The survey of cultural heritage after an earthquake: The case of emilia -Lombardia in 2012

In recent years many earthquakes hit Italy and its Cultural Heritage. The topic of survey of buildings damaged by seismic events and their interpretation has become very relevant and involved many research groups and Italian Civil Protection. The damage survey has different roles: in the first stage, immediately after the emergency, the documentation is necessary for the shoring and protection of damaged structures (AEDES forms of Civil Protection). The aim of the second stage is the study and the documentation for the restoration, reconstruction and retrofitting of buildings. In this context, this study presents methods and instruments used in the survey of 24 churches in the province of Mantua, Lombardy, after the 2012 earthquake sequence. The paper examines the difficulties in surveying damaged buildings and presents the classification used to define, time by time, the most suitable survey approach in the field of Geomatics. In this classification, many aspects are taken into account, such as logistical and practical problems, safety conditions, time preserving methods, economic decisions, complexity of building and required results. The accurate documentation obtained as a three-dimensional architectural database allows for the observation and analysis of the damage, the definition of interpretative models and the development of intervention projects. Different results are obtained from the point cloud database: Traditional 2D representations for architectural projects as well as 3D models for structural analysis or for the development of BIM.