A new evaluation approach of World War One's devastated front zone: A shell hole density map based on historical aerial photographs and validated by electromagnetic induction field measurements to link the metal shrapnel phenomenon

Abstract The paper presents the changes that have occurred in the morphometry of Lakes Gopło and Ostrowskie, which are located in central Poland. The analysis covered the period characterised by increased human interference into the water cycle, which has been taking place continually since the mid-eighteenth century. On the basis of available cartographic materials (aerial photographs, topographic maps, bathymetric charts of the lakes) and the authors’ own field measurements digital terrain models were developed for the immediate environment of the surveyed lakes. These models, in turn, were used for measuring basic parameters characterising the external dimensions of the lakes (surface area, length and maximum width, shoreline length) and their underwater relief (volume, maximum and average depth). In addition, the selected indicators of the shape and form of the lake basins were determined. The results showed a drastic reduction of water resources of the two lakes. The basin of Lake Gopło covers only the deepest parts of the former reservoir, accounting for only 23.3% of the lake before 1772, and 32.5% of its former volume. In the case of Lake Ostrowskie the surface area and volume decreased, respectively, by 23.5% (74.9 ha) and 21.3% (6 695 000 m3). Such large changes in surface area and volume of both lakes have contributed to significant changes in other morphometric parameters and indicators. In particular, significant changes were observed in relation to such morphometric characteristics as length and maximum width, as well as average and maximum depth.

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Applied Modernism

Theory Culture & Society ◽

10.1177/0263276411423938 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 28 (7-8) ◽

pp. 241-269 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Paul K. Saint-Amour

Keyword(s):

Traffic Control ◽

First World War ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

World War ◽

Avant Garde ◽

Continuous Survey ◽

The First World War ◽

Aerial Reconnaissance ◽

Close Study ◽

First World

This article is about a period of technology transfer – the late 1910s and 1920s – when wartime aerial reconnaissance techniques and operations were being adapted to a range of civilian uses, including urban planning, land use analysis, traffic control, tax equalization, and even archaeology. At the center of the discussion is the ‘photomosaic’: a patchwork of overlapping aerial photographs that have been rectified and fit together so as to form a continuous survey of a territory. Initially developed during the First World War to provide coverage of fronts, photomosaic mapping was widely practiced and celebrated during the postwar years as an aid to urban development. The article traces both the refinements in photomosaic technology after the Armistice and the rhetorical means by which the form’s avant-garde wartime reputation was domesticated into an ‘applied realism’ that often effaced its site-specific perspective, its elaborately rectified optics, and the oppositionality of both its military and civilian uses. The article has a broader theoretical aim as well. Classic statements of both structuralist and post-structuralist spatial theory (Barthes and de Certeau are the primary examples here) have produced an ossified geometry wherein the vertical is the axis of paradigm, top-down strategy, and manipulative distance and the horizontal the axis of syntagm, grassroots tactics, and resistant proximities and differences. In its close study of the technology and rhetoric surrounding interwar photogrammetry, the article provides an example of how one might reverse the long-standing misrecognition of high-altitude optics as effacing time, difference, and materiality – and what it might mean to view such optics as, instead, a resource in turning from abstract toward differential conceptions of both aerial photography and our theoretical habits. This turn I call ‘applied modernism’, a term that accesses both the wartime photomosaic’s affiliation with avant-garde painting and its insistence that portraits of the total are always projections from partial, specific vantages.

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The First World War from above and below. Historical aerial photographs and mine craters in the Ypres Salient

Applied Geography ◽

10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.11.020 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 66 ◽

pp. 64-72 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Birger Stichelbaut ◽

Wouter Gheyle ◽

Timothy Saey ◽

Veerle Van Eetvelde ◽

Marc Van Meirvenne ◽

...

Keyword(s):

First World War ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

World War ◽

The First World War ◽

First World

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Temporal variations in flow velocity at Finsterwalderbreen, a Svalbard surge-type glacier

Annals of Glaciology ◽

10.3189/172756405781813140 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 71-76 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Anne-Marie Nuttall ◽

Richard Hodgkins

Keyword(s):

Flow Velocity ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Field Measurements ◽

Temporal Variations ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Velocity Data ◽

Glacier Surface ◽

Basal Sliding ◽

Hydrological System ◽

Interannual Fluctuations

AbstractInter- and intra-annual velocity variations are well known on alpine glaciers, but their importance for Arctic glaciers has only been recognized more recently. This paper presents flow velocity data from Finsterwalderbreen, a 35 km2 polythermal surge-type glacier in southern Svalbard that is presently ∼100 years into its quiescent phase. Field measurements of glacier surface velocities are available from 1950-52 and 1994-97, and mean velocities for the last decade are estimated for the lower glacier using cables drilled to the glacier bed. These velocities show substantial seasonal variations indicating that basal sliding is an important component of surface velocities and interannual fluctuations of up to 75%, possibly indicating variations in subglacial water storage. Several lines of evidence indicate that this glacier has an extensive subglacial hydrological system, generally considered to be a prerequisite for surge-type glaciers, which is at least partly pressurized. Information on surface morphology from 1898 onwards shows that the glacier has experienced continuous retreat since the last surge in about 1910, and has now retreated ∼1.5 km further back than its previous pre-surge position in 1898. Tracking of moraine loops on terrestrial and aerial photographs acquired over a 100 year period indicates that the surge period of Finsterwalderbreen may be lengthening in response to climate changes.

