scholarly journals Geoarchaeological Characterisation of Sites of Iberian and Roman Cordoba Using LiDAR Data Acquisitions

Geosciences ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Monterroso-Checa

The National Geographic Institute of Spain (IGN) carried out a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) flight for the entire region of Andalusia between 2013 and 2014, which completed the general LiDAR acquisitions obtained for all of Spain since 2010. Recently, successive updates of orthoimages of Spain and Andalusia have also been acquired. This geographic documentation allows several applications for the aerial detection of archaeological sites. In recent years, numerous discoveries have been made in Spain, especially in non-built-up areas located outside urban enclaves. Less attention, however, has been paid to the use of this geographical information in historic cities because, apparently, they do not preserve their historical micro relief. This study analyses the city of Cordoba (southern Spain) by processing LiDAR data of the Plan Nacional de Ortofotografía Aérea (PNOA-LiDAR). Digital Surface Models (DSM) obtained for the entire city, in combination with geological and archaeological records, provide evidence of the geomorphological reconstruction of the city in ancient times. Using Cordoba as an example, the main purpose of this article is to highlight the fact that LiDAR data are also useful for the diachronic analysis of ancient urban structures buried some metres deep in current historic cities.

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 205
Author(s):  
Zoia Marina ◽  
Oleksandra Romashko

The materials of the complex archeological and ethnographic expedition in the Dnipro regions by D. F. Krasitsky in 1944–1945 was description in this article. The names of the participants were established, among them employees of the Dnipropetrovsk Historical Museum, experts of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of the USSR and students of the Duma. The attention is drawn to the active role of D. F. Krasitsky, as a manager, in solving various organizational and financial issues for the implementation of scientific and practical tasks facing the expedition. The text sections of the reports, which differ by subject, are analyzed. In particular, it speaks of the following: "Over the Dnipro", "Mirror of the Dnipro" and "Minerals of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporozhye Oblasts". The first one provides information on archaeological sites, whose location has been established due to the downfall of the Dnipro through the undermining of the dam Dniprges. It emphasizes the cultural peculiarities of time-consuming archaeological sites, describes their contemporary status. The section "Mirror of the Dnipro" is accompanied by a detailed map-scheme of the northern part of the Dnipro, which allows them to be considered as a unique unique reference book. The data of the third section on minerals in the research area indicate a profound knowledge of DF. Krasitsky on this issue. For ethnographic surveys, villages selected near the city of Dnipropetrovsk: Lotsmanskaya Kamyanka, Stary Kaidaki, Voloska, Zvonetsk and Military. 100 respondents from 106 questions from a specific FD were interviewed. Krasitsky theme - "House and in the house". The obtained data of ethnographic observations reflect the transformation of ethnoculture of Ukrainians in the region. The importance and exclusivity of the material collected during the expedition under the direction of DF Krasitsky on the historical, cultural and ethnographic peculiarities of the population of ancient times to the present day have been emphasized.


Author(s):  
P. Rubinowicz ◽  
K. Czyńska

In contemporary town planning protection of urban landscape is a significant issue. It regards especially those cities, where urban structures are the result of ages of evolution and layering of historical development process. Specific panoramas and other strategic views with historic city dominants can be an important part of the cultural heritage and genius loci. Other hand, protection of such expositions introduces limitations for future based city development. Digital Earth observation techniques creates new possibilities for more accurate urban studies, monitoring of urbanization processes and measuring of city landscape parameters. The paper examines possibilities of application of Lidar data and digital 3D-city models for: a) evaluation of strategic city views, b) mapping landscape absorption limits, and c) determination protection zones, where the urbanization and buildings height should be limited. In reference to this goal, the paper introduces a method of computational analysis of the city landscape called Visual Protection Surface (VPS). The method allows to emulate a virtual surface above the city including protection of a selected strategic views. The surface defines maximum height of buildings in such a way, that no new facility can be seen in any of selected views. The research includes also analyses of the quality of simulations according the form and precision of the input data: airborne Lidar / DSM model and more advanced 3D-city models (incl. semantic of the geometry, like in CityGML format). The outcome can be a support for professional planning of tall building development. Application of VPS method have been prepared by a computer program developed by the authors (C++). Simulations were carried out on an example of the city of Dresden.


