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Airborne Lidar in Archaeology: Overview and a Case Study

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Book cover Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2013 (ICCSA 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7972))

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Abstract

Airborne laser scanning (ALS) is an optical measurement technique for obtaining high-precision information about the Earth’s surface including basic terrain mapping (Digital terrain model, bathymetry, corridor mapping), vegetation cover (forest assessment and inventory), coastal and urban areas. Recent studies examined the possibility of using ALS in archaeological investigations to identify features of cultural interest, although the ability of this technology in this context has not yet been studied in detail. In this paper we provide an overview of past and present applications of ALS, as tool for detecting archaeological and palaeo-environmental features on bare surface as well as on vegetated and wooded areas. Moreover, a case study, related to an Etruscan site in Northern Latium, is showed. The LiDAR data were used for the first time, to our best knowledge, to identify looted tombs covered by vegetation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNR-IBAM (Institute of Archaeological and Architectural Heritage), Potenza, Italy

    Nicola Masini

  2. CNR-IMAA (Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis), Potenza, Italy

    Rosa Lasaponara

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  1. Nicola Masini
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  2. Rosa Lasaponara
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. L-I.S.U.T. - D.A.P.I.t. Facoltà Ingegneria, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano, 10, 85100, Potenza, Italy

    Beniamino Murgante

  2. Covenant University, Canaanland, OTA, Nigeria

    Sanjay Misra

  3. Partimento di Scienze e Tecnologie per LAgricoltura, le Foreste, la Natura e lEnergia, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis, snc, 01100, Viterbo, Italy

    Maurizio Carlini

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Ingegneria Civile e dell’Architecttura, Politecnico di Bari, Via Orabona, 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo M. Torre

  5. International University VNU-HCM, Quarter 6, Linh Trung, Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Hong-Quang Nguyen

  6. School of Business Systems, Monash University, 3800, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    David Taniar

  7. Department of Intelligent Informatics, Kyushu Sangyo University, 2-3-1 Matsukadai, Higashi-ku, 813-8503, Fukuoka, Japan

    Bernady O. Apduhan

  8. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Perugia, Via Vanvitelli, 1, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    Osvaldo Gervasi

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Masini, N., Lasaponara, R. (2013). Airborne Lidar in Archaeology: Overview and a Case Study. In: Murgante, B., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2013. ICCSA 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7972. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39643-4_48

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39643-4_48

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39643-4

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