Research Activities
Safety Inspection for Important Architectural Cultural Heritage
By conducting regular inspections of important cultural properties, the risk of damage can be assessed and preventative safety measures implemented. Furthermore, in order to establish comprehensive and scientific preservation procedures, research and development of safety monitoring technology for cultural properties and management-manual development are under way.
Important Architectural Heritage Safety Assessment
Measuring a crack
NRICH examines important architectural heritages protected by law on a regular basis, using various measuring devices, and takes measures to prevent damages.
Timeline and Current Status of the Cultural Resource Safety
Inspection Initiative Regularly-scheduled inspections of important cultural heritage began in 1981, with the preliminary inspection of 11 stone structures, such as the Five-story Stone Pagoda at Jeongnimsa Temple Site, Buyeo. The focus remained on stone structures until 1994 (11th annual inspection), which included tests to measure their vertical and horizontal inclinations. In 1995 (12th annual inspection), eight wooden buildings were added to the list of cultural properties inspected, which has steadily expanded since then to include a greater variety. Since 1997, depending on the condition of some seventeen cultural properties, including ten important stone cultural properties and seven important wooden structural cultural properties, safety inspections have been conducted with increasing frequency (i.e., every one, two or four years) and the methods of assessment diversified and improved.
Safety inspection of cultural properties in provinces and municipalities
Safety inspection of cultural properties requested by cities and provinces
NRICH conducts safety inspections of important cultural properties at the request of the provincial or municipal authorities concerned, and submits the results of its inspection, monitoring or repair work to the authorities in charge.
Study on safety management of architectural heritages
Data collected from automatic incline-measuring devices
Since the mid-1990s, NRICH has introduced cutting-edge instruments - such as vibration meters, electro-optical distance measuring instruments, crack measuring gauges, and ultrasonic explorers - to monitor and diagnose the safety of valuable architectural heritages and increase the quality of its safety inspections. The institute is also committed to conducting R&D aimed at improving the functions of the devices and ensuring more scientific and systematic safety management of valuable tangible heritages.
Current Status of State-of-the-art Safety Inspection Equipment
Classification | Content | Remarks |
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Basic Formation Stage (2000 ~ 2004) |
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Application Stage (2005 ~ 2008) |
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Research on Comprehensive Application (2009 ~ extended) |
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Current Status of State-of-the-art Safety Inspection Equipment
Since the mid-1990s, scientific and high-tech instruments such as oscillometers and geodimeters, devices for measuring cracks, and ultrasonic exploratory equipment have been used during safety inspections to enhance precision, while research and development of various instruments has been prioritized.