2021 ◽  
pp. 4557-4570
Author(s):  
Abdalrahman R. Qubaa ◽  
Alaa N. Hamdon ◽  
Taha A. Al Jawwadi

    Today, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Drones are a valuable source of data on inspection, surveillance, mapping and 3D modelling matters. Drones can be considered as the new alternative of classic manned aerial photography due to their low cost and high spatial resolution. In this study, drones were used to study archaeological sites. The archaeological Nineveh site, which is a very famous site located in heart of the city of Mosul, in northern Iraq, was chosen. This site was the largest capital of the Assyrian Empire 3000 years ago. The site contains an external wall that includes many gates, most of which were destroyed when Daesh occupied the city in 2014. The local population of the city of Mosul has also largely overtaken the central part of this archaeological site, while the northern and southern parts are still uninhabited. The awareness of the existence of unchanged surface and ground forms in the northern or southern parts led us to prepare an urgent study to interpret the outer surface of those parts and to analyze any discovery in the surface morphology. So, drone data and GIS technologies were used in this study to find any discovery that could aid in understanding the original surface of this ancient site. Visual and digital interpretations of satellite images, drone images, and Digital Surface Models (DSMs) were used to analyze and study the data. As a final result, certain morphological features were identified in the southern parts of the ancient site which could be a new archaeological and compositional discovery with reference to the earlier activities of the ancient society during the Assyrian empires, represented by the ditches and building lands used by the ancient inhabitants. Small modern tunnels penetrated the ancient wall were also discovered in addition, to a drainage canal and a motorway newly constructed during the occupation of the city that had penetrated the archaeological land.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Salgado ◽  
Weixin Li ◽  
Fahad Alhasoun ◽  
Inés Caridi ◽  
Marta Gonzalez

AbstractWe present an urban science framework to characterize phone users’ exposure to different street context types based on network science, geographical information systems (GIS), daily individual trajectories, and street imagery. We consider street context as the inferred usage of the street, based on its buildings and construction, categorized in nine possible labels. The labels define whether the street is residential, commercial or downtown, throughway or not, and other special categories. We apply the analysis to the City of Boston, considering daily trajectories synthetically generated with a model based on call detail records (CDR) and images from Google Street View. Images are categorized both manually and using artificial intelligence (AI). We focus on the city’s four main racial/ethnic demographic groups (White, Black, Hispanic and Asian), aiming to characterize the differences in what these groups of people see during their daily activities. Based on daily trajectories, we reconstruct most common paths over the street network. We use street demand (number of times a street is included in a trajectory) to detect each group’s most relevant streets and regions. Based on their street demand, we measure the street context distribution for each group. The inclusion of images allows us to quantitatively measure the prevalence of each context and points to qualitative differences on where that context takes place. Other AI methodologies can further exploit these differences. This approach presents the building blocks to further studies that relate mobile devices’ dynamic records with the differences in urban exposure by demographic groups. The addition of AI-based image analysis to street demand can power up the capabilities of urban planning methodologies, compare multiple cities under a unified framework, and reduce the crudeness of GIS-only mobility analysis. Shortening the gap between big data-driven analysis and traditional human classification analysis can help build smarter and more equal cities while reducing the efforts necessary to study a city’s characteristics.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2110381
Author(s):  
Dotanhan Yeo ◽  
Kouassi Dongo ◽  
Eliachie Larissa Eméline Angoua ◽  
Adeline Mertenat ◽  
Phillipp Lüssenhop ◽  
...  

In recent years, decentralized composting appeared as one of the most appropriate treatment options for organic waste valorization in low- and middle-income countries. In Cote d’Ivoire, a pilot project has proved the feasibility of organic municipal solid waste composting for the city of Tiassalé. However, numerous issues still need to be addressed for the establishment of a sustainable decentralized composting system in this city. One of the key issues is site selection. Until now, there is no clear model for such plant site selection. In this study, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and geographical information system (GIS) approaches were combined to develop an appropriate model for selecting decentralized composting sites in the city of Tiassalé. The methodology used involved two different and complementary phases. First, MCDA and GIS techniques were used to identify the most suitable site areas. Seven criteria clustered in three main factors (environmental, social and economic), and five constraints were considered in the analysis process. Second, five sites were selected within the most suitable areas after a basic field visit and ranked using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The results showed that the most suitable spaces for decentralized composting plant siting represent only 2.6% of the study area. The investigation yielded on the selection of the two best options for decentralized composting plant siting for the city of Tiassalé. This study proved that the combination of MCDA and GIS is a practical and efficient method to identify suitable sites for decentralized composting plants.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 1505-1519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsuto Izumida ◽  
Shoichiro Uchiyama ◽  
Toshihiko Sugai

