Diagnosis of Heritage Built

Investigation on buildings and traditional system for dry stone retain walls by IR thermal scanning is useful to collect information regarding building technology and elements, their shape, their material characteristics, and their state of conservation/ damage. Different kinds of discontinuities affecting building structures are detected by thermal analysis of the surface temperature, taken at particular boundary conditions. The application of IR thermography to historic buildings is a specific use case of the thermal testing for buildings that are under protection of the government or municipality for their value as cultural heritage. The chapter, presents many application of land and aerial IRT scanning for historic buildings and built landscape. The utilization of IRT techniques in historical buildings has demonstrated great feasibility in evaluating, assessing, and monitoring cultural heritage across a wide variety of buildings and purposes. Although there are certain constraints and limitations of the application, primarily dependence on the climatic and environmental condition, it is possible to obtain reliable results in many cases regardless of their geographic location (Northern Europe and America, tropical areas, and so on) even if they are not present in the temperate zone. In addition, the use of IRT requires the collaboration with many scientific disciplines (history of architecture, the technology of ancient building materials, the technology of historical buildings, and so on) both in the planning phase of the test and the evaluation of the results. The collaborative evaluation of the results often results in a better understanding of the building itself and an improved assessment, far beyond the initial aim of testing the building.