Aerosol Impact on Cultural Heritage: Deterioration Processes and Strategies for Preventive Conservation

Studies over the past few decades have explored the mechanisms that cause damage to heritage materials, both indoors and outdoors located, exposed to various climates. This chapter focuses on the deterioration phenomena occurring on cultural heritage due to aerosol impact and presents a methodological approach for monitoring climate and pollution parameters suitable for cultural assets preservation with the aim of identifying the environmental parameters to measure, assessing their spatial and temporal variability, and defining the number of measurements required. Appropriated analyses to perform on aerosol sampled are also presented. Air pollution, precipitation, wind, biological contamination, and physical stress, resulting from temperature and relative humidity cycling, are among the main factors responsible for the surface deterioration of artifacts. Preventive conservation activities must always include both indoor and outdoor maintenance protocols providing regular and adequate cleaning of surfaces and objects. Finally guidelines for managing the conservation of cultural heritage in urban areas toward pollution impact are proposed.