Emerging Applications of LiDAR / Airborne Laser Scanning in the Management of World Heritage Sites

Remotely sensed data and imagery have revolutionized the way we understand archaeological sites and landscapes. LiDAR / airborne laser scanning (ALS) has been used to capture the often subtle topographic remnants of previously undiscovered sites even in intensely studied landscapes, and is rapidly becoming a key technology in survey projects with large extents and/or difficult terrain. This paper examines the practical application of this technology to archaeological heritage management, with special attention given to how ALS can support the World Heritage List nomination process and management of WHS archaeological sites and landscapes. It presents a number of examples from published ALS studies alongside case studies from projects undertaken by the authors at Cultural Site Research and Management and the Cultural Site Research and Management Foundation, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The paper opens with a review of how ALS has been used at established World Heritage Sites, focusing on the Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend in the Boyne, Ireland, and the Angkor Archaeological Site in Cambodia. ALS applications for site prospection and demarcation, and viewshed analysis is explored in this section. Following this, we explore how ALS has been used to support two recent applications: the successfully nominated Monumental Earthworks at Poverty Point, USA and the recently nominated Orheiul Vechi Archaeological Landscape in Moldova. We propose that the detail offered by ALS data greatly strengthens nomination dossiers by emphasizing the outstanding universal value of sites, highlighting significant features and providing greater context to wider landscapes, and is particularly efficacious in delineating site boundaries for legal protection and long-term management. Finally, we conclude with a look at some of the practical considerations involved in the use of ALS, including access and training.     

The Class of Anthropogenic Industrial Landscapes

Anthropogenic landscapes fall into several classes: agricultural, forestation and aquatic landscapes, which tend to vary with natural zones, and industrial landscapes, which are azonal in character and depend largely on such azonal features as geological structure, hydrogeology, etc. Industrial landscapes are largely of the neo-landscape type, i.e., created by man from scratch. In terms of purposefulness, they are not a direct effect, but are incidental to man's industrial activities. The most common industrial landscape type consists of strip mines and their spoil banks. Such strip-mine landscapes may be denuded (devoid of vegetation); slag-cone terrain; weed-overgrown wasteland; denuded lacustrine wasteland; stone-quarry badlands; cultivated hydraulic spoil banks.     

A System of Natural Areal Complexes of the Earth

The tiered vertical structure of all the earth's landscapes is used as the basis for a typological classification of all natural areal complexes. Four basic landscape divisions are proposed: (1) terrestrial landscapes, consisting of an upper aerial layer and lower mineral layer, (2) aquatic landscapes, consisting of three tiers: air, water, mineral base, (3) glacial landscapes, consisting of three tiers (air, ice, mineral) on land, and of four tiers (air, ice, water, mineral) in oceans, (4) variable landscapes distinguished by a periodic succession of structures (terrestrial-aquatic, terrestrial-glacial, aquatic-glacial).     

Landscapes at the Periphery of Glacierization – Retrospect and Prospect

This paper reviews the evolution of palaeoglaciological reconstructions in regions at the periphery of glacierization, where an improved understanding of the role of glacial thermal regime has helped refine the delimitation of ice sheet maxima. Also significant has been the recognition in numerical models that some areas, especially ice sheet marginal zones, are subject to short periods of ice occupancy and hence that glacial landsystem signatures can be extremely subtle. This is compounded wherever cold-based conditions dominate during early stages of ice sheet recession, giving rise to a landform imprint typical of peripheral regions and hence often misinterpreted as unglaciated or glaciated only by older glaciations. Subtle landform imprints include meltwater channels, thin glacigenic veneers or scattered erratics and modified tors. More substantial glacigenic landform-sediment assemblages (‘drift belts’) do not always represent ice sheet maxima but instead may record significant changes in thermal regime, possibly linked to periods of ice-marginal stabilization. Some upland areas that lie beyond the traditionally demarcated limits of glaciation (e.g. Dartmoor in SW England) may contain subtle evidence of satellite ice cap development which has been overlooked due to the strong periglacial landform signature.     

