UAV-based photogrammetry for archaeological heritage site survey and 3D modeling of the Sardus Pater Temple (Italy)

Despite the high standard guaranteed by 3D scanning technology, image based modeling establishes the most widely used technique for surface reconstruction, being a cheaper and more portable approach. The strong increase in the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), is increasingly affirming and consolidating over the years. Being more cheap and portable than the active sensors approach, the combination of photogrammetry and drones is widely used for different applications both for large scale mapping and for documentation of architecture and archaeological heritage. UAV based photogrammetry allows for rapid accurate mapping and three-dimensional modelling. Over the last two decades, the study of archaeological sites have benefited from the constant evolution of sensor-based surveying techniques, finding effective application for purely visualization purposes or for the extraction of metric data. The Punic-Roman temple "Sardus Pater Babai" in southern Sardinia (Italy), has been the subject of a massive anastylosis. The close-range photogrammetry technique, exploiting the images produced by a UAV consumer and the GNSS system data, has allowed the creation of metrically correct 2D and 3D models useful also for an effective visualization of the information. A series of ortho-images has been extracted in order to represent plan, elevations and cross-sections of the monument