Developing a Virtual Museum that Promotes the Sustainable Development Goals

Virtual museums (VM) offer the opportunity of representing the heritage of a Cultural Landscape. We propose a virtual museum architecture that showcases cultural and natural heritage to promote sustainable development of a Cultural Landscape. This approach is being adopted in the CULTURALITY project which aims to advance cultural tourism in rural and remote areas through engagement with crafts and intangible heritage. Societal equality and inclusion are assisted through the cultural promotion of the rural area, thus revitalising it. Climate protection is supported through raising awareness of the impacts that unsustainable measures have on rural areas. The virtual museum has been strengthened with radical additions to the metadata structure typically associated with artefacts in a museum. Artefacts are situated within the tapestry of a Cultural Landscape comprised of tangible, intangible, cultural, and natural heritage, and then linked to specific Sustainable Development Goals. The VM represents artists, artefacts, and heritage through virtual reality, interactive maps, and digital galleries, highlighting threats to heritage and describing actions within society that safeguard the region. By doing this, the virtual museum features necessary actions that mitigate threats to heritage and fosters a comprehensive understanding of sustainable development through cultural heritage.