The HBIM of the Basilica di Collemaggio in L'Aquila is part of the restoration project of the building seriously damaged by the earthquake in 2009. The project "Ripartire da Collemaggio", funded by ENIservizi, involves an interdisciplinary group called to work together toward a common goal: the need of security of the structures and the need of conservation of the architectonic value of the Basilica. Starting from the photogrammetric and laser scanning survey, interpretation and modelling were needed to create a detailed HBIM to manage the phases of analysis, simulation of structural behavior, economic evaluation of the project, and final restoration. This paper described the generation of the HBIM and its use in the on-going restoration project with a particular attention to the procedures used to preserve the complexity given by photogrammetric and laser scanning data.

A new 3D acquisition and processing procedure to map RGB, thermal IR and near infrared images (NIR) on a detailed 3D model of a building is presented. The combination and fusion of different data sources allows the generation of 3D thermal data useful for different purposes such as localization, visualization, and analysis of anomalies in contemporary architecture. The classic approach, which is currently used to map IR images on 3D models, is based on the direct registration of each single image by using space resection or homography. This approach is largely time consuming and in many cases suffers from poor object texture. To overcome these drawbacks, a “bi-camera” system coupling a thermal IR camera to a RGB camera has been setup. The second sensor is used to orient the “bi-camera” through a photogrammetric network also including free-handled camera stations to strengthen the block geometry. In many cases the bundle adjustment can be executed through a procedure for automatic extraction of tie points. Terrestrial laser scanning is adopted to retrieve the 3D model building. The integration of a low-cost NIR camera accumulates further radiometric information on the final 3D model. The use of such a sensor has not been exploited until now to assess the conservation state of buildings. Here some interesting findings from this kind of analysis are reported. The paper shows the methodology and its experimental application to a couple of buildings in the main Campus of Politecnico di Milano University, where IR thermography has previously been carried out for conservation and maintenance purposes.

Digital twins (DTs) and building information modelling (BIM) are proving to be valuable tools for managing the entire life cycle of a building (LCB), from the early design stages to management and maintenance over time. On the other hand, BIM platforms cannot manage the geometric complexities of existing buildings and the large amount of information that sensors can collect. For this reason, this research proposes a scan-to-BIM process capable of managing high levels of detail (LODs) and information (LOIs) during the design, construction site management, and construction phases. Specific grades of generation (GOGs) were applied to create as-found, as-designed, and as-built models that interact with and support the rehabilitation project of a multi-level residential building. Furthermore, thanks to the sharing of specific APIs (Revit and Autodesk Forge APIs), it was possible to switch from static representations to novel levels of interoperability and interactivity for the user and more advanced forms of building management such as a DT, a BIM cloud, and an extended reality (XR) web platform. Finally, the development of a live app shows how different types of users (professionals and non-expert) can interact with the DT, in order to know the characteristics with which the environments have been designed, as well as the environmental parameters, increasing their degree of control, from the point of view of improving comfort, use, costs, behaviour, and good practices. Finally, the overall approach was verified through a real case study where the BIM-XR platform was built for energy improvements to existing buildings and façade renovations.

Monitoring landscapes in times of climate change patterns is a crucial issue, moreover, in the analyzed Mediterranean area, one of the major global candidates to develop land degradation stresses and consequential desertification phenomena. The research presented here is developed in the Mediterranean Basin, specifically in the Basilicata Region (southern Italy). The region is characterized by a very long history of intensive anthropization endowed by the high diversity of relatively geologically young soil types that consequentially created a vastity of spatial mosaics, which contributed to the composition of its archeolandscapes and endorsed some specific characteristics of the Mediterranean region, that evolved to respond to the human impact, including grazing, cultivation, and fires. Those key elements lead to the crucial issues of the region investigated here as soil erosion, salinization, loss of organic carbon, loss of biodiversity, and landslides, which together with deforestations, depopulation, and wildfires, define the exact framework of degradation and marginality. The evaluation of the sensitivity to degradation was performed (i) firstly at the regional scale, through a MEDALUS (Kosmas et al. 1999) approach, by implementing 6 main indicators (Soil Quality Index, Climate Quality Index, Vegetation Quality Index, Management Quality Index, Landslide Risk Index, Water Availability Index), and (ii) secondly at the mid-regional scale, through remote sensing by evaluation of the NDVI differencing thresholds in time intervals, covering a 20 years’ time span going from 2000 to 2020. The study helped to define the in-progress land degradation trends and scenarios of the region, which must be the evidence-based foundation of integrated landscape planning strategies in marginal territories, implemented through a Decision Support System (DSS) based both on ecological, climate-adaptive, and environmental indicators, and on social, cultural, and economic development co-creation strategies.