About Experiences of the Documentation of the Cathedral of Siena 
555 
4. PROPOSALS FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE 
Experiences with the Siena project and the daily practice in particular are arguments which have caused the subject of quality 
assurance for building surveys to be made a point of discussion at the CIPA Meeting 2001. 
Quality and costs are factors that are inseparably linked with each other. This is a truth that appears to go without saying. But what is 
the situation today also in the field of building surveying? In the light of the increasing damages of buildings and the resultant high 
economic losses it is pointed out again and again - as in the previous report on damages of buildings (Federal Report on Structural 
Damages), for example - that surveying and diagnosis must be improved. 
Unsystematic measures of repair and the majority of structural damages is considered to be due to inappropriate diagnoses of 
buildings. As far as monuments are concerned it is the irrecoverable loss of historical substance that is most deplorable. To remedy 
the situation, public funding requires recommendations for the diagnosis of buildings and monuments, an improvement of the 
training of architects and engineers and adequate evidence of an appropriate and easy-on-the-substance survey and diagnosis. Not 
least, however, the clients should in the light of impending price increases be interested for purely economic reasons in a reliable 
building survey as a necessary and profitable investment. Because of the lack of adequate rules and incentives, however, the 
conditions of the market tend to provoke poor performances and, consequently, financial losses on the part of the client. 
MESSBILDSTELLE has run advertising campaigns since many years with its guiding principle: "Preservation of monuments and 
efficient building requires a reliable knowledge of the building structure." It is important at the same time in the efforts for ensuring 
high standards of surveying to find a way to match high quality with economic efficiency. 
For the first time, MESSBILDSTELLE brought up theses for discussion at the "From hand survey to high-tech" colloquium at the 
Cottbus Brandenburg University in February 2000. 
Considering the situation, an expert system is proposed for the documentation of monuments and buildings. This is understood to be 
a suitable IT-based tool for all parties involved in the process, client and bidders. Differentiated recommendations and guidelines for 
contents, degree of detail and accuracy requirements will in the future have to make possible qualified job specifications and thus 
provide more transparency and comparability. In addition, unambiguous criteria of inspection will have to be established for 
evaluation and acceptance that must also allow the client or any third party to make quality inspections. The definition of formal and 
subject-related criteria for determining the quality will make it possible to obtain the necessary and appropriate results with a higher 
degree of certainty, and to take maximum advantage of the efforts made for any subsequent measures. 
It is necessary for quality assurance, of course, to know the suitable methods and their advantages and limits of application. In these 
terms, technology is an initial criterion for determining quality. Considering the experience described, clients will be well-advised if 
they set targets conforming to the state of art. Collections of methods and their evaluation would be an appropriate tool. 
The qualification of the personnel of service offices is in most cases confined to the use of new equipment and software. Of particular 
importance in this respect would be the development of training programs for these specialists in accordance with their field of work 
in the preservation of monuments and restoration. 
Quality management is geared to establishing controlled processes and should be an essential management tool of the companies in 
the service sector as is usual in other fields. This requires support in areas ranging from the development of corporate QM systems to 
certification. 
REFERENCES 
Kotowski, R., Meid, A., Peipe, J., Wester-Ebbinghaus, W., 1989: Photogrammetrische Bauaufnahme der “Kirchen von Siena” - 
Entwicklung eines Konzeptes zur Vermessung von Großbauwerken. Allgemeine Vermessungsnachrichten, 4/1989, pp. 144- 
154 
Fellbaum, M., Hau, T., 1995: Photogrammetrische Bauaufnahme und Darstellung des Domes in Siena. 
Bruschke, A., 2000: Qualitätssicherung in der Bauaufnahme - Der Einsatz moderner geodätisch-photogrammetrischer Verfahren zur 
Erfassung und Dokumentation von Denkmalen und Denkmalschäden. Kolloquium „Von Handaufmaß zu High Tech“, BTU 
Cottbus 22.-26.2.2000