Situbehoud

Situbehoud is a term used to refer to the practice of preserving and maintaining a site or space over time. It encompasses physical sites (historic buildings, landscapes, archaeological sites) and digital spaces (web platforms, databases, virtual environments) to ensure long-term accessibility, usability, and integrity. It focuses on proactive planning, risk assessment, and ongoing maintenance rather than reactive restoration.

The word combines "site" or "situ" with "behoud" (Dutch for preservation). The term is used particularly in Dutch-language planning and heritage discourse and has gained traction in multilingual contexts to describe cross-domain preservation practices.

In physical contexts, situbehoud includes condition assessments, retention of original materials, preventive conservation, and adaptation to current use with minimal intervention. In digital contexts, it involves format migration, metadata standards, and data stewardship to prevent obsolescence. Governance: typically involves public authorities, heritage organizations, property owners, and community groups. It relies on inventories, risk registers, maintenance schedules, funding plans, and monitoring.

Challenges include diverging standards between physical and digital preservation; resource constraints; balancing development with preservation; need for clear definitions and measurable outcomes; and the impact of climate change and technology change.

Related topics include conservation, heritage management, digital preservation, and maintenance planning.