Digital strategies for the valorisation of archival heritage

20th century pre-digital architectural archives are a current topic of interest for scholars involved in historical studies as well as those studying conservation, valorisation and communication. These vast archival heritages could be enhanced by the methodologies, techniques and tools offered by the digital revolution. The present proposal demonstrates this potential through the application of structure from motion techniques to a physical scale model that represents the Turin Horse Racing designed by Carlo Mollino. Moreover, the paper presents a comparison of different software, methodologies and modelling tools and suggests a design for virtual and on-site communication strategies. These strategies fuel new interrelations of knowledge and ideas, through which an archive can become a place of convergence between the real and the virtual

AR AND VR FOR ENHANCING MUSEUMS’ HERITAGE THROUGH 3D RECONSTRUCTION OF FRAGMENTED STATUE AND ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT

This paper presents the results of multidisciplinary research in which reconstructive digital modelling operates on different areas of heritage and at different scales to realize an analysis, interpretation, and communication experience in the field of museum valorization. It is, in fact, a work that includes both the philological reconstruction of the lost parts of a Buddha statue of Gandhāra, dating back to the second century b.C. and kept at the Museum of Oriental Art (MAO) in Turin, and its contextualization within a coeval architectural complex, recognized as philologically compatible, located in Balo-Kale, in the region of Gandhāra. The reconstructive models are finally used with communicative purposes for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications inside the museum

3D Reconstruction and Presentation of Cultural Heritage: AR and VR Experiences at the Museo d’Arte Orientale di Torino

For years, virtual reconstruction in the figurative arts, and sculpture, in particular, has been developing and consolidating. The workflow from the acquisition to three-dimensional modelling and to the integration of missing parts, has been optimized through processes entirely implemented in the digital dimension. The most recent developments in augmented reality and virtual reality technologies, together with the possibility of using low-cost and widely available devices, have made it possible to establish new links between the real and the virtual. The experiences presented in this paper comes up within the agreement between the Politecnico di Torino and the Museo d’Arte Orientale (MAO). The workflow set up for this research involves: structure from motion (SfM) survey, 3D modelling, and 3D philological reconstruction, then develops a proposal to implement augmented and virtual reality experiences aimed at the communication and fruition of the exhibits. The case study concerns two Japanese statues, and proposes their visualisation with the respective weapons virtually reconstructed, and through VR, involving the reconstruction of the interior space of a temple recognised as philologically compatible with the location of the statues within a statuary complex

FIRE PLANNING OF URBAN-RURAL INTERFACE IN OPEN SOURCE GIS ENVIRONMENT: CASE STUDY OF THE APULIA REGION (SOUTHERN ITALY)

Abstract. Fires represent one of main challenges of the last decades as global changes are causing an increase in economic and environmental damages. Indeed, just in 2017, more than 10,000 km2 of land were burned in Europe, causing significant damage to both the natural heritage (25% of burned areas were part of Natura 2000 protected areas) and the economy with estimated losses around 10 billion euros. In addition, every year there are losses of human life that make even more necessary new strategies of action and monitoring. Therefore, an efficient management of forecasting, prevention, active fight and post fire phases, is essential to make the territories less vulnerable and reduce the impacts on human lives. But these steps require an integrated approach of different tools in order to make faster and more efficient the different operations. In this context, the study illustrates the expeditious and standardized methodologies in open source GIS environment proposed in a research project with the Civil Protection of Apulia Region in order to implement a vulnerability index to improve operations in forecasting, emergency management in real-near time and post-event analysis in urban-rural interface. All the techniques and methodologies proposed were based on the use of QGIS software as it is a highly user friendly software that can be easily used even by non-specialized technicians. Moreover, the methodologies have been validated through a direct comparison with the tools currently in use in Civil Protection Department of Apulia Region

Development of an OpenFOAM multiphysics solver for solid fission products transport in the Molten Salt Fast Reactor

