The Museum Environment: A Protocol for Evaluation of Microclimatic Conditions

The cultural heritage is a unique and irreplaceable witness of our past and it is vulnerable to naturaldisasters and anthropic behaviours. Moreover, collections kept in museums are not enough safeguardeddue to unsuitable environmental conditions. An in-depth analysis of the literature of the field reveals alack in preventive conservation strategies aimed to assure the protection, or increase the life expectancy,of collections and objects. From this perspective, the exceptional complexity of the environmental controlin museums requires easy operational protocols including all variables in play.The protocol here discussed is aimed to the microclimatic assessment of museum environment, thequantification of factors responsible for the degradation processes and the choice of most appropriateinterventions to improve the state of conservation.This evaluation method neither meant to be exhaustive or definitive, but aims to serve as a referencefor technicians and conservation managers, who require clear procedures and applicable interventions,especially in case of poor economic or management resources. At the present, the adoption of standardprocedures in this area is necessary to simplify and standardize the procedures, and to regulate therelatively young field of environmental monitoring for the cultural heritage conservation.