Integrated methodology for urban survey and representation of the Morocco's High Atlas earth architecture

Abstract

In the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco there are small towns, called Ksour, made of rammed earth that present high deterioration risk. Lots of urban centers are still in good conditions, but in the last years, due to many economical and social problems, a great part of them are disappearing. The first step of our study is based on the gathering of information about the environment of ksour architecture with the aim to produce an updated cartography of the area of study: the Outat Valley in Midelt. In the last campaign during November 2011 we tested photogrammetric aplications with the aim to produce high density mesh models. The aims of these models are to carry out comparative analysis about dimensions, constructive techniques and formal features of these settlements and build a virtual reconstruction. Usually we refer to the two-dimensional analysis for the study of architectural types originated by archaeology. In this case, the two-dimensional analysis of the design is based on the conversion into three-dimensional models. © 2012 IEEE.