Olavide | UPO · Department of Physical, Chemical and Natural Systems

Urban green areas minimize the negative effects of climatic change and improve the sustainability of historic cities. Despite this, green areas have traditionally been considered a threat to heritage buildings because they cause humidity changes, that accelerate degradation processes. Within this context, this study evaluates the trends in the incl...

Understanding the factors that influence fire regimes in Mediterranean climates is essential to reduce their risk. This research uses Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) and Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite resources to evaluate recent changes in land surface temperature, precipitation,...

Purpose Heavy rainfall is one of the main causes of the degradation of historic rammed Earth architecture. For this reason, ensuring the conservation thereof entails understanding the factors involved in these risk situations. The purpose of this study is to research three past events in which rainfall caused damage and collapse to historic rammed...

The nature of rammed earth fortifications and the environmental conditions where they are located determine the pathologies that these structures suffer in the presence of humidity sources and strong winds. The objective of this project is to revise the main mechanisms of deterioration of rammed earth fortifications and evaluate the use of remote d...

The objective of this work is to develop a methodology for the identification of extreme rain and drought events that have occurred in the last 30 years using products derived from satellite images. Proposed methodology uses statistical reducers such as percentile, drought indexes, and map algebra at a geo big data scale. The daily precipitation da...

Vernacular architecture represents the form of construction that identifies a locality and offers sustainable means of inhabiting spaces. The advance of globalised architectural models in historic villages represents a threat to this architecture. It is therefore necessary that we recognise the characteristics that define the vulnerability of these...

Heritage preservation poses numerous difficulties, especially in emergency situations or during budget cuts. In these contexts, having tools that facilitate efficient and rapid management of hazards-vulnerabilities is a priority for the preventive conservation and triage of cultural assets. This paper presents the first (to the authors' knowledge)...

This article discusses the usability of the Art-Risk 3.0 software for research on the conservation of heritage buildings. It is a new and free software based on fuzzy logic, which enables the assessment of preventive conservation and surveillance of the restoration of heritage buildings over a period of time. This artificial intelligence-based tool...

Los centros históricos son espacios culturales complejos que albergan gran cantidad y diversidad de bienes patrimoniales, y cuya conservación obliga a disponer de metodologías capaces de evaluar escenarios de riesgo múltiples. Como respuesta a esta situación, los modelos metodológicos desarrollados en los proyectos RIVUPH y ART-RISK, ofrecen herram...

En un contexto de cambio climático y antrópico, el aumento en la frecuencia e intensidad de grandes incendios problematiza la conservación de los paisajes culturales naturales. El análisis por medio de imágenes satelitales y sistemas de información geográfica permite pronosticar rápidamente niveles de riesgo, identificar zonas quemadas y caracteriz...

Decohesion of building materials caused by weathering translates into the need for recurrent interventions with consolidating treatments that often turn out useless for desired long-term consolidation owing to their poor in-depth penetration. Due to this, it is important to develop new products that allow evaluating their penetration in situ. In th...

A multi-approach study has been designed to evaluate the mannerist-style masterpiece of the Christ of the Expiration (Museum Brotherhood, Seville, Spain), a polychrome wooden paste sculpture of the 16th Century that was restored in the Andalusian Historical Heritage Institute (IAPH). During its intervention, a combination of two non-destructive pro...

In this paper, diagnostic tools are utilized to conduct a vulnerability analysis of monuments located in a coastal environment in accordance with a raft of standards drawn up by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 31000, in order to identify the main risks for Cultural Heritage in Havana (Cuba) and Cadiz (Spain). Vulnerability...

The present paper is aimed at demonstrating the capabilities of digital image analysis (DIA) to support conservation of painted artwork. Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) imaging has been usually used in the diagnosis of wall paintings. In this case, LIF is applied to the case study of a painted wooden canopy, and most successful data processing tec...

El patrimonio urbano y arquitectónico de muchas ciudades en Hispanoamérica es vulnerable frente a amenazas de diversa índole; la exposición a fenómenos naturales y antrópicos son muchas veces las causas de su destrucción, sin embargo, uno de los factores más importantes que sin duda tiende a debilitarlo, es su relación directa e indirecta con las s...

