Publication date: 
2023/01/10
There are more than 40,000 immovable cultural monuments in the Czech Republic, a large number of which are in a state of disrepair. Due to their monumental nature, these objects require higher costs for restoration and maintenance than ordinary objects, but it is also difficult to determine how much money is needed to ensure that restoration and maintenance can be carried out efficiently. Timely and properly carried out maintenance could significantly extend the lifetime of these buildings and reduce the operation costs and future repairs. The Monurev software will enable the owners of these facilities to obtain the most accurate estimate of the planned costs for their restoration based on the information entered. The software was developed at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, is designed for owners and managers of immovable cultural monuments - individuals, regions, cities and municipalities - and is available free of charge.

"The name Monurev is derived from the English words Monuments and Revitalisastion" explains doc. Daniel Macek from the Department of Economics and Management in Construction at Faculty of Civil Engineering, who developed the software. The software is based on a previously developed application at the faculty, which dealt with the issue of planning maintenance and restoration of building objects. However, the Monurev software is tailored to the needs of the management of immovable cultural monuments and taking into account their specific natures.

"Until now, owners or managers of immovable cultural monuments have had no sophisticated tool for estimating the costs of their maintenance and restoration. Thus, they could either estimate the necessary amount on the basis of their own experience, or they could start from a detailed survey of the object, which they had an experienced expert in the care of historical objects provide," doc. Daniel Macek explains the initial situation in the development of the software.

Monurev uses a database of type objects and allows to obtain the most accurate estimate of the planned costs from the minimum information provided. "The user selects the type of object in the menu that most closely matches the object for which he wants to create a maintenance and restoration plan, for example, the parsonage type. There are 74 type objects in the menu. Then the basic measurement parameters of the building, which are the roof pitch, number of storeys, height, width, length and floor height of the building, must be entered into the system. For a more detailed specification of the object's condition, the year of construction is also entered. On the basis of this data, the expected composition of structural elements that are most frequently found in a given type of building is generated, and for each element, information is given on when it will need to be renewed or whether its maintenance will be sufficient, and what costs will be required for this," describes doc. Daniel Macek.

The software output can also be further manipulated. "The user can enter the editing of the details of the generated object model, so that he can, for example, remove and add generated structural elements, change their areas, unit prices for restoration and maintenance and specify the current state of wear of the respective structural element," adds doc. Daniel Macek.

The software was developed within the framework of the project of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic NAKI "Sustainable management of cultural heritage buildings" No.: DG18P02OVV012. "Our department team worked on the project together with experts from the Klokner Institute of the Czech Technical University, who ensured the professional aspect in terms of practical implementation of maintenance and restoration of historical buildings. It was a five-year project, which was solved in the years 2018-2022, and therefore it was necessary to continuously index prices depending on inflation," says Prof. Renáta Schneiderova Heralová from the Department of Economics and Management in Construction of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University, who led the entire project.

Monurev is a unique software. "When doing research on this topic, we did not come across anything similar in the Czech Republic or in Europe. At international conferences we have received a very positive response to it and at the moment we are already cooperating with experts from Slovakia and Poland, for example, who have also been looking for solutions to this problem," says doc. Daniel Macek from Faculty of Civil Engineering of Czech Technical University in Prague.

The Monurev software is on the web at https://monurev.fsv.cvut.cz/, available free of charge, user access can be obtained on request.