INVESTIGATION OF THE UNDERGROUND BUILDING HERITAGE AND THE MECHANISM OF WATER FLOWING IN QANĀTS IN PALERMO THROUGH INNOVATIVE SURVEYING TECHNIQUES

Abstract. The valorisation, protection and preservation policies for the underground building heritage are often difficult to implement due to an inadequate knowledge of hypogeal constructions. The complex and widespread underground structures of the vast “Cavo” Heritage (“horizontal wells”, “shelf wells” or “well tunnels”), so called qanāts, hidden underground and built over the centuries in Palermo, representing an evocative testimony to the history of water culture in the ancient city. Through the historical and constructive analyses and the implementation and development of measurement and 3D representation and visualization, first actions have been carried out. The paper will present the first results of the restoration project and the path of re-introduction in the fruition network of the qanāt “Gesuitico alto”, developed also in the field of “iHeritage. Mediterranean Platform for UNESCO Cultural Heritage” project, financed by ENI CBC MED Programme 2014–2020. The paper presents an experimentation of a procedural workflow of data acquisition, analysis and subsequent 3D virtual navigation of hypogeal environments. The methodology used is the SLAM with a last generation WMLS. The platform of virtual reality visualization, within UnReal Engine, allows the user to immerse and navigate in the anthropic environment by engaging it with a set of infographics that highlight the virtual visit.