A Photogrammetry Reconstruction of Emissario Romano in Capistrello

UAV Photogrammetry is a quite widely use technology for 3D reconstruction of territory, thanks to its satisfying results in many fields of applications and its low cost. Most of researches that addressed this topic use Ground Control Points (GCPs) for scaling and georeferencing the acquired point-cloud. In this paper, due to the particular morphology of the surveyed territory that makes very difficult to define GCPs in the region of interest, an innovative technique based on geometrical features was used for orienting, scaling and georeferencing the 3D point-cloud. The case is the ancient Roman outlet of the Fucino emissary, sited in a very steep and not accessible area, near Capistrello (AQ) city, Italy. The obtained results show that the proposed methodology, although less accurate than standard one using GCPs, provides quite good results, so that it can be used where the use of GCPs is difficult or impossible.