How digital technologies empower the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage: a scoping review of research from 2020 to 2025
This review synthesised 102 studies on digital technologies for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, highlighting five stages: data collection, organisation, and documentation; classification and recognition; digital restoration; exhibition and education; and cultural innovation. Conventional digitisation preserves authenticity and context; AI enables processing and multimodal interpretation. The review provided a Dual-Path Integration Model for Digital Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (DPI-ICH), linking authenticity-oriented documentation with AI-based enhancement.
Authors
- Mengcheng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9604-8345)
- L W Wang
- Shuyang Wei
- Hao Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9133-8135)
- Jinlei Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6654-7248)
- Siling Xu
- Jifeng Xu
- Feng Gan
Institutions
- Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
- Xi'an University of Technology (CN)
- Nanjing University of the Arts (CN)
- Southwest Jiaotong University (CN)
- Southeast University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Heritage Science
- Published
- 2026-06-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-026-02774-3
- Primary Topic
- 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Northwestern University
- Northwestern Polytechnical University
- Southeast University
- National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities