LiDAR is developing into a formidable instrument of aerial survey. Here the author shows how the LiDAR picture can be enhanced so that features picked up by illumination from different directions can be combined in one comprehensive survey.

The development of lidar opens a new era in archaeological survey. Working with Forest Research, staff of the Unit for Landscape Modelling here explain the technique, and demonstrate its application to woodland, showing how it can be used to see through the trees. The article by Bewley et al. (pages 636-647 of this volume) shows the technique applied to the Stonehenge landscape.

Background It is common for older people to become grandparents in later life. However, the impacts of grandparenting on their health and well-being remain under-investigated, especially in Chinese society where family is in the core of culture. The current study explored the relationship between grandparenthood and Chinese older people's health and psychological well-being in Hong Kong. Methods Data was collected from a sample of 1,208 Hong Kong Chinese older people aged 55 and above through a telephone survey conducted in 2019. Participants were grouped into three categories: current grandparents (n = 507), grandparents-to-be (n = 275), and grandparents-not-to-be (n = 426).. Multivariate linear regressions were performed to examine the relationship between grandparenting status and health and well-being outcomes, including self-rated physical health, mental health, resilience, and happiness, while controlling for age, gender, education, marital status, nancial status, and physical activity level. Results Bivariate analyses suggested statistically signi cant differences between health and well-being across the three groups of participants. Regression models showed that, when compared with grandparents-not-to-be, being a current grandparent was associated with a signi cantly higher level of happiness, while being a future grandparent was associated with signi cantly higher levels of happiness, resilience, and self-rated physical health. Conclusions The current study offers preliminary insights into the signi cant relationship between grandparenthood and older adults' health and well-being. It calls for future studies to further explore the mechanisms behind the bene ts of grandparenthood. Grandparenting is a potentially good starting point to build older adults' capacity to promote healthy ageing.

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This paper examines the impact that different olive cultivation practices have on the nature of the ground flora of olive groves in the region of the Psiloritis massif and Messara Plain in central and southern Crete, Greece. In lower, flatter areas there are areas of both traditional and intensive forms of olive cultivation. In more marginal, upland areas there are traditional terraced olive groves, some of which are being abandoned. The relationship between the vegetation composition of the ground flora and environmental variables was established, by means of TWINSPAN 1 and ordination analysis, using survey data from nineteen sites across the region. Four vegetation communities are identified: olive with herbaceous taxa; olive with sclerophyllous shrub taxa; and two forms of sclerophyllous shrub communities. Ordination results indicate that environmental variables, such as soil characteristics, slope aspect and slope angle, explain about 60 per cent of the species-environment relationships. The remaining variation in species composition is interpreted to be the result of different cultivation practices. The implications for land degradation are examined, in particular the changes in vegetation diversity of both intensive and semi-abandoned olive groves, the potential for increased soil erosion, and the risk of fire as a result of increased fuel loading as flammable shrubs invade abandoned terraces. Intensification of olive cultivation in Crete, and across the Mediterranean, has been encouraged by subsidies from the European Union leading to rapid landscape change. Thus there is a need to monitor changes in olive cultivation practices both at the local scale, by means of ground-based fieldwork, and at landscape and regional scales, by means of remote sensing.