scholarly journals SMART AND PROTECTIVE SURVEYING OF HIDDEN MEDITERRANEAN HERITAGE

space&FORM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (44) ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
Zbigniew W. Paszkowski ◽  

In the Mediterranean area, there are hundreds of ancient cities that have ceased to exist, and millions of valuable parts of buildings and sculptures remain hidden or abandoned. This resource requires special care and protection. There is probably a much larger part of this resource, as yet unexposed to view, remaining to be discovered. A number of historic buildings remain underground or underwater, and are not properly protected against damage or robbery. Protected areas, with limited access due to the potential occurrence of ancient monuments underground or underwater, should be designated. In order to assess the range of occurrence of such monuments from bygone cultures, it is necessary to carry out specialized field studies. The author indicates that smart digital technologies, such as digital maps of the area, satellite and aerial photographs and electromagnetic geo-radar surveys, could be used for such research.

1983 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 580-583
Author(s):  
Gordon J Barclay

In the 1940s and 50s Mr Eric Bradley, a flying instructor at Scone, noticed and described a series of crop-marks to the W of Perth during attempts to trace the Roman road, from the Gask Ridge, at its last known point near Dupplin Lake some 8-5 km to the SW of the fort at Bertha. In 1969 Dr J X W P Corcoran admirably summarized the evidence available from Mr Bradley's notes and maps, Cambridge University Committee for Aerial Photography (CUCAP) photographs and RAF vertical photographs in an unpublished note, now in the NMRS. In 1967 a valuable series of aerial photographs of the Huntingtower sites was taken by John Dewar Studios for the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments. Subsequently RCAHMS has photographed the area resulting in the discovery of further features.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indradatta deCastro-Arrazola ◽  
Martí March-Salas ◽  
Juan Lorite

In recent years, the popularity of rock-climbing has grown tremendously, setting an increasing pressure on cliff habitats. Climbing may be particularly harmful in the Mediterranean biome due to its appropriate environmental conditions for climbing. A few studies have identified the effect of climbing on plant diversity at a small-scale (namely locally or even just in specific climbing areas). However, no studies exist assessing the potential risk of rock-climbing on a broad-scale (e.g., regional or national). The study aims to identify the priority locations and priority cliff plant species in Spain to focus future study efforts. Spain was selected because it is a plant biodiversity hotspot, with a great diversity of endemic and endangered species, and one of the most popular destinations for climbers. We used a geographic information system-based approach to model the spatial concurrence among Spanish climbing areas (and climbing intensity), natural protected areas (NPAs), and distribution of threatened cliff plants (and their IUCN threat category). We found that 53.5% of climbing areas in Spain are located within a NPA, most of them falling into NPAs of medium protection level. We mapped 151 threatened cliff plants, identifying four medium priority Mediterranean locations and eight priority species in which future research efforts should be focused. High-priority study locations are absent in Spain according to our spatial modeling. For the first time on a national scale, this study identifies areas in which climbing represents a potential threat for cliff habitats and threatened plants. These findings contribute to designing field studies on the effects of rock-climbing on Mediterranean cliffs, laying the groundwork for a sustainable, yet challenging, balance between the protection of these unique habitats and rock-climbing.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Hayas ◽  
Tom Vanwalleghem ◽  
Ana Laguna ◽  
Adolfo Peña ◽  
Juan V. Giráldez

