3d Modeling of Boccaccio's Hometown through a Multisensor Survey

This 3D modeling experience lies in the more general framework of large scale cartography aimed at conservation of an historical city center. The study has been applied to the ancient nucleus of “Certaldo Alto”, a medieval village in Tuscany famous as Boccaccio’s birthplace. The data acquisition project exploited the synergy of topography, photogrammetry and 3D scanning for generating a cartography at 1:500 scale. The model was built starting from a common aerophotogrammetric survey, suitable for generating a traditional cartographic representation. Instead of dropping the height information, it was employed for building a texturized 3D model, suitable for visualization and virtual visit of the site. Preliminarily to the 3D model creation a critical analysis of the data obtained by photogrammetry has been carried out and different objects have been assigned to different layers. 3D polylines have been then extruded from the vertexes of each building for generating the external walls. Similarly roofs surfaces have been identifi ed. All the elements not deductible by photogrammetry, as stairs, porches and overhangs, have been modeled through the integration of a topographic survey. The altimetry of the area has been obtained from an aerophotogrammety generated DTM. The model texturization with digital photographs allowed to add visual reality to the model. The fi nal passage to formats for animation (.avi) or interactive exploration (.wrl), allowed fi nally to dynamically present the town survey.