Application of Geomatics Techniques for Cultural Heritage Mapping and Creation of an Unsafe Buildings’ Cadastre

Abstract

Mapping of Cultural Heritage is a crucial process aiming at safeguarding and promoting the unique identity, history, and traditions of a particular community or region. This practice involves the documentation, conservation, and interpretation of various aspects of Cultural Heritage, which can be conducted through Geomatics techniques including the use of various tools and methods to collect, analyze, and visualize spatial data related to heritage sites. The same techniques can be used for the identification and subsequent cataloging of unsafe buildings thus creating a cadastre useful for authorities, urban planners, and building management organizations to identify, monitor and address unsafe structures. In this context, this paper presents an automatic, innovative, and experimental system through which it has been possible to map the Cultural Heritage in a fraction of the province of Reggio Calabria and, at the same time, to build a cadastre of unsafe structures. A prototype drone was programmed to acquire the images, subsequently pre-processed using commercial software and analyzed using Machine Learning techniques and dedicated software. An Open GIS (Geographic Information System), then, made it possible to view the archaeological heritage sites and the dangerous and damaged buildings, with identified and cataloged cracks. In relation to the monitoring of Cultural Heritage and old, unsafe buildings, several different technologies including Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and high-resolution satellite imagery are being successfully used, which involve, however, data processing complexity and the need for specialized expertise. By overcoming the challenges of these traditional methods, this proposed approach holds promise in facilitating comprehensive Cultural Heritage monitoring and management even in smaller and less resource-rich areas. The use of drones for data acquisition and integration into a well-implemented GIS, in fact, could offer a potential solution to monitor Cultural Heritage and assess the condition of existing buildings, while saving time and costs in the process.