The analysis of innovative reactor concepts such as the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) requires the development of new modeling and simulation tools. In the case of the MSFR, the strong intrinsic coupling between thermal-hydraulics, neutronics and fuel chemistry has led to the adoption of the multiphysics approach as a state-of-the-art paradigm. One of the peculiar aspects of liquid-fuel reactors such as the MSFR is the mobility of fission products (FPs) in the reactor circuit. Some FP species appear in form of solid precipitates carried by the fuel flow and can deposit on reactor boundaries (e.g., heat exchangers), potentially representing design issues related to the degradation of heat exchange performance or radioactive hotspots. The integration of transport models for solid particles in multiphysics codes is therefore relevant for the prediction of deposited fractions. To this aim, we develop a multiphysics solver based on the OpenFOAM library to address the issue of solid fission products transport. Single-phase incompressible thermal hydraulics are coupled with neutron diffusion, and advection-diffusion-decay equations are implemented for fission products concentrations. Particle deposition and precipitation are considered as well. The developed solver is tested on two different MSFR application to showcase the capabilities of the solver in steady-state simulation and to investigate the role of precipitation and turbulence modeling in the determination of particle concentration distributions

FROM SURVEY TO 3D MODELLING TO DIGITAL FABRICATION. A WORKFLOW AIMED AT DOCUMENTING AND TRANSMITTING BUILT HERITAGE

This contribution illustrates the results of research that aims to connect the workflow for knowledge - survey, interpretation, modeling - to the transmission of this knowledge and enhancement of Cultural Heritage by physical models, demonstrating its potential in a "Design for All" perspective. Palazzo Mazzonis, the current seat of the MAO (Museo d’Arte Orientale), is one of the many buildings in the historic city center of Turin characterized by a particular complex vaulted atrium: it has been investigated through TLS survey tools for the production of two-dimensional drawings (for the detailed representation of architectural features) and three-dimensional models (for the interpretation of the design idea through geometry). The last phase of work aims to translate the interpretative digital models into tactile models for Cultural Heritage transmission, through processes of digital fabrication, with obvious impacts on the visit path inside the museum, also with didactic purposes

Recognizing the Design Patterns of Complex Vaults: Drawing, Survey and Modeling. Experiments on Palazzo Mazzonis’ Atrium in Turin

This paper shows the results of research advances on complex vaulted systems produced by the integration of laser scanner survey techniques and three-dimensional modeling for the geometric interpretation of built architecture to recognizing the geometric matrices of the design conception. The integration between TLS techniques and digital modeling methods led to the definition of new workflows, aimed at optimizing the use of data and at refining the quality of the geometrical interpretation. The process incorporates the traditional activities of freehand drawing of eydotipes, aimed at a deep understanding of the peculiar characteristics of the artifact. In particular, from these procedures new opportunities for the research arise to better understand the relationships between survey data, geometric matrices and compositional rules. The case study presented here, the atrium of Palazzo Mazzonis in Turin was chosen among a small number of atria that present characteristics of originality and uniqueness in a panorama of realizations strongly characterized by compliance with well-established compositional schemes

Combining methods to estimate post-fire soil erosion using remote sensing data

The increasing number of wildfires in southern Europe is making our ecosystem more vulnerable to water erosion; i.e., the loss of vegetation and subsequent runoff increase cause a shift in large quantities of sediment. Fire severity has been recognized as one of the most important parameters controlling the magnitude of post-fire soil erosion. In this paper, we adopted a combination of methods to easily assess post-fire erosion and prevent potential risk in subsequent rain events. The model presented is structured into three modules that were implemented in a GIS environment. The first module estimates fire severity with the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) method; the second estimates runoff with rainfall depth–duration curves and the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method; and the third estimates pre-and post-fire soil erosion. In addition, two post-fire scenarios were analyzed to assess the influence of fire severity on soil erosion: the former based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the latter on the Relative differenced Normalized Burn Index (RdNBR). The results obtained in both scenarios are quite similar and demonstrate that transitional areas, such as rangelands and rangelands with bush, are the most vulnerable because they show a significant increase in erosion following a fire event. The study findings are of secondary importance to the combined approach devised because the focal point of the study is to create the basis for a future tool to facilitate decision making in landscape management