Abstract
It is common in contemporary archaeological literature, in papers at archaeological conferences, and in grant proposals to see heritage professionals use the term LIDAR to refer to high spatial resolution digital elevation models and the technology used to produce them. The goal of this chapter is to break that association and introduce archaeologists to the world of point clouds, in which LIDAR is only one member of a larger family of techniques to obtain, visualize, and analyze three-dimensional measurements of archaeological features. After describing how point clouds are constructed, there is a brief discussion on the currently available software and analytical techniques designed to make sense of them.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
There is currently no professional consensus with respect to the capitalization of the “I” in the LIDAR acronym, which stands for LIght Detection And Ranging. In this chapter, the established capitalization convention for RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging), another active remote sensing technology, is used. The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing also follows this convention.
References
Chase, A. F., Chase, D. Z., Fisher, C. T., Leisz, S. J., & Weishampel, J. F. (2012). Geospatial revolution and remote sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican archaeology. PNAS, 109(32), 12916–12921.
Chase, A. F., Chase, D. Z., Weishampel, J. F., Drake, J. B., Shrestha, R. L., Slatton, K. C., Awe, J. J., & Carter, W. E. (2011). Airborne LiDAR, archaeology, and the ancient Maya landscape at Caracol, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, 387–398.
Doneus, M., Briese, C., Fera, M., & Janner, M. (2008). Archaeological prospection of forested areas using full-waveform airborne laser scanning. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35(4), 882–893.
Fisher, C., Leisz, S., & Outlaw, G. (2011). Lidar – A valuable tool uncovers an ancient city in Mexico. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 77(10), 962–967.
Gelbart, A., Weber, C., Bybee-Driscoll, S., Freeman, J., Fetzer, G. J., Seales, T., McCarley, K. A., & Wright, J. (2003). FLASH lidar data collections in terrestrial and ocean environments. Proceedings of SPIE, 5086, 27.
Hanna, B., Chai, B., & Hsu, S. (2005). Wide-area terrain mapping by registration of flash LIDAR imagery. Proceedings of SPIE, 5791, 193.
Hartley, R., & Zisserman, A. (2003). Multiple view geometry in computer vision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Itzler, M. A., Owens, E. M., Patel, K., Jiang, X., Slomkowski, K., Slomkowski, K., & Rangwala, S. (2011). Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode focal plane arrays for 3D LIDAR imaging. Paper presented at applications of lasers for sensing and free space communications (LSC), Toronto, 10 July.
Lasaponara, R., Coluzzi, R., & Masini, N. (2011). Flights into the past: Full-waveform airborne laser scanning data for archaeological investigation. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, 2061–2070.
Mallet, C., & Bretar, F. (2009). Full-waveform topographic lidar: State-of-the-art. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 64(1), 1–16.
Mikhail, E. M., Bethel, J. S., & McGlone, J. C. (2001). Introduction to modern photogrammetry. New York: Wiley.
Remondino, F. (2011). Heritage recording and 3D modeling with photogrammetry and 3D scanning. Remote Sensing, 2011(3), 1104–1138.
Vosselman, G., & Maas, H. (Eds.). (2010). Airborne and terrestrial laser scanning. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Wilson, J. P., & Gallant, J. C. (Eds.). (2000). Terrain analysis: Principles and applications. New York: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
White, D.A. (2013). LIDAR, Point Clouds, and Their Archaeological Applications. In: Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology(), vol 5. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6074-9_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6074-9_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6073-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6074-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)