Generation of a Spatial Information System for architecture with laserscanning data

ABSTRACT: In architectural and cultural heritage documentation, laser scanning technology today offers several opportunities to approach the object to study and to extract manifold information levels from it. These account for point-clouds, 3-D models, and other data about the state of conservation. Georeferenced point-clouds can be adopted as the spatial framework of a Space Information System for Architecture, integrating all spatial information acquired by TLS, photogrammetry, geodetic surveying and direct survey, but also from other investigation techiques (e.g. GPR, thermal cameras, etc.). Such information system allows to make assessments that are important for the classification of structural elements or for the determination of the state of decay or preservation of each architectural element. With reference to the survey of two wooden domes of San Marco Basilica in Venice (Italy), the completion of the 3-D model of their complex structure is presented here through the description of its main stages, i.e. data acquisition, registration and modelling. The final 3-D model is then assumed as a 3-D database which clarifies the shape, the composition, the state of conservation and the structural function of the wooden beams of the domes.