Geoinformatics for the Preservation and Valorization of Cultural Heritage

A special issue of ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (ISSN 2220-9964).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 14102

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Mining Technology, Topography and Structures, University of León, Avda. Astorga, s/n, 24401 Ponferrada, Spain
Interests: photogrammetry; drones; laser scanning; radiometric calibration; remote sensing; RGB-D sensors; 3D modeling; mobile mapping; metrology; verification; inspection; quality control
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Guest Editor
Cartographic and Land Engineering Department, Higher Polytechnic School of Avila, University of Salamanca, Hornos Caleros, 50 05003 Avila, Spain
Interests: photogrammetry; laser scanning; 3D modeling; topography; cartography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cultural Heritage (CH) assets and archaeological sites are vulnerable and unrecoverable elements exposed to multiple threats, from natural disasters to human damage. The geoinformatics technologies of photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences are  being highlighted as key element in the preservation of CH structures and objects through the identification and 2D localization of objects, the 3D digitization and documentation, its evolution over time, its structural assessment and its management and planning, among others. This increasing need is the engine to develop new geoinformatics approaches, alone or complemented by archeological sciences, to meet the conservation, preservation and valorization needs.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Geo-Information originates from the Working Group (WG) II/8 of Commission II of the XXIV ISPRS 2020 Congress. One of the scopes of the Congress was to bring to the fore the latest developments in geoinformatics and the most interesting applications in CH. All participants have the chance to publish their extended and improved papers in this Joint Special Issue. All the papers submitted will undergo the standard peer review procedure.

We would like to invite you to contribute by submitting articles that discuss your recent research, experimental work, reviews and/or case studies related to geoinformatics and drones for the preservation and valorization of CH. Contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Three-dimensional documentation, modeling and/or visualization in CH.
  • Drones applications in CH.
  • Photogrammetry, laser scanning, mobile/handheld data collection in CH.
  • Heritage Building Information Modeling (HBIM).
  • Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR) in CH.
  • Data and sensor integration in CH.
  • Archive data digitization in CH.
  • Accuracy and precision assessment of CH modeling.
  • Machine/Deep Learning in CH.
  • Multi/hyperspectral analysis in CH.
  • Restoration/Rehabilitation in CH.
  • Three-dimensional prototyping in CH.
  • Underwater CH documentation.
  • Semantic classification of point clouds in CH.

Dr. Pablo Rodríguez-Gonzálvez
Prof. Dr. Fulvio Rinaudo
Prof. Dr. Diego González-Aguilera
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • geoinformatics
  • cultural heritage
  • drones
  • 3D modeling
  • mobile sensors
  • image-based sensors
  • range-based sensors
  • sensor fusion and data integration
  • point cloud processing (filtering, segmentation, classification, modeling)
  • HBIM
  • VR/AR/MR