La fluorescencia inducida por láser es una técnica de análisis a distancia, aplicada con éxito en tiempo real para el diagnóstico de obras de arte, permitiendo la observación de características invisibles al ojo humano, como rastros de retoques o la presencia de consolidantes modernos. El objetivo de este artículo es generar una base de datos de pi...

From a decision-maker's perspective, the management of cultural heritage is a challenging task because of different objectives pursued, the public/private nature of heritage constructions studied, the wide variety of associated values (artistic, historical, cultural, economic) and diverse interests of different stakeholders. Careful consideration o...

Vulnerability assessment is a way to evaluate the resilience of a monument. RIVUPH and Art-Risk are Spanish projects based on the development of new tools for preventive conservation strategies. For this purpose, the vulnerability of buildings has been studied with different techniques based on DELPHI methodologies and compared with in-situ diagnos...

The archaeological site of Cercadilla (Cordoba, Spain) includes a complete chronological sequence from the 3rd to 12th centuries. The most relevant monument is a Roman palace dated between the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century AD. It is believed that it was the headquarters of the Emperor Maximiano Herculeo. A bathtub with...

Scanning microscopy techniques have emerged as powerful scientific tools for analysing materials of architectural or archaeological interest, since the commercialization of the first scanning electron microscopy instrumentation in the early 60s. This study is aimed at reviewing and highlighting the significance of several scanning microscopy techni...

Rock column is one of the most representative structural elements used in Roman buildings. Its main section is the shaft, a cylindrical conduit between the base and the chapiter. Their decontextualization sometimes makes it difficult their provenance. This is the case of granite shafts coming from the ancient Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi, nowadays...

This paper describes a new predictive model for preventive conservation of buildings. It allows for multi-scenarios of several hazards, assessments of environmental risks, and the use level of buildings together with cultural values of monuments. This modeling approach is based on fuzzy logic and geographic information system available to organizat...

The ART-RISK project has developed a new software, based on artificial intelligence, for considering preventive conservation of heritage constructions. Developing this new methodology focused on vulnerability and external risks analysis applied to Monuments implies to meet in the project a multidisciplinary team specialized in the protection and co...

The dissemination of research in cultural heritage preservation to the public is a task that needs new models and expressions, to capture the attention of the public and the assessment of results. With this purpose, a new educational experience in Parque de las Ciencias (Science Park of Granada, Spain) was developed. The science window titled Hidde...

Biodeterioration of stone monuments is estimated to be as high as 20–30% of the total degradation suffered by Cultural Heritage constructions. With regard to this problem, bactericidal treatments are mainly based on cleaning. These processes, while effective in the short term, require frequent reapplications increasing potential damages to the monu...

En este artículo se analizan los resultados obtenidos utilizando la lógica difusa aplicada al patrimonio. Se plantea un modelo de predicción de la vulnerabilidad basado en lógica difusa aplicado a los edificios estudiados en el centro histórico de Sevilla. Mediante el programa de lógica difusa se obtienen los datos de vulnerabilidad y posteriorment...

Purpose This paper presents research on vulnerability and service life indexes applied to cultural heritage buildings. The construction and rehabilitation industry is concerned with the maintenance of monuments and reducing the economic costs of urgent interventions by taking preventive conservation action in historic cities. By applying a vulnera...

The blackening of buildings in historic cities due to air pollution is common. In historic urban centres, pollution from traffic negatively affects the preservation of monuments and results in the appearance of black crusts and/or deposits. The cleaning procedures for restoring or rehabilitating these building to remove these deposits are expensive...

Vulnerability assessment is a very useful tool to identify, evaluate and prioritize the restoration of cultural heritage and the budgets of the monuments from a city or inside a region and to forecast the preventive conservation policies. The degradation of monuments could be due to the effects caused by structural damages, weathering affection, po...

