Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML)

The Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML) is a collaborative effort between the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) and the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI). The CHML is housed on the first floor of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, and operates through a distributed workforce of archaeologists, art historians, GIS experts, and other heritage practitioners. This innovative lab provides global monitoring capability for cultural heritage threatened by armed conflict and natural disaster. Among other technologies, the lab utilizes high-resolution satellite imagery provided by industry partners to rapidly identify destructive events and active threats to monuments, museums, archives, historic buildings, archaeological sites, and landscapes. Through its partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, the lab works with the US Army Reserve's recently reactivated Monuments Officers (38G/6V), and other key stakeholders at research and response-oriented organizations.