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Topic · Geology

3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage

3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage is a research topic within Geology. Science Explorer counts 45k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the advancements in 3D geospatial modelling techniques, including photogrammetry, UAV and terrestrial laser scanning, structure from motion, and their applications in geoscience, cultural heritage, and remote sensing. The focus is on accurate 3D reconstruction, point cloud generation, and digital preservation of natural and cultural heritage sites.

  • Photogrammetry
  • UAV
  • Terrestrial Laser Scanning
  • Structure from Motion
  • Geospatial Applications
  • Digital Heritage
  • Point Clouds
  • 3D Reconstruction
  • Cultural Heritage
  • Remote Sensing
Research works
45k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+37%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
45% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage

Which countries lead 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage research?

By volume, China and Italy publish the most (4.5k and 1.4k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 4.5k works
  2. 2 Italy 1.4k works
  3. 3 United States 1.2k works
  4. 4 Germany 540 works
  5. 5 Spain 513 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 452 works
  7. 7 Türkiye 412 works
  8. 8 India 370 works
  9. 9 South Korea 346 works
  10. 10 Japan 336 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 44.7%Italy: 13.5%United States: 12.3%Germany: 5.4%6 others listed: 24.1%45%largest
China4,494 · 44.7%Italy1,363 · 13.5%United States1,237 · 12.3%Germany540 · 5.4%6 others listed2,429 · 24.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Politecnico di Milano.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 139 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 106 works
  3. 3 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 105 works
  4. 4 Wuhan UniversityChina 103 works
  5. 5 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 92 works
  6. 6 Tongji UniversityChina 81 works
  7. 7 Southeast UniversityChina 78 works
  8. 8 Tsinghua UniversityChina 75 works
  9. 9 National Research CouncilItaly 72 works
  10. 10 University of FlorenceItaly 69 works

Who are the leading researchers in 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage?

The most-cited researchers publishing on 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage include Geoffrey E. Hinton, Wei Huang and Bach Xuan Tran.

  1. 1 Geoffrey E. Hinton Canada 454k citations
  2. 2 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  3. 3 Bach Xuan Tran Vietnam 263k citations
  4. 4 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  5. 5 Andrew Zisserman United Kingdom 255k citations
  6. 6 Li Fei-Fei United States 225k citations
  7. 7 Kai You Wang China 224k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage?

The most cited paper in 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage is "PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentation" (Raffaelli Charles, Hao Su, Kaichun Mo et al., 2017), with 9,954 citations. Next come "Structure-from-Motion Revisited" (6,276) and "Parallel Tracking and Mapping for Small AR Workspaces" (4,314).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentation Raffaelli Charles, Hao Su, Kaichun Mo et al. Conference paper Jul 2017 9,954
2 Structure-from-Motion Revisited Johannes L. Schönberger, Jan‐Michael Frahm Conference paper Jun 2016 6,276
3 Parallel Tracking and Mapping for Small AR Workspaces Georg Klein, David W. Murray Conference paper Nov 2007 4,314
4 ScanNet: Richly-Annotated 3D Reconstructions of Indoor Scenes Angela Dai, Anne Lynn S. Chang, Manolis Savva et al. Conference paper Jul 2017 4,270
5 ORB-SLAM3: An Accurate Open-Source Library for Visual, Visual–Inertial, and Multimap SLAM Carlos Campos, Richard Elvira, Juan J. Gomez Rodriguez et al. · IEEE Transactions on Robotics Open access 25 May 2021 4,192
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage research done?

The largest centres of 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Wuhan (China), Shanghai (China) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Reggio Calabria, Caserta and Ferrara.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 845 works
  2. 2 WuhanChina 339 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 325 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 281 works
  5. 5 RomeItaly 216 works
  6. 6 Xi'anChina 206 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 148 works
  8. 8 SeoulSouth Korea 147 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 144 works
  10. 10 ChengduChina 134 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Reggio CalabriaIT · 21.5 works20×
  2. CasertaIT · 26.8 works9.9×
  3. FerraraIT · 25.7 works8.8×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage than the world average.

See 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage on the map

Where is the best place to study 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 26.19%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong University…University of Hong K…National University …Hong Kong Polytechni…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 82.335.8%5.7×30 +168.6%
2University of Hong KongChina 79.132.5%3.4×39 +145.4%
3Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 73.123.9%4.2×46 +53.7%
4National University of SingaporeSingapore 71.127.7%2.2×34 +47.7%
5Tsinghua UniversityChina 70.623.7%2.6×75 +88.0%
6Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 69.930.8%3.1×31 +147.1%
7City University of Hong KongChina 68.934.1%2.5×18 +147.7%
8Southeast UniversityChina 68.720.0%4.2×78 +250.3%
9Technical University of MunichGermany 67.716.9%5.5×61 +31.2%
10Wuhan UniversityChina 66.816.5%5.8×103 +55.1%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage, country by country

Is 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 37% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.065% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage0.060% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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