A Combination of Geomatic Techniques for Modelling the Urban Environment in Virtual Reality

Historical city centres represent invaluable cultural and architectural heritage, often facing challenges such as neglect, urbanisation, and dwindling visitor engagement. Italian city centres are usually rich in historical buildings, statues and open-sky arts, causing difficulties in changing the urbanisation tissue and promoting infrastructural works in front of the citizens. Therefore, it is fundamental not only to document and survey the current state with geomatics techniques but also to propose engaging and educational experiences for citizens exploiting the potential of VR. In fact, VR offers an immersive and interactive medium that can bridge the gap between the past and the present, revitalising these urban gems while preserving their historical significance. This paper focuses on two aspects of historical city centres’ digital documentation: (a) the geomatics integrated survey exploiting LiDAR and UAV photogrammetric techniques and (b) the process of optimising geomatics products into VR experiences. A big issue in transposing dense digital models into a VR environment is the information's weight, which prevents the app from running smoothly. We aim to comprehensively examine the potential, challenges, and best practices for processing surveying data at optimal efficiency with respect to a VR environment.