Search

Detecting the impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbances that cause declines in organisms or changes in community composition has long been a focus of ecology. However, a tradeoff often exists between the spatial extent over which relevant data can be collected, and the resolution of those data. Recent advances in underwater photogrammetry, as well as computer vision and machine learning tools that employ artificial intelligence (AI), offer potential solutions with which to resolve this tradeoff. Here, we coupled a rigorous photogrammetric survey method with novel AI-assisted image segmentation software in order to quantify the impact of a coral bleaching event on a tropical reef, both at an ecologically meaningful spatial scale and with high spatial resolution. In addition to outlining our workflow, we highlight three key results: (1) dramatic changes in the three-dimensional surface areas of live and dead coral, as well as the ratio of live to dead colonies before and after bleaching; (2) a size-dependent pattern of mortality in bleached corals, where the largest corals were disproportionately affected, and (3) a significantly greater decline in the surface area of live coral, as revealed by our approximation of the 3D shape compared to the more standard planar area (2D) approach. The technique of photogrammetry allows us to turn 2D images into approximate 3D models in a flexible and efficient way. Increasing the resolution, accuracy, spatial extent, and efficiency with which we can quantify effects of disturbances will improve our ability to understand the ecological consequences that cascade from small to large scales, as well as allow more informed decisions to be made regarding the mitigation of undesired impacts.

Digital technologies are now mature for producing high quality digital replicas of Cultural Heritage (CH) assets. The research results produced in the last decade ignited an impressive evolution and consolidation of the technologies for acquiring high-quality digital three-dimensional (3D) models, encompassing both geometry and color. What remains still an open problem is how to deliver those data and related knowledge to our society. The web is nowadays the main channel for the dissemination of knowledge. Emerging commercial solutions for web-publishing of 3D data are consolidating and becoming a de-facto standard for many applications (e-commerce, industrial products, education, etc.). In this framework, CH is a very specific domain, requiring highly flexible solutions. Some recent experiences are presented, aimed at providing a support to the archival of archaeological 3D data, supporting web-based publishing of very high-resolution digitization results and finally enabling the documentation of complex restoration actions. All those examples have been recently implemented on the open-source 3D Heritage Online Presenter (3DHOP) platform, developed at CNR-ISTI.

In questo lavoro presentiamo le caratteristiche di un innovativo sistema di documentazione, realizzato per il restauro della Fontana del Nettuno di Bologna, che usa un accurato modello tridimensionale per archiviare i dati raccolti in modo referenziato alla geometria 3D, per accedere agli stessi usando il modello 3D come indice spaziale ed infine realizzare mappature direttamente sulla superficie dell'opera.