Preserving the Venetian Fortress of Bergamo: Quick Photogrammetric Survey for Conservation Planning

Abstract

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The historical and cultural relevance of the City Walls built by the ‘Serenissima’ Republic of Venice in the second half of 16th century was recognized in 2017 by the insertion of Bergamo, together with other Venetian Fortresses in Italy, Croatia and Montenegro, in the World Heritage List of UNESCO as transnational site. In the framework of the nomination to the WHL, the City Council together with the University of Bergamo started a campaign of studies and surveys aimed to prepare a conservation planning. The goal of this plan is to assure a constant monitoring of this artwork, so that a strict routine of controls, cleaning and small strengthening works would prevent more relevant interventions, which could corrupt the material integrity of the building.</p><p>This paper delineates the methodological and operational workflow applied to the preparation of the maintenance plan, now in progress, for the Venetian City Walls of Bergamo, where the photogrammetric survey by means of UAV plays an important role. The different working phases, the adopted instrumentation, the difficulties encountered and the choices made are described, and some case studies are also illustrated that represent well the typical problems encountered for the conservation of the Walls.</p>

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An Open-Source Web Platform for 3D Documentation and Storytelling of Hidden Cultural Heritage

“…In addition, sites located in densely urbanised areas, such as ancient walls or citadels, present various difficulties and obstacles, including limited accessibility [8,10]. This is particularly true for buildings or structures that have been partially destroyed during their life cycle, surrounded by densely built neighbourhoods that have incorporated some of their parts or greatly altered their conformation without documenting their transformations, either in analogue or digital form [8,11].…”

“…In this framework, the 3D digital reconstruction of CH remains plays a crucial role in assessing the current state of the site and planning appropriate strategies for its maintenance and restoration, as well as for communicating its past history, which would otherwise be lost [12][13][14]. Understanding the actual conditions of the CH site through visual documentation also helps decision-makers to plan in advance targeted periodic in situ inspections, maintenance interventions and invasive vegetation removal operations, which also reduces costs [10,15].…”

Spatial-Temporal Evolution Relationship between Water Systems and Historical Settlement Sites Based on Quantitative Analysis: A Case Study of Hankou in Wuhan, China (1635–1949)

“…The analysis of natural water resources, however, is not given significant attention in this family of studies on the environmental elements of settlements, and the research techniques lack data support. Numerous studies have utilized interdisciplinary methods as a result of advancements in science and technology to examine patterns of urban settlement through the quantitative analysis of big data and GIS [1,2,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Some of these studies use GIS data management functions to establish relevant databases [13,18] to explore the relationship between settlement morphology and evolution; mapping functions are used to recover the different states of the study objects in historical periods [14][15][16][17]22].…”