Abstract. Geomorphic impacts of a disastrous crevasse splay that formed in September 2015 and its post-formation modifications were quantitatively documented by using repeated, high-definition digital surface models (DSMs) of an inhabited and cultivated floodplain of the Kinu River, central Japan. The DSMs were based on pre-flood (resolution: 2 m) and post-flood (resolution: 1 m) aerial light detection and ranging (lidar) data from January 2007 and September 2015, respectively, and on structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry data (resolution: 3.84 cm) derived from aerial photos taken by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in December 2015. After elimination of systematic errors among the DSMs and down-sampling of the SfM-derived DSM, elevation changes on the order of 10−1 m – including not only topography but also growth of vegetation, vanishing of flood waters, and restoration and repair works – were detected. Comparison of the DSMs showed that the volume eroded by the flood was more than twice the deposited volume in the area within 300–500 m of the breached artificial levee, where the topography was significantly affected. The results suggest that DSMs based on a combination of UAV-SfM and lidar data can be used to quantify, rapidly and in rich detail, topographic changes on floodplains caused by floods.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 3854
Author(s):  
Luis Alfonso Escudero Gómez

Historic centers have become first-line tourist destinations. In order to achieve sustainable development, it is essential to get to know the opinions of the host community on the impact of tourism, the positives, as well as the negatives. This paper aims to understand the residents’ opinions and perceptions of destinations as the historic cities. This research looks into the residents’ opinions on the impact of tourism in the historic city of Toledo, Spain. The results of a quantitative survey among 442 residents in the city of Toledo are presented. The study is a revision of the literature and analysis and explanation of an empiric study’s results. Descriptive statistics have been used, as well as factor analysis and non-parametric tests to analyze data. The main results point out that residents have a positive vision of tourism development, rather than negative. The economic importance of tourism and its ability to create jobs stand out. However, they also think that the historic center is being turned into a museum for tourists. Analyzing their opinions according to certain demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, some major differences come up, such as that the inhabitants of residential areas have a more positive opinion than those who live in the historic center. Understanding the perspective of the residents can help the managers and planners of the tourism in the city to play down the potential negative impact of tourism and to achieve support from the host community in regards to tourism.


Author(s):  
Luis Moya ◽  
Fumio Yamazaki ◽  
Wen Liu ◽  
Tatsuro Chiba

Abstract. The spatial distribution of the coseismic displacements that occurred along the Futagawa fault during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake of Mw 7.0 was estimated using airborne light detection and ranging (Lidar) data. In this study, a pair of digital surface models (DSMs) obtained from the high-density Lidar data before and after the mainshock on April 16, 2016, was used. A window matching search approach based on the correlation coefficient between the two DSMs was used to estimate the geodetic displacement in the near-field region. The results showed good agreements with the geodetic displacements calculated from strong-motion acceleration records and coincided with the fault line surveyed by the Geological Survey of Japan.


Author(s):  
L. Sung ho ◽  
H. Dong soo

The preservation of historic cities requires a balance between conservation and development because the urban structures of the old and new city are interwoven on same space. Existing restoration plans rely on old records and excavation reports and are based on the present topography. However, historic cities have undergone significant natural and anthropogenic topographic changes such as alluvial sediment accumulation and uneven terrain construction. Therefore, considering only the present topography is misleading. Thus, to understand a historic city’s structure more appropriately, it is necessary to comprehend the ancient geographic environment. This study provides an analysis and GIS visualization of the ancient topography of a historic city, Sabi capital city of the Baekje Dynasty, which collapsed 1,500 years ago.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-195
Author(s):  
Markos Katsianis ◽  
Stamatina Lampraki ◽  
Anna-Maria Theocharaki ◽  
Maria Pigaki ◽  
Leda Costaki ◽  
...  

The fortifications of Athens have been a recurrent theme of archaeological investigation. In the past two centuries, parts of the walls have been located during rescue interventions at numerous sites in the urban fabric. At present, the visibility of the entire monument remains rather low as the traces of the walls are hidden beneath the modern city, marginalized within larger archaeological sites or preserved entirely by record. Despite the high level of scholarly work devoted to synthesize the available material, the volume of information accumulated over the years requires a novel approach that would systematize different types of evidence using digital media. In this respect, we attempt to revisit the city walls of Athens through the use of geospatial technologies. We target the informed development of an efficient GIS platform to record, store, integrate, explore and eventually disseminate resources on the Athenian fortifications. Our research employs published and archival sources (e.g. excavation drawings) in combination with historical maps (e.g. early cadastral maps, first maps of modern Athens) and complementary historical evidence (e.g. writings, illustrations, photography) to locate, document and integrate in space and time available data on lost and surviving fortification remains.


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