This paper presents some preliminary results of the scientific investigations carried out at underground water channels located on Mounts Nebrodi in Sicily (Southern Italy). We performed several geophysical surveys as well as geomatics approaches were used in order to reconstruct 2D and 3D digital models of this underground monuments. n here, we also present the potential of valorizing these cultural heritage sites and its underground structures by the means of advanced technologies and digital reconstructions.

This study presents the results of a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) investigation combined with a photogrammetric survey of a small archaeological site in Rabat, Malta. The investigation was conducted in preparation for small but challenging road infrastructure works in view of the surrounding archaeologically rich landscape. This area is characterized by a significant concentration of Punico-Roman tombs and more extensive hypogea datable to the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. GPR survey shows anomalies in the form of elongated patterns, some of which aligned to a number of blocked entrances discovered during an archaeological investigation of the site carried out prior to the GPR survey. These anomalies are being interpreted as underground passages, known as ambulacra, of a previously undocumented Late Roman hypogeum. The newly discovered underground passages were mapped out in the obtained 3D photogrammetric model and orthophoto. Both results were plotted and analyzed together in 2D and 3D environments.

The paper presents the development of a Virtual Reality application to perform dives in the Christoforos Shipwreck. The huge wreck lies in the Panormos Bay of the Skopelos island (Greece) at a depth of 45 meters. Based on a well-known methodology designed for ancient shipwrecks, the 3D reconstruction of the underwater site has been carried out by adjusting the workflow to survey modern shipwrecks. In particular, the methodology, based on photogrammetry, is capable to provide a highly detailed 3D reconstruction of the shipwreck in few dives, considering issues like working depth, elevations, and thin elements modelling. Moreover, the paper describes the optimization of the 3D model and the software to be executed in low-performance HMD devices. The resulting Virtual Reality (VR) application, realized for touristic purposes, recreates the exact ambient conditions inside and outside the water simulating the flora and fauna of the place, the coastline, allowing users to live a recreational and educational experience by virtual diving in the underwater site.

The cartographic unification of the Italian peninsula with the Carta Topografica d’Italia used the important work done during the pre-unification period and the last years of the XIX century. After the territorial unity of 1870 (leaving aside the appendix of the unredeemed lands of the north-east annexed after the Great War), the vision of a wider space for movement and citizenship took shape. For this reason, it is important to guard the memory and safeguard of all trigonometric points, like geodetic base lines, witnessing in the country the long and hard measurement work.

The natural radioactivity content in twenty samples of four different typologies of earth pigments (Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, and Burnt Umber) was investigated through High Purity Germanium (HPGe) gamma spectrometry, with the aim of evaluating the background levels of natural radioactivity in the analyzed samples, and of assessing the radiological health risks due to the external exposure to the enquired earth pigments, by calculating the absorbed dose rate and, starting from it, the annual effective dose equivalent. Finally, the obtained results gave a promising contribution in view of the development of a database on the natural radioactivity content in earth pigments.