ADVANCED GIS TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPORT GEREFERENCING OF THE 
CULTURAL HERITAGE 
R. Brumana 3, *, C. Achille b ' 
a DIIAR, Faculty of Architecture, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. Da Vinci, 32-20133 Milano, Italy - 
(raffaella.brumana@polimi.it) 
b DIIAR, Civil and Environment Faculty, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. Da Vinci, 32-20133 Milano, Italy - 
(cristiana.achille@polimi.it) 
CIPA 2003 XIX International Symposium 
“New perspectives to save cultural heritage” 
Antalya - Turkey, 30 September - 4 October 2003 
KEY WORDS: Cultural heritage, GIS, 2D-3D Georeferencing methods, numerical cartography 
ABSTRACT: 
The project “Georeferencing of Architectural Heritage” is part of a larger Regional Program of Development that provides the 
carrying out of the management aim “Achievement and optimization of the Informative System of Lombardia for the Risk Chart of 
Cultural HeritageThe project aims to build, as pointed out in laws, the co-ordination of activities and specific competences that 
are necessary to reach the definitions of rules, methodologies and specific techniques for the Georeferencing of monumental heritage 
in the entire regional territory. Georeferentiation means the base to manage the cultural heritage integrated by environmental 
thematic coverage of soil characteristics and risk (multiple indexes, ...) related to the physical and spatial geographical position of 
monuments. Here are related different methods for the acquisition of the geographic position of monuments, the spirit of draft 
proposal of specification and guide lines, new perspectives opened by the research and new fields of apply. 
1. MANUSCRIPT 
Introduction 
Our research - part of the larger study into preparation of a Risk 
Map of Cultural Heritage - has already been studied by the 
research group of the Operating Unit of Polytechnic of Milan, 
inside CofinOO 1 : CofinOO 2 dealt with digital methodologies of 
surveying, GIS and multimedia networks for architectonic and 
environmental objects. The experiments conducted in this field, 
not yet concluded, have uncovered problems inherent to the 
research initiated, but at the same time, have shed light on still 
other issues relating to aspects associated with protection and 
what is commonly known as the "Risk Map". The research has 
been developed inside a second co-fmanced 3 project, that is 
begun the last year and will be concluded the next year, and is 
the natural following of the last project. 
The contemporary Research with the IRER (Regional Institute 
of Economic Research, property of Region of Lombardy) on the 
issue of measuring and georeferencing protected and non 
protected cultural objects (pursuant to Law 1089/39) located in 
Lombardy, has proven the appropriateness of the themes 
studied by Cofin and, at the same time, has emphasised other 
very different problems, ranging from the space dedicated to 
survey procedures, digitalization, georeferencing, and 
classification right up to the need to apply new instrumental 
survey technologies, as well as application of appropriate, 
already existing maps to prepare the "Risk Map". 
"Study and experimentation activities in the field relative to the 
definition of methodologies, regulations, and technical 
specifications for georeferencing and photographic 
documentation of the historic architectural heritage of the 
Region of Lombardy (Restricted Property in terms of Law 
1089/39)” is the title of the research contract carried out 
between the DIIAR and IRER. 
This is a strategic project for the Region 4 , the field of apply of 
georeferencing campaigns is represented both by monumental 
heritage protected by law and under the supervision of the 
Superintendence (about 9000 monuments in the only Region of 
Lombardy are protected with declared protection decree), all the 
public architectures with more than fifteen years (for law they 
are automatically protected and are not included in the upper 
set, there is no list) and by heritage non protected by law, with 
recognized historic and artistic value included in the map of risk 
of cultural heritage. 
The experience acquired through MURST research, combined 
with this other specific experience, has allowed us to get a good 
handle on the problem, with a complete awareness of the 
complexity of the problem, its multiplicity, and consequently, 
the difficulties inherent in problem-solving. From here, the 
reasons behind this research. 
The main targets of the project can be summarized in the 
following steps: 
1. defining methodologies and standards of georeferencing 
(photographic documentation included) inside the Regional 
Territorial Informative System (SIT). 
2. testing instruments and georeferencing rules and methods 
based on numerical cartography such as CTR, orthophotos, or 
based on direct surveying using low cost new portable GPS 
instrument, ...; 
3. evaluating costs and management aspects in different 
hypothesis; 
4. testing the process in pilot - area with different territorial 
characteristics (cities, mountain, hill, lake landscapes);