Assessment of historic buildings by radar techniques

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss methodological guidelines and operation protocols for the assessment of historic buildings by radar techniques, as decision-making support within integrated investigation programs, where documentary records, direct survey and onsite measurements address accurate and effective diagnosis. Design/methodology/approach – Radar methodologies and procedures are planned to support the pre-diagnosis hypotheses, based on preliminary information from historical sources, as well as from direct survey of geometry, materials, construction techniques and decay patterns. Thus, they are applied, in terms of acquisition and elaboration systems, taking into account the testing targets and surrounding conditions. Finally, they are correlated with complementary destructive and non-destructive techniques for data interpretation and validation. Findings – The general approach is developed for some representative case studies, in order to point out the potentialities of radar tec...