Description
The cultural heritage of a nation represents one of its most important assets because of the multiple economic and social implications connected to it. In the case of Italy, it is safe to say that its tangible and intangible cultural heritage represents one of its most important resources both from an economic point of view, due to the induced effects it creates, and for the historical memory it enshrines. The preservation of this heritage must be one of the main objectives that a nation must pursue In this scenario, a significant contribution has been made by the Internet of Things paradigm, which has made it possible to collect real-time data from sensors placed on the structures to be monitored, thus enabling the implementation of methodologies for predictive maintenance. A further contribution to the development of these methodologies came from the emergence of the Digital Twin concept, a digital model of an intended or actual real-world physical product, system, or process (a physical twin) that serves as the effectively indistinguishable digital counterpart of it for practical purposes. To make the Digital Twin even more effective, it is possible to link it to the real structure through the HBIM, that is a process applied to existing buildings or monuments that aims at the creation of so-called 'intelligent models'. The latter is rich in geometric information and inclusive of the state of preservation of materials, in which all components are parametric objects with well-defined semantics and capable of containing all historical information derived from appropriate documentary analysis. This paper aims to present a methodology that can consider HBIM models as Digital Twins enriched with data provided in real-time by IoT-based infrastructures placed on the structures to be monitored. Models are acquired in an increasingly precise and reliable manner thanks to modern surveying methods such as laser scanning and photogrammetry. The proposed methodology, which is articulated in a well-defined workflow, was applied in a real scenario: the Archaeological Park of Velia and, more precisely, Porta Rosa, a 4th-century B.C. construction that constitutes the oldest known example of a round arch in Italy. The first results of the experiment are more than satisfactory.
