The rising attention to energy consumption problems is renewing interest in the applications of thermal remote sensing in urban areas. The research presented here aims to test a methodology to retrieve information about roof surface temperature by means of a high resolution orthomosaic of airborne thermal infrared images, based on a case study acquired over Bologna (Italy). The ultimate aim of such work is obtaining datasets useful to support, in a GIS environment, the decision makers in developing adequate strategies to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emission. In the processing proposed, the computing of radiometric quantities related to the atmosphere was performed by the Modtran 5 radiative transfer code, while an object-oriented supervised classification was applied on a WorldView-2 multispectral image, together with a high-resolution digital surface model (DSM), to distinguish among the major roofing material types and to model the effects of the emissivity. The emissivity values were derived from literature data, except for some roofing materials, which were measured during ad hoc surveys, by means of a thermal camera and a contact probe. These preliminary results demonstrate the high sensitivity of the model to the variability of the surface emissivity and of the atmospheric parameters, especially transmittance and upwelling radiance.

The current dramatic episodes of destruction of archaeological sites have again highlighted the problem of the safeguarding the threatened heritage and, if possible, recovering those damaged by all the armed conflicts of the past.The historical photogrammetry offers the possibility to recover a posteriori the geometrical and material properties of destroyed structures, reconstructing their 3D model to document, study and maintain their memory, until to support their real anastylosis.The presented work is about the 3D reconstruction of the civic tower of the little town of Sant’Alberto, near the city of Ravenna, Italy. The tower, as a symbol of resistance and pride of the town's population, was destroyed in December 1944 by German troops in retaliation, when they were forced to leave the area.A city committee has subsequently collected all the historical evidence concerning the tower, including a series of photographic images that can be used for the photogrammetric reconstruction; the images calibration and orientation have been solved using the geometric information derived by a terrestrial laser scanner survey realized in the area where the tower was originally located.Despite the scarcity and very poor quality of the available images, the conducted photogrammetric procedure has allowed a complete and qualitatively satisfying object reconstruction, also thanks to the use of geometric constraint tools offered by the chosen software.The integration between the obtained model of the old tower and the 3D TLS survey of the square made it possible to reconstruct the ancient situation of the area.