GIS-based detection of terraced landscape heritage: comparative tests using regional DEMs and UAV data

Abstract

The analysis of terraced heritage has implications in many different fields of study, as it is shaped itself by natural, socioeconomic, and cultural dynamics. Given that their abandonment impoverishes territories and communities and raises natural, especially hydrogeological hazards, and that their deactivation leads to a loss of cultural identity, this paper aims to study rapid mapping systems for their detection. Since a deep relation between high land division and the use of terraces for the exploitation of territories has been recognized, a first detection method is based on cadastral maps. The joint use of regional-scale digital elevation models (DEMs) and cadastral dataset polygons, based on a model that typically uses GIS analyses, identifies areas with a high probability of terracing. A second method is based on the use of new technologies for very high-scale data collection. The DEM models derived from UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) photogrammetry, given their ability to determine the microtopographical characterization of the terrain as well as the most expensive on-site techniques, can be considered an excellent low-cost means by which to locate terraced heritage. The proposed work includes comparative testing between methods implying GIS-based analysis of slope models. It aims to highlight the effectiveness of using both methods: regional-scale DEMs and cadastral maps to detect a high probability of terrace localization, and DEMs derived from the use of low-altitude aerial data and structure from motion (SfM) algorithms, which have greatly and effectively increased the use of aerial drone photogrammetry.

Uav and Close-Range Photogrammetry to Support Geo-Mechanical Analysis in Safety Road Management: The “Vallone D’elva” Road

“…The triangulated 3D models have been obtained using the setting "high" of AMS (i.e. using 1/5 of the number of points of the source dense point clouds), generating high resolution meshes in terms of faces and vertices number, as summarized in Indeed, the use of such high-detail clouds in complex environments with slopes and irregularities, makes it necessary to experiment "ad-hoc" workflow to detected ground points and other features, such as trees and buildings (Spanò et al, 2018). In this case, to obtain a DTM (Digital Terrain Model) a semiautomatic classification approaches with AMS has been tested.…”

Integrated Low-Cost Approach for Measuring the State of Conservation of Agricultural Terraces in Tuscany, Italy

“…Several studies have demonstrated that remote sensing (RS) data can be useful to map terrace stability [34][35][36][37][38]. More specifically, active remote sensing data acquired with a Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) can yield high resolution topography models such as digital terrain models (DTMs) that are effective for monitoring the capabilities of terracing systems in hydraulic regulation [34,36,39].…”

Integration of photogrammetry from unmanned aerial vehicles, field measurements and discrete fracture network modeling to understand groundwater flow in remote settings: test and comparison with geochemical markers in an Alpine catchment

“…The latter is of growing interest in environmental geosciences, as it is less time-consuming and more cost-effective. The fields of application are wide and they include analysis of: slope stability and landslides (Fernández et al 2016;Salvini et al 2017; Barlow et al 2017;Casagli et al 2017); structural geology (Cawood et al 2017;Nesbit et al 2018); cultural heritage and archeology (Spanò et al 2018); geomorphology (Silva et al 2017); bathymetry (Bandini et al 2018); and reservoir characterization (Miranda et al 2018). Moreover, UAV setups permit the application of multispectral imaging and other tools for data collection (e.g., thermal sensors).…”