Historical Photogrammetry and Terrestrial Laser Scanning for the 3d Virtual Reconstruction of Destroyed Structures: A Case Study in Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The current dramatic episodes of destruction of archaeological sites have again highlighted the problem of the safeguarding the threatened heritage and, if possible, recovering those damaged by all the armed conflicts of the past. The historical photogrammetry offers the possibility to recover a posteriori the geometrical and material properties of destroyed structures, reconstructing their 3D model to document, study and maintain their memory, until to support their real anastylosis. The presented work is about the 3D reconstruction of the civic tower of the little town of Sant'Alberto, near the city of Ravenna, Italy. The tower, as a symbol of resistance and pride of the town's population, was destroyed in December 1944 by German troops in retaliation, when they were forced to leave the area. A city committee has subsequently collected all the historical evidence concerning the tower, including a series of photographic images that can be used for the photogrammetric reconstruction; the images calibration and orientation have been solved using the geometric information derived by a terrestrial laser scanner survey realized in the area where the tower was originally located. Despite the scarcity and very poor quality of the available images, the conducted photogrammetric procedure has allowed a complete and qualitatively satisfying object reconstruction, also thanks to the use of geometric constraint tools offered by the chosen software. The integration between the obtained model of the old tower and the 3D TLS survey of the square made it possible to reconstruct the ancient situation of the area.

Generation of a Benchmark Dataset Using Historical Photographs for an Automated Evaluation of Different Feature Matching Methods

“…But also recent research is done with historical data e.g. in combination with terrestrial laser scanning (Bitelli et al, 2017), using old film negatives (Rodríguez Miranda and Valle Melón, 2017) or aerial images (Giordano et al, 2018). Though, those projects show a developing degree of automation in image processing a lot of work is still done manually in this field of research (Henze et al, 2009), (Gouveia et al, 2015).…”

Digital Storage and the Data Collection for the Seismic Prevention: A Comparison From the Italian Recent Experiences

“…In several other cases the 3D model has provided the basis for the reconstruction of some missing parts or elements, especially in the case of sculptural elements, destroyed by degradation or by vandalism . Again, the use of three-dimensional models as a tool for the enhancement of Cultural Heritage, represents a practice that is today increasingly common, as it's shown by virtual reconstructions of portions or entire buildings that no longer exist (Bitelli et al 2017). In particular, the use of these stratagems represents a strongly multidisciplinary application, which has to combine both the scientific skills and the historical and architectural ones -all necessary for the correct interpretation of buildings that still exhist only in old photographs and drawings.…”

The Use of Surveying and Photogrammetric Court Evidence in the Usucaption Procedures for Proving the Acquisition of the Ownership of Real Estate

“…It turns out that in many cases the reliable reconstruction of quantitative and qualitative information concerning a given area or an object from many years before is only possible on the basis of archive imaging data, in particular where traditional surveying methods based on fragmentary technical documentation fail [12]. In fact, the use of images acquired in the past (through the so-called "archival" or "historical" photogrammetry) allows comparisons and multi-temporal analysis to be made, supported by metric data [13].…”