Remote Sensing and In-Situ Measurements for the Structural Monitoring of Historical Monuments: The Consoli Palace of Gubbio, Italy

The paper presents recent results of diagnostic and monitoring activities carried out on the Consoli Palace of Gubbio (Italy) through satellite radar interferometry and in-situ continuous measurements. The work aims to investigate the effectiveness of remote sensing technologies in the understanding of complex phenomena, such as seismic vulnerability aspects concerning crack amplitudes evolution over time and soil-structure interaction, for the conservation of Cultural Heritage (CH). These activities have been carried out within the European HERACLES project, funded in the framework of Horizon 2020 and aimed at proposing novel diagnostic monitoring solutions for enhancing heritage resilience against various types of hazards. As far as it concerns the radar interferometry analysis, two datasets from the COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation were used, processed with the Persistent Scatterer Pair (PSP) and SAR Tomography (TomoSAR) techniques, while the on-site structural monitoring system consists of two LVDTs installed on the Consoli Palace, each of them equipped with environmental sensors, in particular with thermocouples. The comparison between the outputs of satellite radar interferometry and in-situ structural monitoring data of the two test-beds, made between July 2017 and the end of 2018, allows assessing the potential of remote sensing techniques in supporting decision-making and proactive interventions for CH conservation.