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Mapping Damascus during the First World War. A German-Ottoman Cooperation of Cartography, Archaeology and Military?

Proceedings of the ICA ◽

10.5194/ica-proc-3-12-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

Sebastian Willert

Keyword(s):

Near East ◽

First World War ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

World War ◽

Inspector General ◽

Paradoxical Situation ◽

The First World War ◽

Post War ◽

The City ◽

First World

Abstract. In 1916, the German museum director and archaeologist Theodor Wiegand travelled to the Near East and became “Inspector General of Antiquities in Syria” as head of the 19th Bureau within the IV Ottoman Army under Ahmed Cemal Pasha. In the post-war period the formation was called “German Turkish Commando for Monument Protection”, though it consisted mainly of German archaeologists and architects who dedicated themselves to the preservation of antique sites and the collection of antiquities. To investigate the region, the scientists also used Bavarian Flying-Detachments and had aerial photographs taken. The Commando enquired, preserved, and surveyed ancient sites. However, the scientists were also involved in mapping important sites and cities such as Damascus. For this purpose, the archaeologists not only conducted trigonometrical surveys but also used aerial photographs to complement the results taken on the ground.Against the background of the German-Ottoman cooperation and the involvement of experts such as archaeologists and architects, the paper analyses the – occasionally paradoxical – situation in which the actors dedicated themselves to map the city of Damascus. The contribution answers the question whether the map was developed to visualize ancient buildings and structures in Damascus for preservation purposes or was rather produced due to military objectives. In a helix of overlapping or rivalling aims and agendas of the German and Ottoman archaeology, military and politics it shows attempts, measures and intentions aiming at the production of maps during the First World War.

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The application of First World War aerial photography to archaeology: the Belgian images

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00093339 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 80 (307) ◽

pp. 161-172 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Birger Stichelbaut

Keyword(s):

Aerial Photography ◽

Ground Surface ◽

First World War ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

World War ◽

Digital Mapping ◽

The First World War ◽

Mapping Technology ◽

First World

The First World War left its mark on the ground surface of Europe as perhaps no other human catastrophe before or since. The author applies modern digital mapping technology to the aerial photographs taken by the intrepid early pilots, and creates a landscape of military works that would not have been known in detail to either historians or generals at the time. The GIS inventory has great potential for historians of the war and is a vital instrument for the management of this increasingly important heritage.

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Aerial Photography and Archaeology

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/275881 ◽

1936 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 102-107 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Dache M. Reeves

Keyword(s):

Aerial Photography ◽

Rapid Growth ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Military Operations ◽

World War ◽

The World ◽

Archaeological Work ◽

Post War

Aerial photographs were employed in archaeological work as early as 1880. The results proved the value of aerial photographs, but the methods of raising a camera aloft were unsatisfactory until the invention of the airplane. Also the quality of cameras and sensitive plates was not very good in the early days. For these reasons, aerial photography was applied to archaeology infrequently until after the World War.Military operations accelerated the development of airplanes. Cameras were designed especially for air use and the quality of lenses and plates was improved greatly. This resulted in a rapid growth of aerial photography. The applications of aerial photographs were limited almost entirely to military uses, including mapping. The post-war development followed similar lines. Aerial photography was found to be indispensable to military operations and all air forces devoted considerable attention to this specialty.

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A Multi-Phase 20th-Century Military Landscape Near Shipton Bellinger, Salisbury Plain

Hampshire Studies ◽

10.24202/hs2020009 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 75 (1) ◽

pp. 140-163

Author(s):

Stephen Beach ◽

Bob Clarke ◽

Lorraine A Mepham

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

World War I ◽

Copper Alloy ◽

Korean War ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Officer Training ◽

World War ◽

The Korean War ◽

Multi Phase ◽

Training Corps

The investigation of a World War I (WWI) practice trench system on Salisbury Plain has revealed a wealth of detail about the construction and use of this military landscape. The archaeological works has also led to the recognition of at least three later periods of activity on the site, all connected with aspects of conflict, including World War II (WWII) and the Korean War. Finds comprising a mixture of issued equipment and personal objects from the excavations provide evidence of the conditions experienced by personnel while in training on Salisbury Plain. A particularly interesting find is a copper alloy cane finial marked O. T. C. (Officer Training Corps) and embellished with the coat of arms of William of Wykeham, the founder of Winchester College. The examination of aerial photographs further complements the excavation results available, allowing for the construction of a complex narrative for this corner of Hampshire.

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