Changes in the Ice Boundary of the Vestfold Hills,East Antarctica, 1947 to 1990

The position of the ice boundary around the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica (68°30'S, 78°00'E) was observed using a 43 year record of aerial photography from 1947 to 1990. The southern boundary, formed by Sørsdal Glacier, showed two main areas of ice retreat and no areas of advance. Stagnation and retreat of this boundary is interpreted to be contraction to former limits following the Chelnok Glaciation which occurred 7lt; 700 years BP. The eastern or continental ice sheet boundary showed five sites of rapid, localised incision and downwasting around supraglacial gullies. While no area of continental ice was noted to advance, continued accumulation and firnification of wind-drifted snow in the proglacial zone of the ice sheet in the southeastern corner of the hills may signify a locally positive ice mass balance. Until ice mass balance studies are carried out in the ablation zone surrounding the hills, evidence concerning whether the ice sheet boundary is retreating, stable or advancing will remain equivocal.     

The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: 1

Abstract

Desert landscapes are the least understood among terrain types of the Earth. The dearth of basic information on arid landforms has resulted in the misconception that the desert is man-made and that, therefore, we can 'fix it'. Scientific evidence indicates that deserts are part of the natural features of both Earth and Mars. They form as a result of the lack or scarcity of rain, which may be cyclical. The basic layout of today's arid terrain appears to have formed during humid periods in the geological past. Understanding of such features and those caused by wind erosion and deposition is essential to the development of deserts and semiarid lands for the benefit of mankind. Images obtained by spacecraft provide a new tool that is very useful in this regard, particularly in the location of groundwater resources to be used at times of cyclical droughts.     

A bloodied bond: Fly River heads and body image in Beatrice Grimshaw's colonial landscapes

In a paper published previously in the Irish Studies Review I discuss the anthropomorphic features of Beatrice Grimshaw's landscapes in relation to colonial fears of the unknown. Following on from this I argue in the present work that this trope, ubiquitous in colonial literature, is exacerbated in Grimshaw's oeuvre by a body image or body image tendencies associated with penetrability, the foundations of which would have been laid long before she first saw the delphinium skies of the south. Grimshaw's body image, her realisation of her own physicality, is the primary focus of this essay. Drawing on the research of psychologists Seymour Fisher and Sidney E. Cleveland, I explore Grimshaw's conception of body boundaries, the boundaries of the touristic self and the indigenous Other. Such an analysis requires an examination not only of the body, and its extension dress, but also of physical terrain, the spaces and places, landscapes of the past and the present, home and the away, within which these cartographies of flesh and bone move.     

Multi-temporal archaeological analyses of alluvial landscapes using the photogrammetric restitution of historical flights: a case study of Medellin (Badajoz,Spain)

One of the main challenges affecting the archaeological study of alluvial landscapes is the intensity of change these environments experience over time. Quick and dramatic alterations in geomorphological dynamics and land exploitation determine the visibility and conservation of the archaeological record. This study proposes an approach to the problem of studying these evolving environments based on the analysis and treatment of a series aerial photographs taken between the 1950s and the present day. This paper is particularly interested in looking at the process of photogrammetric restitution and in validating and comparing the digital terrain models and orthoimages produced. The quantitative analysis and visual interpretation of these results can provide valuable information about the transformation of landscapes and factors affecting surface evidence. The intended final result is to develop the ability to map the most problematic or best preserved areas. Nevertheless, it is considered in terms of a relative measure of change magnitude, rather than trying to provide absolute figures.     

Resisting and Reconciling Big Wind: Middle Landscape Politics in the New American West

Abstract: While critical geographers have addressed how place politics impacts rural landscapes, less attention has been paid to the particular ways in which rural landscape identities are being impacted by the new energy economy. The nascent US wind energy opposition movement is evidence of broad, organized resistance to the landscape impacts associated with the re‐sculpting of rural energy geographies. Drawing from cultural landscape and place theory, this article examines the shifting terrain of wind opposition in the “New American West”. The article argues that wind energy opposition is fundamentally about who speaks for and negotiates conflicting social commitments to technology, economic values and an imagined American pastoral identity. By examining a case study of wind development in Nevada, this article considers how renewable energy development can constructively acknowledge the important role the “middle landscape” continues to play in American constructions of rural space.     

An Attempt to Classify the Landscapes of the USSR

The author, who regards landscapes as physical terrain types rather than as regional units, briefly surveys previous approaches to landscape classification and offers his own classification scheme. The scheme is based on a major division of all landscapes into plains (lowland and upland) and mountain types (distinguished by vertical zonality). Within the classification, soils and bioclimatic criteria are used to determine the upper rungs of the hierarchy, and geological and geomorphic criteria are taken into account mainly at the lower levels.     

