New technologies and methodologies for the planned conservation of cultural heritage: a case study applied to Venetian Walls and the former Convent of Sant’Agostino in Bergamo

Time and weather effects as well as damages caused by invasive plants and animals, threaten our cultural heritage. The constant observation and periodic maintenance activities are the most suitable safeguarding solution: they can limit risk situations and facilitate interventions. Today, planned conservation is thus the best way to preserve the monuments as focused on small preventive restoration: actions organized and structured according to a steady and regular monitoring. The preliminary survey, the interpretation of metric and material data and the subsequent verification of the evolution of instability and degradation phenomena based on a comparison with previous information, is a long and expensive activity if carried out by traditional systems. Otherwise, 3D laser scanning and image-based reconstruction methodologies, employed on aerial drones - if properly applied within optimized operational practices and integrated with traditional diagnostic instruments - can allow both the systematic control of assets’ conditions and the evaluation of their health status and decay causes in a short time and with lower costs. Therefore, the assessment of any deterioration improvement is possible by means of data and images recorded at different times and catalogued in a web database. This paper intends to show the validity of such an innovative methodology through a case study applied to the Venetian Walls and the former convent of Sant’Agostino in Bergamo.