Abstract. Gully erosion is an important erosive process in Mediterranean basins. However, the long-term dynamics of gully networks and the variations in sediment production in gullies are not well known. Available studies are often conducted only over a few years, while many gully networks form, grow, and change in response to environmental and land use or management changes over a long period. In order to clarify the effect of these changes, it is important to analyse the evolution of the gully network with a high temporal resolution. This study aims at analysing gully morphodynamics over a long timescale (1956–2013) in a large Mediterranean area in order to quantify gully erosion processes and their contribution to overall sediment dynamics. A gully network of 20 km2 located in southwestern Spain has been analysed using a sequence of 10 aerial photographs in the period 1956–2013. The extension of the gully network both increased and decreased in the study period. Gully drainage density varied between 1.93 km km−2 in 1956, a minimum of 1.37 km km−2 in 1980, and a maximum of 5.40 km km−2 in 2013. The main controlling factor of gully activity appeared to be rainfall. Land use changes were found to have only a secondary effect. A new Monte Carlo-based approach was proposed to reconstruct gully erosion rates from orthophotos. Gully erosion rates were found to be relatively stable between 1956 and 2009, with a mean value of 11.2 t ha−1 yr−1. In the period 2009–2011, characterized by severe winter rainfalls, this value increased significantly to 591 t ha−1 yr−1. These results show that gully erosion rates are highly variable and that a simple interpolation between the starting and ending dates greatly underestimates gully contribution during certain years, such as, for example, between 2009 and 2011. This illustrates the importance of the methodology applied using a high temporal resolution of orthophotos.


2020 ◽  
Vol 149 ◽  
pp. 02009
Author(s):  
Maira Razakova ◽  
Alexandr Kuzmin ◽  
Igor Fedorov ◽  
Rustam Yergaliev ◽  
Zharas Ainakulov

The paper considers the issues of calculating the volume of the landslide from remote sensing data. The main methods of obtaining information during research are field observations. The most important results of field studies are quantitative estimates, such as the volume of the embankment resulting from a landslide, morphometric indicators, etc. The study of a remote and remote object was carried out by remote methods using aerial photographs in the Ile Alatau foothills at 1,600 meters above sea level. The obtained materials from the mudflow survey will be useful in developing solutions to mitigate the effects of disasters and in the design of measures for engineering protection from landslides.


Radiocarbon ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-86
Author(s):  
A J Walker ◽  
A W Young ◽  
R S Keyzor ◽  
R L Otlet

The results in this list come from our earlier years of operation and form part of the special series of lists being prepared to clear the backlog of unpublished dates from this laboratory, in this case 49 samples coming from sites in and around Northampton, UK. They originate from excavations directed by John Williams and Helen M Bamford of the Northampton Development Corporation between 1973 and 1982, and all were submitted for measurement and paid for by the Ancient Monuments Laboratory of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England and Wales.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 799-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Samsonov ◽  
Trevor C. Lantz ◽  
Steven V. Kokelj ◽  
Yu Zhang

Abstract. Advancements in radar technology are increasing our ability to detect Earth surface deformation in permafrost environments. In this paper we use satellite Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) to describe the growth of a large, relatively young pingo in the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands. High-resolution RADARSAT-2 imagery (2011–2014) analyzed with the Multidimensional Small Baseline Subset (MSBAS) DInSAR revealed a maximum 2.7 cm yr−1 of domed uplift located in a drained lake basin. Satellite measurements suggest that this feature is one of the largest diameter pingos in the region that is presently growing. Observed changes in elevation were modeled as a 348  ×  290 m uniformly loaded elliptical plate with clamped edge. Analysis of historical aerial photographs suggested that ground uplift at this location initiated sometime between 1935 and 1951 following drainage of the residual pond. Uplift is largely due to the growth of intrusive ice, because the 9 % expansion of pore water associated with permafrost aggradation into saturated sands is not sufficient to explain the observed short- and long-term deformation rates. The modeled thickness of ice-rich permafrost using the Northern Ecosystem Soil Temperature (NEST) was consistent with the maximum height of this feature. Modeled permafrost aggradation from 1972 to 2014 approximated elevation changes estimated from aerial photographs for that time period. Taken together, these lines of evidence indicate that uplift is at least in part a result of freezing of the sub-pingo water lens. Seasonal variations in the uplift rate seen in the DInSAR data closely match the modeled seasonal pattern in the deepening rate of freezing front. This study demonstrates that interferometric satellite radar can detect and contribute to understanding the dynamics of terrain uplift in response to permafrost aggradation and ground ice development in remote polar environments. The present-day growth rate is smaller than predicted by the modeling and no clear growth is observed at other smaller pingos in contrast with field studies performed mainly before the 1990s. Investigation of this apparent discrepancy provides an opportunity to further develop observation methods and models.


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