Sustainability of 3D heritage data: life cycle and impact

In recent years, the exploit of 3D data use in Archaeology and the Cultural Heritage sector in general has caused an exponential multiplication of digital content that can be viewed on the web. Nevertheless, web platforms can display a concerning dualism: on one side some contents are over-represented with the same models uploaded dozens of times even inside the same platform; on the other, the inaccessibility or absence of proper 3D documentation for certain datasets limits the usefulness of the resources. As a result of substantial funding received (mostly from public institutions) and the volume of data produced by each digitization project, the final impacts on the broader scientific community remain limited. Starting from the analysis of data published about EU-funded projects by the European Union Commission on the platform CORDIS, this research approaches the delicate issue of the unsustainability of the current 3D data life cycle. The analysis of 110 selected projects revealed a disturbing pattern: even though the EU provided funds for many projects that approached in different ways 3D data diffusion or sharing, currently only 8 of them made the data accessible.