Using Citizen Heritage Science to Monitor Remote Sites Before and During the First COVID-19 Lockdown: A Comparison of Two Methods

This paper proposes citizen heritage science as an effective method to gather reliable data for monitoring and documenting heritage sites. For large heritage organisations the monitoring and documentation of sites in their care presents considerable challenges; continual monitoring of smaller, unstaffed, and more remote sites is often not practical. However, heritage sites are often popular destinations that receive high levels of visitors who carry increasingly sophisticated mobile phones. It seems logical that heritage organisations capitalise on using visitors' images to record and monitor remote heritage sites. We compare two methods for data collection: a 'guided' approach, in which on-site signage prompts visitor submissions; and an 'open' approach, in which the public is asked to send any photographs they have of the site in question. We analyse the different results in collected data from these two approaches and hope to encourage heritage institutions to set up similar projects.