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LiDAR at the Discovery Programme

postdateiconTuesday, 19 July 2011 12:57 | postauthoriconWritten by Robert Shaw | PDF | Print | E-mail
Why LiDAR for Archaeology?

Our first involvement with LiDAR (in 2007) resulted from an increasing need to survey archaeology in its wider landscape context. GPS ground survey had been successfully deployed in the past but was time consuming, expensive, and impractical as the survey areas expanded in size. Aerial photogrammetry proved to be partially successful producing excellent high resolution orthoimages from which complex landscapes could be studied. However our processing techniques resulted in relatively coarse DEM's compared to the results from GPS survey, inadequate for the micro-topographic study required to understand complex archaeological sites.

Different LiDAR sensors and platforms

In 2007 LiDAR data was generally being captured by sensors mounted on fixed wing aircraft resulting in a ground resolution of approximately 1m. Our assessment was that the models generated from this data provided an excellent resource to aid the study of archaeology in its wider landscape context, but to fully explore the subtle details of a complex archaeological site it fell short of the resolution required. BKS - Fugro introduced us to a different approach - FLIMAP LiDAR - a helicopter mounted system with three sensors which could produce data with a ground resolution of close to 10cm. With the support of the Heritage Council (of Ireland) we conducted some tests of this system and have discussed these results in detail in a number of articles published in journals and conference proceedings, see below.

Projects

To date, the Discovery Programme has commissioned 3 LiDAR projects:-

Hillshade DSM generated from first return LiDAR data for Newtown JerpointNewtown Jerpoint              

Sensor: FLIMAP LiDAR        

Area:0.8km2           

Point density: 50pts / m2

 

Hillshade DSM generated from first return LiDAR data for Dun Ailinne HillfortDun Ailinne Hillfort              

Sensor: FLIMAP LiDAR         

Area: 2.4km2          

Point density: 14-30pts / m2

 

 

 

Hillshade DSM generated from first return LiDAR data for Hill of TaraHill of Tara                           

Sensor: FLIMAP LiDAR        

Area: 2.4km2           

Point density: 60pts / m2

 

 

The Discovery Programme has also modelled the data of a further 5 LiDAR projects for other agencies:-

Hillshade DSM generated from first return LiDAR data for Bru na BoinneBru na Boinne (Meath County Council / Heritage Council)                  

Sensor: LiDAR                                   

Area :96km2

Point density: 1pt / m2

 

Perspective view of hillshade DTM generated from last return filterd LiDAR data for Clare IslandClare Island (Royal Irish Academy / National Monument Service)                      

Sensor:LiDAR                                   

Area:16 km2

Point density: 1pt / m2

 

Hillshade DSM generated for Clogher Hillfort from first return LiDAR dataClogher Hillfort (DoENI)               

Sensor:FLIMAP LiDAR                   

Area: 1.8km2

Point density: 60pts / m2

 

Hillshade DTM generated for Inishark from last return LiDAR dataInishark (University Notre Dame)                                              

Sensor:FLIMAP LiDAR                   

Sensor:0.9 km2

Point density: 18pts / m2

 

Hillshade DSM generated for Skellig Michael from first return LiDAR dataSkellig Michael (National Monument Service)               

Sensor:FLIMAP LiDAR                   

Area: 0.18km2

Point density: 60pts / m2

 

 

Articles Published

CORNS, A and SHAW, R. 2008. Short report: Fli-map 400 LiDAR system, in AARGnews 36 (March 2008)

CORNS A., FENWICK J., AND SHAW, R., 2008. 'More than meets the eye', Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 22, No. 3, Issue No. 85, pp 34-8.

CORNS, A and SHAW, R. 2009, High resolution Airborne LiDAR for the recording of archaeological monuments, In: Jerem, E., Redö, F. & Szeverényi, V. (eds.): On the Road to Reconstructing the Past. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, CAA 2008. Budapest, April 2-6. (IN PRESS)

CORNS, A and SHAW, R. 2009. High resolution 3-dimensional documentation of archaeological monuments & landscapes using airborne LiDAR, Journal of Cultural Heritage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.culher.2009.09.003

SHAW, R., and CORNS, A. 2011, High resolution LiDAR specifically for archaeology: are we fully exploiting this valuable resource? in EAC Occasional Paper No. 5 Remote Sensing for Archaeological Heritage Management, Europae Archaeologia Consilium (EAC), 2011, 107-115.

 

Image Gallery

Perspective view of the bare earth DTM hillshade for the deserted medieval settlement of Newtown JerpointComparison of hillshade DSM and DTM of the summit of Dun Ailinne hillfort Perspective view of hillshade DTM for the summit of Hill of TaraComparison between Hillshade DSM (top) and DTM (bottom) in the area of the sloping trenches and Gráinne's Fort, Hill of Tara Hillshade DTM of the Bru na Boinne generated from last return filtered LiDAR dataClose up of the Newgrange monument from the hillshade DSM of Bru na BoinneClose up of the Newgrange monument from the hillshade DSM of Bru na BoinneClose up view of the relict cultivation patterns present in the hillshade DSM of the Clare Island LiDAR data Hillshade DTM of Clogher LiDAR generated from last return filtered LiDAR dataClose up of the Hillshade DSM of Clogher HillfortPerspective view of hillshade DTM of Clogher HillfortPerspective view of hillshade DSM of part of Inishark Flimap LiDAR dataPerspective view of the hillshade DSM of Skellig MichaelClose up of the hillshade DSM showing the detail around the monastery

Last Updated (Wednesday, 20 July 2011 08:44)

 

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