This paper presents a different point of view on the conservation of the built heritage, adding ionizing radiation to the most well-known digital documentation dataset. Igneous building materials characterize most of the built heritage in the Campania region, and in a large part of southern Italy. The ionizing radiations proceeding from these materials can produce stochastic biological effects on the exposed living beings. The research team designed and tested a technical-scientific protocol to survey and analyse this natural phenomenon in association with the use of geological material for building purposes. Geographical Information Systems (GISs), City Information Modelling (CIM), and Building Information Modelling (BIM) are the digital tools used to manage the construction entities and their characteristics, and then to represent the thematic data as false-colour images. The emission spectra of fair-faced or plastered materials as a fingerprint of their nature is proposed as a non-invasive method. Due to both the huge presence of historical buildings and an intense touristic flow, the main square of Pompei has been selected as a study area.

The aim of this research is to present the results of research project called “Pompei, Knowledge Factory”, whereas the `Knowledge Factory' represents a specific territorial infrastructure that, along with integrating know-how and technologies, may serve as the driver of innovation within the cycle of the protection and regenerative development of the cultural, environmental, landscape and industrial assets. Regeneration that could modify Pompei in a smart city. The definition of smart city, which has emerged in recent years, identifies a technological and interconnected city, that is also sustainable, comfortable, attractive, confident, with a balanced development and better management of energy resources and transport, reducing emissions, waste, pollution and congestion. In short, a “smart” design should not to dwell on mere regulations, but rather propose an integrated concept of the city landscape and development, reordering priorities and mobilizing the key issues in a logic of smart territories and communities that functions as a major stimulus for innovative research as well as projects. The ambitious goal of this project was to define operational protocols for the analysis, the survey and sustainable management of the territory of Pompei, not limited to the enclosure of the archaeological excavations, but rather included the whole municipality, with it being a carrier of critical elements, that has enormous chances still to be highlighted and valorised. In fact, the City of Pompei is unique due to the presence of two important tourist attractions (over than 6 million of tourists each year): the archaeological excavations of the City submerged by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompei, now a Marian pontifical shrine and minor basilica, one of the most popular Italian destinations “to be blessed”. These tourist attractions lie in the modern City of Pompei, beyond which lies a sprawling, chaotic conurbation, that in the absence of any form of planning has spontaneously risen over the years. Preliminary knowledge of the city and archaeological site areas is the fundamental critical premise, both in the collection of data as well as their return. The research was also an opportunity to set up an experiment, with the integrated use of survey techniques and tools, a field laboratory in order to develop a methodology for multidimensional and multi-scalar integrated digital surveying, that can be exported to other contexts.