InfraRed Thermography and 3D-Data Fusion for Architectural Heritage: A Scoping Review

Comprehensive documentation is the foundation of effective conservation, repair and maintenance (CRM) practices for architectural heritage. In order to diagnose historic buildings and inform decision making, a combination of multi-disciplinary surveys is fundamental to understanding a building’s heritage and performance. Infrared thermography (IRT), a non-contact, non-invasive and non-destructive imaging technique, allows both qualitative and quantitative assessments of temperature to be undertaken. However, the inherent low spatial resolution of thermal imaging has led recent work to fuse thermographic and geometric data for the accurate 3D documentation of architectural heritage. This paper maps the scope of this emerging field to understand the application of IRT and 3D-data fusion (IRT-3DDF) for architectural heritage. A scoping review is undertaken to systematically map the current literature and determine research gaps and future trends. Results indicate that the increasing availability of thermal cameras and advances in photogrammetric software are enabling thermal models to be generated successfully for the diagnosis and holistic management of architectural heritage. In addition, it is evident that IRT-3DDF provides several opportunities for additional data integration, historic building information modelling (H-BIM) and temporal analysis of historic buildings. Future developments are needed to transform IRT-3DDF findings into actionable insights and to apply IRT-3DDF to pressing climate-related challenges, such as energy efficiency, retrofitting and thermal comfort assessments.