Monitoring of historical timber structures: state of the art and prospective

The monitoring of timber structures grew up in the late 1980. In the last decade the monitoring becomes more important: nowadays, it is used also for new buildings’ monitoring. The monitoring of historical timber structures is realized, until today, at the minimum, simply recording the variation of temperature and humidity and/or repeating the on-site inspection. The on-site inspection is considered as the most powerful non-destructive tool for the assessment of timber structures, but it shows some limits. The remote monitoring used for new structures, based on recent technologies and solutions, offers the possibilities of a continuous monitoring, allowing to see the effects that all possible external factors have on the mechanical behaviour of the structure and on its state of conservation. Some of the solutions realized for the monitoring of new constructions can be extended to the old timber structures, taking into account the peculiarity of historical ones that require to be preserved and maintained in safety conditions, as part of the World Cultural Heritage.