The use of image and laser scanner survey archives for cultural heritage 3D modelling and change analysis

Abstract

Cultural heritage studies often require the analysis of buildings that have undergone several changes and alterations during their lifetime. This often implies the loss of architectural elements or the construction of new elements, which both change the characteristics of the former buildings. The recovery of lost elements or structures through virtual reconstruction is of paramount importance in both scientific and cultural applications. Novel procedures in surveying and photogrammetric processing including historical photogrammetry and historical terrestrial laser scanning offer powerful tools that enable the extraction of geometric information from historical documentation such as archival images. This paper presents the integration of a metric 3D model with information present in archival surveys of lost architectural volumes. The methodology implies the availability of historical plans representing the survey object at scales consistent with UAV surveys and featuring shared elements. The methodology used to frame these plans in the reference system of the UAV survey for an open source GIS environment is also described as well as the accuracy checks. Finally, the procedure followed for the virtual reconstruction of the Fortezza in a BIM environment, which produced a model derived from the integration of historic and current data, is described.