A new approach is developed for vulnerability analysis of monuments based on a matrix model and the relationships with static and structural factors, climatic conditions, air quality, urban planning and social agents for preventive conservation of cultural heritage in urban centers. The objective is to provide tools for decision-makers in the curre...

Canopies of needlework velvet or silversmith pieces placed on twelve or more battens are widely employed in Spanish catholic ceremonies to cover the image of the virgin. In this paper, we focus our interest on those pieces made of silver. These silver crafts suffered a revolution in the nineteenth century with the development of an electrolyte syst...

Flooding and dampness have caused considerable damage to historic towns and cities and have become more frequent in recent years. The aim of this paper is to analyse the hazards of flooding and dampness in historic cities to establish a methodology that prioritises preventive conservation actions and restorations. The case study concerns the histor...

In the Hall of the Kings, along the east side of the Courtyard of Lions in the Alhambra (Granada), the vaulted ceilings are clad in painted leather depicting various Kings or Lords on their seats, the fountain of youth, and a Lady playing chess. These artworks are unique masterpieces because of the unusual medium used (leather) and the presence of...

Laser induced fluorescence (LIF) associated with imaging scanning techniques has already proved to be a powerful diagnostic tool for artworks. The aim is to assess on-site and remote sensing systems and imaging measurements on murals in order to detect vulnerability and weathering forms due to the effects of environmental conditions. It also seeks...

The Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) technique has been already proved to be a powerful diagnostic tool for artworks. The aim of this work is to validate LIF measurements to detect the different detrimental effects of the environmental conditions on the stone materials and to discriminate among different biofilms and crust from smog or pollutants,...

The removal of unwanted matter from surface stones is a demanding task in the conservation of cultural heritage. This paper investigates the effectiveness of near-infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) laser pulses for the cleaning of surface deposits, iron oxide stains and different types of graffiti (black, red and green sprays and markers, and black...

Fires are one of the frequent anthropogenic hazards for Cultural Heritage, these events occur usually during armed conflicts or may be due to poor maintenance of electric net or gas pipeline systems. The aim of this study was to analyze the behavior of three limestones submitted to heat effects at 300 °C, 400 °C, 600 °C and 750 °C in order to evalu...

The degradation of monuments is mainly due to the deterioration effects caused by structural damages, weathering affection, pollution agents and anthropogenic factors. Intensity of degradation may be worsened by the vulnerability of each monument. RIVUPH is a project of the Andalusian government based on the analysis of environmental risk in Histor...

This work aims to use digital image analysis to characterize the superficial and in-depth regions layout/distribution of the saline phases, corresponding to efflorescences and sub-efflorescences. The possible existent saline compounds are mapped using EDX chemical element́s maps by means of logical image operations. The element́s maps are both made...

The analysis of environmental risk in historical cities facilitates the development of conservation strategies that can minimize the deterioration of historical heritage sites. Risk maps built with GIS software provide information about the probability of the main hazards in a region, and is a very useful tool to identify, evaluate and prioritize t...

En este trabajo se presenta el estudio estratigráfico por microscopía electrónica con sonda de energías dispersivas (SEMEDX) de costras y depósitos superficiales formados en las fachadas de veinticinco templos, del siglo XIII al XIX, del centro histórico y del barrio de Triana en Sevilla. Entre los indicadores de alteración de las fachadas de estos...

The aim of the study was to characterize specimens submitted to the effects of weathering in an urban atmosphere. Samples investigated were stones covered by crusts and deposits of thickness ranging from micrometers to millimetres due to traffic pollutants and mineral dust. The pieces were collected in the Church of Santa Maria La Blanca in Seville...

To characterize historical building materials according to the geographic origin of the quarries from which they have been mined, the relative content of major and trace elements were determined by means of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) techniques. 48 different specimens were studied and the entire samples...

p> El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar los resultados del proyecto de investigación docente sobre la aplicación de las Técnicas de información y comunicación al estudio de asignaturas de protección del patrimonio histórico-artístico de la Universidad Pablo de Olavide. La herramienta utilizada, WEB-CT, se ha aplicado a la asignatura “protección...