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

This paper presents visualisation techniques of high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for visual detection of archaeological features. The methods commonly used in archaeology are reviewed and improvements are suggested. One straightforward technique that has so far not been used in archaeology – the shift method – is presented. The main purpose of this article is to compare and evaluate different visualisation methods. Two conclusions have been reached. Where a single method must be chosen – for printing or producing digital images for non-professionals – the use of sky view factor or slope gradient is endorsed, both presented in greyscale. Otherwise interpreters should choose different techniques on different terrain types: shift on flat terrain, sky view factor on mixed terrain, slope gradient on sloped terrain and sky view factor (preferably as a composite image with slope gradient) on rugged terrain.     

Therapeutic landscapes of traditional healing: building spaces of well-being with the traditional healer in St. Louis,Senegal

Literature on therapeutic landscapes has not sufficiently explored the relational dynamics that contribute to shaping therapeutic landscapes. In particular, not enough attention has been paid to the patient–healer relationship and its role in producing well-being, especially in non-western settings. This article is a first attempt to address these deficiencies by exploring the role of the patient–healer relationship in shaping therapeutic landscapes especially as regards traditional healing in the city of St. Louis in Northern Senegal. By exploring the understandings of health and well-being of 160 people (including patients, herbalists and traditional healers), this article will show how therapeutic landscapes of traditional healing are built relationally in the patient–healer encounter; it will also underscore the strong link between the herbal component of traditional healing, the cognitive component of dialogue with the healer and the spiritual and sociocultural elements associated with rituals. The findings have relevant policy implications. This article takes a stand in the debate on integration between ‘traditional’ and ‘western medicine’ in Africa by stating that integration should give more serious consideration to the ability of traditional healing systems to create well-being because, as the case study shows, the latter strongly relies on the relational dimension of healing.     

广东侨乡聚落的景观特点及其遗产价值

广东侨乡聚落景观是 19世纪中期与西方开通之后逐步形成的。华侨的勤劳不仅带来了侨乡经济的繁荣 ,而且带来了侨乡思想观念的变化 ,建筑形式的刷新就是这种变化的写照。广东五邑等地侨乡出现的风格独特的碉楼民居、骑楼商业街、公共建筑及私家园林等 ,在中国传统建筑的基础上 ,大胆引进西方建筑元素和手法 ,创造出一组组式样独特的“另类”建筑景观 ,使历来沉稳、厚重的中国传统建筑增添了不少活泼、升腾之感 ,从而丰富了聚落天际线。这种侨乡聚落景观的形成 ,成为一种特定时代的特殊的历史见证 ,是一笔重要的历史文化遗产 ,应予积极保护     

A simple theoretical model of the diffraction of VLF electromagnetic waves by the Antarctic icecap

The Antarctic continent has been modelled as a spherical cap whose pole is coincident with that of the South Pole, which totally absorbs VLF radio waves attempting to propagate over it. The propagation of Omega navigation signals around this model icecap has then been computed using Kirchhoff diffraction theory. Spherical caps extending to 66.5 and 75.5°S have been found to accurately model the signals from Omega La Reunion and Argentina, respectively, received on flights between Christchurch, New Zealand and Scott Base in Antarctica, up to the boundary of the theoretical icecap. These model icecaps were found to be good fits to the boundary of the Antarctic continent, when measured at the 1–1.5 km contour of ice thickness, in the region where the VLF waves diffracted around the icecap. The good agreement obtained between the experimental field strength data and those computed theoretically, using only simple diffraction theory, suggests that coastal refraction plays at most only a secondary role in circumpolar propagation.     

