Geoinformatics Technologies for Preservation of Cultural Heritage, Case Study, Rákóczi-Bánffy Castle, Urmeniș, Bistriţa Năsăud County, Romania

Abstract The paper presents an application of the methodology used in the paper “Synthetic analysis of geoinformatics technologies for cultural heritage conservation, methodological approach”. The creation of the 3D model of the Rákóczi-Bánffy Castle in Urmeniș, Bistrița Năsăud County, was done by applying and integrating Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) technologies and aerial photogrammetry performed with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Agisoft Photoscan was used to compare the results and then they were compared with the images scanned using CloudCompare software. Thus, following the performance, with the help of the mentioned software, of a series of processing of the point cloud obtained, through the two imaging technologies, the error between the points belonging to the point cloud taken with UAV and the one taken with Laser Scanner was between 1 and 15 mm, the margin of error being acceptable for monuments without complex architectural details, so that the point cloud resulting from UAVs can be used successfully in this activity. The aim of the paper is to elaborate a geomatic methodology with an optimized cost-quality ratio, later replicable in the analysis of the current state of other constructions of the same type, knowing that over 600 castles in Transylvania alone are in a similar state, and such cases can be found in other Central European states as well.