Low cost survey and heritage value

In the last two decades, the approach to surveying, profoundly modified by massive acquisition methodologies, has strongly influenced the construction of 3D models, which come closer and closer to reality. Various operations performed on numerical models prove to be necessary for defining geometric or mathematical models, which become ever more congruent with architectonic and archaeological artifacts. Today models are the point of departure for all the activities aimed at a more profound knowledge of the object. Different fields of operations connected with Cultural Heritage - from cataloguing to preservation, from designing to restoration and valorization - begin to present the enormous potentialities inherent in models obtained through 3D surveys. In some cases to observe artifacts in various scales and from different viewpoints, it is such to explore such models than the work itself. Moreover, they make it possible to design and prepare reconstruction, reinforcement and restoration operations directly in three dimensions as well as to document different transformations the artifacts underwent in the course of centuries. Models prove to be an indispensable element not only at the stage of preparation, preservation and valorization but also at that of prevention, which at present seems to be the most efficient and far-sighted means for ensuring the stability and security of architectonic and urban heritage.