Archaeological interpretation of lidar derived relief models is strongly dependent on the specific particularities of different data visualization techniques. We argue that a thorough investigation of microrelief structures has to involve many different visualizations or their combination. The three main sections of the monograph – descriptions of visualization techniques, guidance for selection of the techniques, and visualization tools – accompany examples of visualizations, exemplar archaeological and geomorphological case studies, a glossary of terms, and a list of references and recommendations for further reading.
COBISS.SI-ID: 295548416
The monograph provides an insight into a range of visualization techniques for high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs). It is provided in the context of investigation and interpretation of various types of historical and modern, cultural and natural small-scale relief features and landscape structures. It also provides concise guidance for selecting the best techniques when looking at a specific type of landscape and/or looking for particular kinds of forms. Its structure facilitates people of different academic background and level of expertise to understand different visualizations, how to read them, how to manipulate the settings in a calculation, and choose the best suited for the purpose of the intended investigation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 288463616
This chapter addresses different visualization techniques, their specifics, advantages and weaknesses in the context of archaeological interpretation of various types of historical landscape features from high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs). The techniques addressed in detail are: analytical hillshading, derivatives of hillshading from different directions (range of hill-shadings, mean of hill-shadings, PCA of hill-shadings), elevation differentiation, trend removal, slope severity, sky-view factor, openness, and some others. Tools that have become freely available in the recent years make possible to compute these visualizations quickly and effortlessly, without slowing down the interpretation process.
COBISS.SI-ID: 42996525
Many early Maya cities developed along the edges of large karst depressions (bajos). This topographic position aided growing populations to more effectively capture and store rainwater, a necessity for year-round occupation of interior portions of the Maya Lowlands. Ancient Maya forest clearance on sloping terrain led to accelerated soil loss and the aggradation of the bajo margins. These newly created margins of colluvial lands became a focus of subsequent intensive agriculture and helped underwrite further urban expansion. The article documents this long-term landscape transformation with data derived from lidar imagery and field investigations at several Maya centers in the interior parts of the Yucatan peninsula. A model of three variants of bajo margin landscape change is presented, with differences attributable to topography, lithology, hydrology, and cultural processes. Also discussed are preliminary data on crops cultivated on bajo-margin soils, and on the processes of agricultural adaptation as evidenced by systems of field walls, terraces, and ditches.
COBISS.SI-ID: 43482413