论地理因素在陇南山地历史发展中的作用与影响

位于青藏高原、黄土高原与西秦岭交汇地带的甘肃陇南山地,区域内地形地貌复杂多样,为具有不同地域背景的民族、部落入居提供了基本的地理环境。而不同地理单元之间由于自然分界线与人文分界线之间相互依托、强化,使陇南山地历史发展呈现出"时间""空间"的双重分异和"内地化"与"边疆化"的双重趋势。在白龙江、洮河、岷峨山地、西秦岭、边墙、关隘、堡寨等大大小小自然、人文分界线中,由岷县、临潭、夏河连线所构成的"汉藏分界线"对陇南山地历史发展产生了根本性的影响。这条地理的、生态的分界线在约束人类活动的同时,又为人类最大限度的利用自然环境提供了可能。     

On reductionism and emergence in geomorphology

Much geomorphological enquiry has been devoted to the understanding of landscapes via the construction of models based on the relationships between process and form. This paper examines the philosophical, theoretical and practical problems involved in bridging the gap between studies of geomorphological processes and explanations of landscape development. It argues that process geomorphology is essentially reductionist and discusses the practical and logical limitations of such an approach to science. It suggests that landscapes are emergent phenomena and, by drawing from the philosophical and practical lessons derived from the physics of non-linear systems, demonstrates that they are not amenable to reductionist explanations.     

Conflicts over shared rivers: Resource scarcity or fuzzy boundaries?

Countries that share rivers have a higher risk of military disputes, even when controlling for a range of standard variables from studies of interstate conflict. A study incorporating the length of the land boundary showed that the shared river variable is not just a proxy for a higher degree of interaction opportunity. A weakness of earlier work is that the existing shared rivers data do not distinguish properly between dyads where the rivers run mainly across the boundary and dyads where the shared river runs along the boundary. Dyads with rivers running across the boundary would be expected to give rise to resource scarcity-related conflict, while in dyads where the river forms the boundary conflict may arise because river boundaries are fluid and fuzzy. Using a new dataset on shared water basins and two measures of water scarcity, we test for the relevance of these two scenarios. Shared basins do predict an increased propensity for conflict in a multivariate analysis. However, we find little support for the fuzzy boundary scenario. Support for a scarcity theory of water conflict is somewhat ambiguous. Neither the number of river crossings nor the share of the basin upstream is significant. Dry countries have more conflict, but less so when the basin is large. Drought has no influence. The size of the basin, however, is significantly associated with conflict. Modernization theory receives some support in that development interacted with basin size predicts less conflict, and we find some evidence here for an environmental Kuznets curve. The importance of basin size suggests a possible ‘resource curse’ effect for water resources.     

Canadian Human Landscape Examples

In this paper, we initiate a discussion of zoos as cultural landscapes, using the example of the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba. We start from the notion that zoos are cultural institutions that do not reflect nature itself but are created landscapes inscribed with social and cultural messages conveyed through the presentation of wild animals. We examine the development of this zoo in the context of the stages through which it has passed in its over a hundred years of existence on the basis of historical accounts as well as Assiniboine Park Zoo master plan and annual report documents. We argue for examining zoos as cultural landscapes that reflect the changing relations between humans and animals and with 'nature' more generally.     

Early medieval landscapes in north‐west Spain: local powers and communities,fifth–tenth centuries

There has been in the last few years a rapid expansion in the archaeology of early medieval societies in the north‐west of the Iberian Peninsula. A large part of this evidence remains unpublished or has been published incompletely. This article considers the historical landscapes of the north‐western Iberian Peninsula in the early medieval period as social constructions, starting with the identification of the systemic relationships between different archaeological entities. The dynamics and articulation of early medieval societies in the Cantabrian area and in the Duero and Tagus basins will be outlined by means of deconstructing their landscapes. To achieve this, a set of variables will be analysed in comparative terms from three regions selected as case studies: Madrid, the Duero basin and the Basque Country. With the aim of explaining these systems diachronically a division between the fifth–eighth and eighth–tenth centuries will be taken into consideration.     

Spatial-Domain Chaos in Landscapes

It has been speculated that deterministic chaos may be responsible for the spatial complexity commonly observed in biophysical landscapes. However, deterministic chaos is a temporally defined concept and has been rigorously investigated only in the temporal domain. It is shown here, using a simple hillslope regolith cover model as an example, that temporal chaos in the presence of even minor spatial anisotropy will result in a spatially chaotic pattern. It is also shown that behavior of spatially chaotic landscape systems can be deduced, at least in theory, from spatial patterns of a single landscape component or variable. Because stochastic complexity is likely to exist in landscapes in addition to any deterministic complexity, detecting and analyzing chaotic behavior in landscapes is difficult. Progress in efforts to examine chaos in the spatial domain and to isolate deterministic and stochastic complexity may be the key to developing a theory of landscape evolution that can reconcile the simultaneous presence of apparently random, irregular variability and orderly, regular patterns.