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 4479 KiB  
Article
Students’ Reactions to Virtual Geological Field Trip to Baengnyeong Island, South Korea
by Woo-Hee Lee, Cheolhong Kim, Heejung Kim, Hee-Soo Kim and Chungwan Lim
ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(12), 799; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10120799 - 29 Nov 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2074
Abstract
In this study, we evaluated affective components of the learning processes of students after being exposed to a virtual geology field trip of the Baengnyeong Island, South Korea. Changes in students’ cognition of and interest in science and scientific attitude were measured before [...] Read more.
In this study, we evaluated affective components of the learning processes of students after being exposed to a virtual geology field trip of the Baengnyeong Island, South Korea. Changes in students’ cognition of and interest in science and scientific attitude were measured before and after exposure to the virtual field trip. We exposed 106 middle school students to the program and our results revealed that this program had a positive impact on their scientific attitude (p value = 0.014) but no significant changes were observed in the students’ cognition of and interest in science (p value = 0.166). The significant finding from this study was that the VFT program can bring positive scientific attitude as a component of affective learning process. The affective learning process influences the cognitive learning processes and eventually the academic achievement of the students can be improved. In the students’ satisfaction survey, the highest satisfaction level was in the convenience of the program. As access to Baengnyeong Island is limited, though the island is an ideal location for studying geological phenomena, the VFT can be a useful tool for instilling a positive scientific attitude in students via indirect field experience. It can be a good alternative to bridge the education gap between students with special needs who are less mobile and other students. Full article
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25 pages, 23428 KiB  
Article
Fully Automated Pose Estimation of Historical Images in the Context of 4D Geographic Information Systems Utilizing Machine Learning Methods
by Ferdinand Maiwald, Christoph Lehmann and Taras Lazariv
ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(11), 748; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10110748 - 4 Nov 2021
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 2696
Abstract
The idea of virtual time machines in digital environments like hand-held virtual reality or four-dimensional (4D) geographic information systems requires an accurate positioning and orientation of urban historical images. The browsing of large repositories to retrieve historical images and their subsequent precise pose [...] Read more.
The idea of virtual time machines in digital environments like hand-held virtual reality or four-dimensional (4D) geographic information systems requires an accurate positioning and orientation of urban historical images. The browsing of large repositories to retrieve historical images and their subsequent precise pose estimation is still a manual and time-consuming process in the field of Cultural Heritage. This contribution presents an end-to-end pipeline from finding relevant images with utilization of content-based image retrieval to photogrammetric pose estimation of large historical terrestrial image datasets. Image retrieval as well as pose estimation are challenging tasks and are subjects of current research. Thereby, research has a strong focus on contemporary images but the methods are not considered for a use on historical image material. The first part of the pipeline comprises the precise selection of many relevant historical images based on a few example images (so called query images) by using content-based image retrieval. Therefore, two different retrieval approaches based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) are tested, evaluated, and compared with conventional metadata search in repositories. Results show that image retrieval approaches outperform the metadata search and are a valuable strategy for finding images of interest. The second part of the pipeline uses techniques of photogrammetry to derive the camera position and orientation of the historical images identified by the image retrieval. Multiple feature matching methods are used on four different datasets, the scene is reconstructed in the Structure-from-Motion software COLMAP, and all experiments are evaluated on a newly generated historical benchmark dataset. A large number of oriented images, as well as low error measures for most of the datasets, show that the workflow can be successfully applied. Finally, the combination of a CNN-based image retrieval and the feature matching methods SuperGlue and DISK show very promising results to realize a fully automated workflow. Such an automated workflow of selection and pose estimation of historical terrestrial images enables the creation of large-scale 4D models. Full article
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18 pages, 2310 KiB  
Article
Towards an Operative Predictive Model for the Songshan Area during the Yangshao Period
by Lijie Yan, Peng Lu, Panpan Chen, Maria Danese, Xiang Li, Nicola Masini, Xia Wang, Lanbo Guo and Dong Zhao
ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(4), 217; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10040217 - 1 Apr 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2148
Abstract
The literature in the field of archaeological predictive models has grown in the last years, looking for new factors the most effective methods to introduce. However, where predictive models are used for archaeological heritage management, they could benefit from using a more speedy [...] Read more.
The literature in the field of archaeological predictive models has grown in the last years, looking for new factors the most effective methods to introduce. However, where predictive models are used for archaeological heritage management, they could benefit from using a more speedy and consequently useful methods including some well-consolidated factors studied in the literature. In this paper, an operative archaeological predictive model is developed, validated and discussed, in order to test its effectiveness. It is applied to Yangshao period (5000–3000 BC) in the Songshan area, where Chinese civilization emerged and developed, and uses 563 known settlement sites. The satisfactory results herein achieved clearly suggest that the model herein proposed can be reliably used to predict the geographical location of unknown settlements. Full article
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21 pages, 32297 KiB  
Article
A Critical Comparison of 3D Digitization Techniques for Heritage Objects
by Efstathios Adamopoulos, Fulvio Rinaudo and Liliana Ardissono
ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10010010 - 30 Dec 2020
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 5380
Abstract
Techniques for the three-dimensional digitization of tangible heritage are continuously updated, as regards active and passive sensors, data acquisition approaches, implemented algorithms and employed computational systems. These developments enable higher automation and processing velocities, increased accuracy, and precision for digitizing heritage assets. For [...] Read more.
Techniques for the three-dimensional digitization of tangible heritage are continuously updated, as regards active and passive sensors, data acquisition approaches, implemented algorithms and employed computational systems. These developments enable higher automation and processing velocities, increased accuracy, and precision for digitizing heritage assets. For large-scale applications, as for investigations on ancient remains, heritage objects, or architectural details, scanning and image-based modeling approaches have prevailed, due to reduced costs and processing durations, fast acquisition, and the reproducibility of workflows. This paper presents an updated metric comparison of common heritage digitization approaches, providing a thorough examination of sensors, capturing workflows, processing parameters involved, metric and radiometric results produced. A variety of photogrammetric software were evaluated (both commercial and open sourced), as well as photo-capturing equipment of various characteristics and prices, and scanners employing different technologies. The experimentations were performed on case studies of different geometrical and surface characteristics to thoroughly assess the implemented three-dimensional modeling pipelines. Full article
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