Measuring the Short-Term Degradation of Stone in Historical Buildings

Abstract

This paper proposes a methodology with which to measure the slight erosion undergone by valuable heritage pieces in a short period of time. The problems dealt with by our method concern the irregular (free-shape) geometry of the piece to be measured, the difficulty involved in achieving the fine registration required among different samples of the piece, the slight loss of material in a short period of time and the suitable definition of descriptors that will help to carry out a reliable qualitative and quantitative analysis. This document proposes a basic methodology that is able to tackle each of the aforementioned problems. An in-depth explanation of the degradation analysis has been carried out on a representative case study, including the qualitative and quantitative procedures employed. The results obtained lead us to believe that this methodology could be reproduced and applied to similar degradation problems related to old buildings.