Smart environmental monitoring of aerobiological and microclimatic threats for preventive and planned conservation in museums and archives: the CRISALIDE platform

Abstract. Museums and archives, housing valuable tangible heritage, face diverse threats to preservation. Even in controlled environments, the slow impact of various factors poses risks. Micro-organisms’ primary sources of contamination are transported on human beings or airborne through doors and windows. Under favourable microclimatic and nutritional conditions, influenced by temperature, relative humidity, and poor ventilation, deposited biological particulate matter can develop and grow, triggering its biodeteriogenic action. Exhibits, often organic, are vulnerable to cellulolytic and lipolytic actions of bacteria like Streptomyces, fungi including Aspergillus and Penicillium, and others. Because effective mitigation hinges on timely, well-targeted responses by conservation staff, the Crisalide research project was framed not as a single tool but as an IoT-oriented monitoring ecosystem: environmental parameters are captured by a lattice of wireless sensing nodes, then federated, normalised, and interrogated through a platform designed for near-real-time situational awareness and standards-compliant interoperability. This approach offers valuable technological integration for monitoring built cultural heritage and what it holds inside. 
The paper sets out the aims of a monitoring architecture designed to acquire heterogeneous measurement streams from a distributed array of sensors installed on artefacts and within their enclosures, then convert those observations, through structured processing and inference, into decision-ready knowledge about the evolving condition of materials and systems. The early identification of emerging damage is emphasised to ensure that the timing and proportionality of any response align with the principle of minimum intervention, prioritising swift, low-impact measures over disruptive remediation. At the methodological core is a prognostic framework that models how damage from biological contamination worsens over time. It does this by combining continuous bioaerosol monitoring with multivariate environmental analytics to find early signs of biohazard states before they become apparent. This creates a strong evidence base for preventive conservation, enabling timely, proportionate interventions that follow minimal-impact principles.