Integration of Geomatic Techniques for quick and rigorous surveying of Cultural Heritage

The field of Cultural Heritage surveying is probably the most emblematic of potentialities offered by Geomatic technologies integration, either because of specific peculiarities presented by every case of study, and because frequently the work conditions impose a short acquisition time, a requirement that a multi-disciplinary surveying approach can today partially address and resolve. This is especially the case after a calamitous event, when a rapid and rigorous evaluation of object conditions and material decay can become fundamental. The paper presents an experimentation carried out at the Mesopotam monastery (XIII century A. D.), in the framework of the Archaeological Mission of the University of Bologna at the Phoinike site (Albania). The surveying operations involved different methodologies simultaneously applied: a long static GPS observation was conducted on a reference point established in the area, to perform the absolute geo-referencing of the site in ITRF2000, and the same point was used as master station for kinematic GPS survey, in order to realize an expeditious survey of the wall structures; in this way was also georeferenced a photogrammetric survey to support digital orthophoto and rectification production for a quick metric representation of monastery external facades, and a single-camera system emulating a stereocamera permitted the accurate stereoscopic acquisition of architectonical details without control points; the indoor interactive exploration by Quick Time Virtual Reality system proved a simple method to document the crack phenomenons state. This survey represents an example of optimization and integration of different geomatic techniques and technologies to acquire in a short time by a small group a rigorous geo-referenced documentation of archaeological or architectural sites, with data related to the object and to its context.