The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also known as drones or RPA) in archaeology has expanded significantly over the last twenty years. Improvements in terms of the reliability, size, and manageability of these aircraft have been largely complemented by the high resolution and spectral bands provided by the sensors of the different cameras that can be incorporated into their structure. If we add to this the functionalities and improvements that photogrammetry programs have been experiencing in recent years, we can conclude that there has been a qualitative leap in the possibilities, not only of geometric documentation and in the presentation of the archaeological data, but in the incorporation of non-intrusive high-resolution analytics. The work that we present here gives a sample of the possibilities of both geometric documentation, creation of 3D models, their subsequent printing with different materials, and techniques to finally show a series of analytics from images with NGB (Nir + Green + Blue), Red Edge, and Thermographic cameras applied to various archaeological sites in which our team has been working since 2013, such as Clunia (Peñalba de Castro, Burgos), Puig Rom (Roses), Vilanera (L’Escala, Girona), and Cosa (Ansedonia, Italy). All of them correspond to different chronological periods as well as to varied geographical and morphological environments, which will lead us to propose the search for adequate solutions for each of the environments. In the discussions, we will propose the lines of research to be followed in a project of these characteristics, as well as some results that can already be viewed.
The Roman city of Clunia (nowadays at the spanish province of Burgos) became the capital of the Tarraconensis conventus with the Augustan provincial reform, which provided a major boost for its urban development. The suitability of the city's location is evident by the fact it was built on a plateau concealing an underground karst cave that provided direct access to water without requiring major engineering works. The waters in this cave were used and administered by the people, and some of its galleries acted as a shrine for worshipping. This study provides an overview of the modern drainage systems in order to study more profoundly the forms of urban organization, on which we have only partial knowledge currently, given the breadth of the field. We believe that some of these drains are actually tracks of ancient streets that have been fossilized in orography. To reach these conclusions, we analysed several IR photographs, and applied hydrological GIS functions to observe the path of these tracks and their relationship to what is currently known of the city's urban layout. This analysis of the surface was completed by relating it to the karst topography by conducting geophysical surveys in areas where wells giving access to the cave were detected using radiolocation. Finally, we applied a range of hydrological GIS functions and indexes on a high-resolution DEM, obtained from LIDAR technology (5 m/pixel), to confirm how the drainage worked. The results have highlighted landforms on the plateau, providing new hypotheses about Clunia's urban development. Repetitive modulations were also observed in the distances between some of the drains, thus making for a better understanding of the characteristics of an entire sector of the ancient city. We therefore believe that the drainage calculation method may be a useful tool for the study of urban structures that have not been excavated yet.
The construction of the Aswan Dam put an end to a form of relationship between people and the environment that had its origin in the pre-Pharaonic period. The annual Nile flood had been tamed and managed for centuries by the societies of the Nile delta. However, by the nineteenth century, attempts to modernize Egypt according to Western standards led to a gradual change in how the river was managed and exploited, focusing on permanent irrigation of the land. These changes took the form of successive hydraulic engineering projects that transformed the entire landscape. Our project aims to analyze how this long process took place, from the Greco-Roman period to the present day, by focussing on the middle valley of the Nile, in the area corresponding to the Oxyrhynchus nome (province), in order to reconstruct the methods of flood management and how they have transformed the landscape.For this purpose, we have combined an analysis of archaeological and written documentation, consisting primarily of papyrological data and secondary sources. We have also combined a reading of the historical cartography with the identification of traces of dykes and canals from satellite images (CORONA, ASTER, Quickbird, Worldview 2), and related enhancing functions of satellite imagery. These data were organized and registered on a GIS geodatabase that enabled all the information to be analyzed and confirmed. Our initial findings define an ancient landscape, in which old channels structured the landscape around the nome. These channels, and their levees associated with dykes, favoured both the containment of water and terrestrial transport, in an area that would be completely inundated in the flood season. This combination of channels with some element of retention was important for territorial and administrative organization within the nome, the administrative territorial division of Egypt, and its subdivision the toparchy.
El presente artículo es producto de un proyecto de investigación cuyo objetivo principal fue presentar, sobre la base de experiencias de casos multiescalares (nacional, regional, rural y metropolitano), una metodología que permita conocer el estado de situación de las iniciativas de ordenamiento territorial en cuatro países de América Latina, señalando los principales factores que limitan o inhiben su puesta en marcha y sus resultados, de manera tal que se puedan plantear algunas pistas y recomendaciones para la mejora de las políticas y las prácticas de ordenamiento territorial en toda la región. El estudio fue ejecutado entre el 2017 y 2018, dentro Programa de Asistencia Técnica (PAT) que auspicia el Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia (IPGH) dependiente de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA), con la participación del Instituto Geográfico Militar del Ecuador, la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México a través del Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental (CIGA) del Campus de Morelia; el Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo de Paraguay y la Universidad Nacional del Sur a través del Centro ADETER (Acción y Desarrollo Territorial) de la Argentina. A ello se sumó el apoyo de numerosos investigadores de otras Universidades y centros de investigación de los países involucrados.En este marco de investigación, se planteó una estrategia que incluyó el trabajo de campo mediante entrevistas a actores importantes y conocedores de la problemática. Adicionalmente, se recopiló información secundaria de las fuentes oficiales de cada nación y en función de todos estos instrumentos se realizaron varios talleres y discusiones evidenciados en los productos entregados.El resultado de la investigación reconoció problemas comunes en torno a la planificación territorial presentes en los cuatro países analizados, y que se manifiestan también en todos los niveles escalares; posteriormente, a partir de estos temas comunes para todos, con base en los instrumentos metodológicos desarrollados y el criterio experto de los participantes, se generaron propuestas que aportan ideas prácticas para mejorar las políticas de planificación territorial en América Latina.
