Airborne lidar and historic environment records

Abstract

The authors assess the potential contribution of lidar surveys to national inventories of archaeological resources (‘Historic Environment Records’), and compare the relative costs and sensitivity of lidar and aerial photography.

Visualization of lidar-derived relief models for detection of archaeological features

“…However, using shaded relief as a primary tool for visual interpretation can have significant drawbacks on the number of finds and quality of interpretation (e.g. Challis et al, 2008;Devereux et al, 2008;Hesse, 2010;Kokalj et al, 2011). Regardless of this, only a few visualization techniques are routinely used by archaeologists.…”

Lidar data and the Izapa polity: new results and methodological issues from tropical Mesoamerica

“…In North America and Western Europe, the lidar that archaeologists have access to are often borrowed from large datasets collected for land management purposes (Bernardini et al 2013). For example, 66 % of the UK has been mapped with lidar collected by the UK Environment Agency and archaeologists are using these data to detect archaeological features (e.g., Challis et al 2008). In countries with fewer resources, such as those that form Mesoamerica, archaeological projects each contract the collection of lidar data in different ways and for different purposes.…”

On the Airborne Lidar Contribution in Archaeology: from Site Identification to Landscape Investigation

“…These data comprised a single return without the possibility to access and separate First Pulse, Last Pulse or intensity data. Since 2002, such huge Lidar datasets has been exploited for archaeological prospections (Holden et al, 2002;Challis, 2006;Challis & Howard, 2006;Challis et al, 2008).…”

“…Whereas, it is less effective in upper river banks, which are dominated by rapid erosion with poor survival of palaeo-landscape features as well as in lower river banks where accretion is the dominant process. Later, Challis et al (2008) assessed the potential of LiDAR to enhance existing records of the historic environment of the River Dove valley. These data were compared with the existing inventory of sites and with a selected sample of vertical aerial photographs.…”