Close range photogrammetry with tablet technology in post-earthquake scenario: Sant'Agostino church in Amatrice

In recent years, numerous natural disaster affected the Italian territory, growing the demand of secure on-field procedures able to accomplish the task of reconnaissance, inspection and survey of instable infrastructure and cultural heritage. During the early-impact there are numerous first response figures, like firefighters, civil protection, geotechnical inspectors and surveyors, that have to operate nearby damaged structure putting at risk their lives in case of possible collapses. Most of these operators work in heavy conditions, so they need tools and procedures that allow them to rush into decisions. These procedures must be rapid, easy to use and must allow the possibility to conduct the task with a certain distance of the instable or not easily accessible structures. This paper deals with the use of tablet devices for rapid close range photogrammetry in post-earthquake scenario, following the close range photogrammetry approach. Starting from images acquired by tablets during speditive surveys, the authors show how is possible to reconstruct the environment starting from data acquired by low cost devices. The case-study considered in this work is the Sant’Agostino Church in Amatrice (Italy), a cultural heritage highly damaged by the 6.0 magnitude earthquake occurred on 24 August 2016 in the central part of Italy.