This article presents the first results obtained from the use of high-resolution images from the SAR-X sensor of the PAZ satellite platform. These are in result of the application of various radar image-treatment techniques, with which we wanted to carry out a non-invasive exploration of areas of the archaeological site of Clunia (Burgos, Spain). These areas were analyzed and contrasted with other sources from high-resolution multispectral images (TripleSat), or from digital surface models obtained from Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data from the National Plan for Aerial Orthophotography (PNOA), and treated with image enhancement functions (Relief Visualization Tools (RVT)). Moreover, they were compared with multispectral images created from the Infrared Red Blue (IRRB) data contained in the same LiDAR points.
Underground mapping is of paramount importance at archaeological sites with natural or man-made caves. Techniques of different complexity are available for underground surveying, from compass and tape to light detection and ranging (LiDAR).However, there are scenarios where it is impossible to use heavy and/or delicate instrumentation, or with some of the more advanced techniques, long-distance and time-consuming fieldwork would be required. This is the case of the study of the height of water at key points inside the aquifer located in the subsoil of the Roman city of Colonia Clunia Sulpicia to assess its relation with the evolution of the city.Although subsurface radiolocation, a technique originally intended for cave mapping, seems promising for this application, its accuracy in depth estimation is not sufficient for this purpose. Therefore, the main objectives of this work are to improve the accuracy of depth estimation using radiolocation, to obtain sound data to study changes in water supply in the early centuries of the city and to hypothesize possible causes and probable consequences. Then, this work analyses the sources of error affecting the radiolocation process and develops a new method experimentally validated to improve the depth estimation accuracy. As a result, the depth of key points at Clunia has been accurately measured by radiolocation, where LiDAR or direct measurements from the water level are not possible. Finally, based on the resultant data, a chronology of the city in relation to the aquifer, and vice versa, is outlined. The new radiolocation and calculation procedure proposed in this paper is an improved subsurface location technique that can lead to a significant innovation in archaeological prospection.
Twenty centuries ago, a Roman authority founded a city on top of an inselberg where the discovery, by skill or chance, of a small aquifer which allowed access to a water supply for the city. In Roman times wells were drilled, of which nineteen reached a natural cavity. A horizontal gallery for water supply was also opened up, and a drainage conduct in the theatre was made to eliminate storm water. At some point, for natural or artificial reasons, the water table dropped and several wells dried up, forcing the descent of workers and other people to do additional work and to carve abundant graffiti and several clay figurines. The city did not survive the Middle Ages, the wells became cesspits and the ruins were plundered by neighbouring villages. It recovered its memory in the eighteenth century, in 1908 a Roman cave was rediscovered, the old water supply gallery, which gives access to the natural cave. This has been explored and surveyed by the Grupo Espeleológico Ribereño since 1980. From 2013, the Grupo de Technologías in Entornos Hostiles (University of Zaragoza) has carried out systematic radiolocation for the opening up of a direct access to the cavity. In addition, recognition of inscriptions with cavity scans and specific details have been made as well as the installation of two monitoring stations, both inside and outside the cavity to analyze the water performance of the system and the internal evolution of the CO2 content of the air in the cavity. The evolution of the piezometric level presents relatively important oscillations and a delay of two months is detected between the moments of heavy rains and the increase of water levels in the cavity. The CO2 content has a double periodicity, annual and daily.
The BlueFlux field campaign is supported by NASAs Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) and will develop prototype blue carbon products to inform coastal carbon management. Blue carbon is included in carbon-dioxide removal actions proposed to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations to mitigate climate change. Due to their high productivity and carbon storage, combined with historic losses and a wide-range of beneficial ecosystem services, the restoration and conservation of mangrove ecosystems features prominently in blue-carbon planning. The goal of BlueFlux is to carry out multi-scale measurements of CO2 and CH4 fluxes using chambers, flux towers, and aircraft and scale these to gridded products using space-based observations of forest structure and surface reflectance. The measurements cover gradients in disturbance, mainly from the history of hurricanes in the region that drive the dieback of mangroves and the formation of ghost forests. The fluxes of CH4 emissions will be contrasted with CO2 uptake to provide a more complete budget of radiative forcing and to understand the net climate benefits of blue carbon. BlueFlux demonstrates that quantifying the removals of CO2 and emissions of CH4 using a multi-scale approach can provide increased confidence in regional greenhouse-gas accounting, contribute to process-understanding, and help inform restoration and conservation efforts in the context of climate mitigation.
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