Low Altitude Remote Sensing by UAV for monitoring and emergency management on historical heritage

Elena Candigliota, Francesco Immordino

ENEA, UTSISM  Technical Unity of Seismic Engineering, Via Martiri di Monte Sole 4, 40129 Bologna.

ABSTRACT

At Bondeno, a small town in province of Ferrara, affected by the Emilia-Romagna earthquake, ENEA performed a test to verify the effectiveness of Low Altitude Remote Sensing for monitoring and management of earthquake emergency on historical heritage.

Test object were two churches with steeples and  “Rocca Possente”, fortified tower and UNESCO heritage, all damaged by earthquake. The acquired images, processed by image analysis using a new classification object oriented method,  will allow knowledge of  conservation and damage status of the buildings and the assessment of recovery works.

Low Altitude Remote Sensing (LARS) is a set of techniques for collecting data through the use of sensors (optical, chemical, etc.) mounted on carriers (drones, remote-controlled helicopters with a digital receiver system) operating at a few hundred meters. Registration systems allow remote data acquisition and images in areas affected by natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc..) for the assessment of damages, the logistics of rescue and routine control of situations and interventions on the territory (quarries, landfills, nourishment, structures and buildings, geo-archaeological surveys, etc.). The platform allows to shoot at low altitude and with high detail, structural and architectural details of buildings, determine the conservation status, structural damage and collapse danger. The technology is particularly useful in cases where the buildings are inaccessible due to serious damage.