Reference
Conservation glossary
Defined terms used in conservation surveying, reporting and stewardship — condition survey, treatment schedule, evidence integrity, audit trail, chain of custody, and more.
The Glossary sits alongside the Reference Library within the Reference area. The Library is available to signed-in users; the Glossary is fully public.
- Audit trail
- The append-only log of changes to a conservation record, with author and timestamp preserved for the life of the record.
- Chain of custody
- The documented sequence of authorship and stewardship for a conservation record, preserving attribution at every level.
- Component hierarchy
- The structured breakdown of a heritage asset into its constituent components, against which observations, defects and interventions are recorded.
- Condition report
- An issued document presenting the findings of a condition survey, with structured observations, defect schedules, photographic appendices and references consulted.
- Condition survey
- A structured assessment of the present condition of a heritage asset, recorded against its component hierarchy and supported by photographs, measurements and references.
- Evidence integrity
- The principle that conservation observations, photographs and references preserve their evidential value from capture through to archive, supported by structured recording and audit trail.
- Field note
- An observation captured on site, recorded against the relevant component with structured fields and supporting photographs.
- Intervention
- A recorded act of conservation work to a component or asset, with the material, method, date, practitioner and supporting evidence preserved as part of the asset's record.
- Issued report
- A conservation report fixed at the moment of issue, immutable thereafter; subsequent work produces lineage-linked revisions rather than in-place changes.
- Precedent
- An earlier conservation intervention or finding, drawn from the practice's project archive, that informs proposed work on a comparable component or asset.
- Protected quotation
- Quoted material from a cited reference, preserved verbatim with citation within a conservation report so that later readers can verify source and context.
- Report lineage
- The documented relationship between an issued report and its prior revisions, preserving the documentary history of a conservation project.
- Risk state
- A structured assessment of the likelihood and consequence of further deterioration to a component if no intervention is undertaken.
- Stewardship
- The institutional duty of care for a heritage asset or portfolio, supported by cyclical inspection, condition trajectory and documented intervention.
- Treatment schedule
- A structured proposal of conservation interventions, recorded against the components they affect, with material, method, sequencing and rationale.