Access and web-sharing of 3D digital documentation of environmental and architectural heritage

Abstract

The techniques and methods to capture and represent in a three-dimensional digital space the shape of objects belonging to Cultural Heritage have become more widespread, regarding both the economic and practical accessibility of technologies and equipment. At the same time, systems and tools have developed to integrate different 3D survey techniques that allow to achievement a complete acquisition of the tangible assets, considering the purposes of the survey, the required accuracy and the representation scale. The product of an integrated (image-based and range-base acquisition) and multi-scale (architectural and landscape scale) digital survey is a metric 3D reconstruction, potentially suitable for a broader ‘use’ and ‘user’ and not only for visualisation and documentation. According to this vision, the 3D model becomes a container of information, which include different type of data depending on the users and the aim of the work. The final result of this process can be the valorisation of the Cultural Heritage and its environment, through the access from experts and non-experts users. The aim of the article is showing the entire pipeline for 3D measurement, survey data acquisition, modelling, and representation of tangible assets and the related layers of information, as “best practice” to improve the Cultural Heritage knowledge, fruition, and sharing.