Cultural heritage sites all over the world are under threat due to tourism, aggressive urbanization, speculative development, conflict, and general neglect. The complement of traditional methods to cultural heritage management has been augmented with the introduction of digital or new media. Individual researchers, professional societies, museums, universities, and governments have embraced computer modeling and visualization to create virtual reconstructions and databases of living, threatened or lost cultural heritage sites. These efforts have typically focused on the tangible aspects of the site, in the form of 3D models. While these are important components, they often fail to capture the complexity of intangible cultural heritage and the related social, political and economic issues surrounding the sites or artifacts.

Digital media could be utilized for much more than re-creation and re-presentation of physical entities. It has the capacity to become a tool to capture both the tangible and intangible essence of both the cultural heritage and the society that created or used the sites.