EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION: A STUDY AT BARONG CAVE IN WEST JAVA, INDONESIA

Abstract

Barong cave, located in West Java, Indonesia, is one of the caves within the cultural heritage site of Pawon cave, which has the potential to have been a human settlement based on the artifacts found there. However, the site has faced challenges such as vandalism, lack of proper management and preservation efforts, and the negative impacts of limestone mining. Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) have gained attention as a tool for cave measurement and documentation, but there is limited research on their use for cultural heritage preservation in Indonesian caves. This study focuses on documenting and creating a 3D model of Barong cave using TLS, with a specific exploration of the intensity values of point cloud data obtained from TLS near-infrared wave. Data acquisition was successfully carried out, resulting in detailed digital models of the cave. Although manual identification of vandalism using TLS was limited, our study demonstrated the potential of TLS as a tool for identifying vandalism in caves. Further research, including the development of augmented reality and virtual reality applications for museums and education, and automated identification of markings on 3D point cloud data using intensity values for cave art, requires further development.