The production of 3D models of urban areas, using aerial photographs, is of great benefit to companies and small engineering offices. But the major problem is the high cost of Digital Photogrammetry Workstations (DPWS) that are currently used for the
production of this kind of models. In addition, the use of these workstations requires long experience and good knowledge in photogrammetry. In this paper, we propose an alternative solution for 3D modeling of urban areas from a stereoscopic pair of aerial photos, a low cost close range photogrammetry software and the applications of 3D modeling available in some Geographic Information System (GIS) platforms. The close range photogrammetry software is a low coast system, compared to DPWS, and it doesn’t require any spatial background in photogrammetry. This software is used to extract the heights of elements that exist in the study area. GIS is used to produce the 2D map from the aerial photo. This map and the height data are used later to produce the 3D model of the study area.
In close range photogrammetry, the required geometric data for object documentation can be obtained
from single photo or stereoscopic pairs of photos. But, the documentation of large historic monuments, the
stereo pair is not sufficient. So, we mus
t use many photos to cover the whole object. In this study, a new
approach for 3D modeling of historic monuments is presented. This one is the multi-images approach. It
takes the complicated geometric nature of object to be documented. This kind of modeling is one of most
important applications of close range photogrammetry. In this study the results the multi-images
approach is exposed by a practical example concerned a historic façade in Housn Souleman (Safita). We
used digital photos obtained by the digital camera Kodak 8MP. This camera has a good geometric
resolution suitable for precise documentation works. To achieve the modeling, some well known software
for documentation purposes were used.
