Renewed agreement with NIKU

Cautus Geo is looking after cultural layers from the Middle Ages - it's about cultural heritage we can't see. We're talking about a non-renewable resource," says archaeologist Vibeke Vandrup Martens at NIKU.

Together with COWI, Cautus Geo will continue the instrumented, automated and continuous monitoring of cultural layers from the Middle Ages for another five years. The agreement ensures NIKU (Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research) real-time data on an ongoing basis.

- In the older projects, we now have time series of seven years and 25 years from Bryggen in Bergen. Fortunately, we can continue this important collaboration. "It's crucial for us to keep an eye on what's happening in the cultural layers below ground. The risk is that we lose this resource, which can tell us, among other things, how climate change has been dealt with through the ages. It's all about finding good solutions for today's and tomorrow's challenges. As long as the cultural layers are intact, we can learn from the past," says Martens.

Two agreements

Cautus Geo and COWI have also renewed the framework agreement with NIKU concerning development projects that interfere with automatically protected areas, in addition to the monitoring programme for medieval towns.

Both agreements are now ongoing.

- The continuation of the agreements is a great confirmation of our solutions," says CTO Lars Krangnes in Cautus Geo.

- We've been working together for a number of years and now we've secured the continuation of an incredibly important programme - the cultural layers from the Middle Ages - with ongoing projects in Bergen, Stavanger, Tønsberg and Oslo.

Preservation and measures

The programme is all about preservation. Cultural heritage sites must be protected where they are. At the same time, the programme is about being able to take action if layers of soil are threatened and cultural heritage may be lost.

- We've seen the importance of this at Bryggen in Bergen. There it started with subsidence damage. Groundwater disappeared from listed cultural layers under listed buildings. It shows how important it is that we keep an eye on and control what lies hidden under the ground," says Martens.

Shifts in cultural layers can jeopardise important infrastructure such as water and drainage systems.

- "The cultural layers under the ground give us the opportunity to understand the past. We have to look after that resource," says Martens.

- The results will determine whether, for example, we should prioritise excavations rather than preserving the cultural monuments where they are," says Martens.

Different threats

There are many threats to cultural heritage sites. They can be threatened by development and climate change. Monitoring takes place with the help of instrumentation. Sensors provide precise knowledge in real time. Data is collected in Cautus Web.

- "We want to make sure we know what the condition is, whether there is decay, whether cultural heritage sites are corroding, disintegrating or may be about to disappear," says Martens.

NIKU, together with the Directorate for Cultural Heritage, has worked long-term with environmental monitoring and is considered to be a world leader in remote monitoring of underground cultural layers.

Cautus Web

Martens describes Cautus Web as a key. Data collection is automatic, continuous and accessible. It can be read location-independently and shared with others.

- Cautus Web makes it possible to share data with others, such as those building the city railway in Bergen. "In addition, we can be present and follow developments in both Svalbard and Tønsberg at the same time, without having to physically travel back and forth to read measurement data. This is very important and useful for management and research. It's also more environmentally friendly and sustainable," says Martens.