Al Ain Oasis
Cultural Landscape Survey
The Cultural Sites of Al Ain (Hafit, Hili, Bidaa Bint Saud and the Oases Areas) are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Al Ain Oasis is the largest oasis within the Oases assemblage of the World Heritage property. Al Ain Oasis covers 1,200 hectares and encompasses a traditional aflaj irrigation system as well as more than 147,000 date palms of 100 different varieties. The oasis is an example of the United Arab Emirates’ agricultural heritage.
3-D point cloud in ReCap.
3-D scan of a farm in Al Ain Oasis
Falaj system within the Oasis.
3-D model showing a mosque located within the Oasis
Drawing of the mosque in Al Ain Oasis.
The team members met to discuss the methodology for documentation. The area of the oasis was too large, and regular aerial photogrammetry could only record the canopy of trees. 3-D scanning was chosen as the survey technique for this case study as it would have been the most efficient by which to record an area of one of the component parts of Al Ain Oasis.
The three spatial level were used.
The data recorded with 3-D scanner allowed the drawings of the farms to be in all three levels of details.
Four control points were measured throughout the site with a Leica total station. This data was used to orient the 3-D scan data.
3-D scanning was conducted with a FARO laser scanner to capture the geometry of the site. A total of 31 scans were performed.
Panoramic photographs were taken with a high-quality camera to produce a photographic portfolio for the site and to illustrate the context of the Oasis.
A metrically accurate 3-D point cloud was created for the site using FARO SCENE 3-D scan software and AutoDesk Recap software.
A highly detailed and metrically accurate 3-D model of the site was developed in AutoDesk ReCap.
A detailed building elevation for the Mosque was created by importing the point cloud into AutoCAD and tracing an orthographic projection of the façade. This illustrated the high level of detail that could be achieved from
3-D scanning.
A site plan was created for the Oasis showing the falaj channel system. This was achieved by masking the palm trees in the 3-D point cloud, importing the point cloud into AutoCAD and tracing an orthographic projection of the site.