Remote Sensing and Historical Morphodynamics of Alluvial Plains. The 1909 Indus Flood and the City of Dera Ghazi Khan (Province of Punjab, Pakistan)

Abstract

This paper explores the historical inundation of the city of Dera Ghazi Kkan (Punjab, Pakistan) in 1909. The rich documentation about this episode available—including historic news reports, books and maps—is used to reconstruct the historical dynamics between an urban settlement and the river morphodynamics in the Indus alluvial plain. Map and document-based historical regressive analysis is complemented with the examination of images obtained through different Remote Sensing techniques, including the use of new algorithms specifically developed for the study of topography and seasonal water availability which make possible to assess long-term changes in the Indus River basin. This case of study provides an opportunity to examine: (1) how historical hydrological dynamics are reflected in RS produced images; (2) the implications of river morphodynamics in the interpretation of settlement patterning; and (3) the documented socio-political responses to such geomorphological change. The results of this analysis are used to consider the long-term dynamics that have influenced the archaeo/cultural landscapes of the Indus River basin. This assessment provides critical insights for: (1) understanding aspects of the formation, preservation of representation of the archaeological record; (2) identifying traces of morphodynamics and their possible impact over the cultural heritage; and (3) offering insights into the role that recent historical documents can have in the interpretation of RS materials. This paper should be read in conjunction with the paper by Cameron Petrie et al. in the same issue of Geosciences, which explores the Survey of India 1” to 1-mile map series and outlines methods for using these historical maps for research on historical landscapes and settlement distribution.

Mapping Archaeology While Mapping an Empire: Using Historical Maps to Reconstruct Ancient Settlement Landscapes in Modern India and Pakistan

“…Beyond their use for identifying and locating hitherto unrecognised archaeological mound sites, these 1" to 1-mile maps have considerable potential for reconstructing other types of landscape features that are also often overlooked, including palaeochannel levees, relict sand-dunes, raised road-ways and relict field-systems [89]. This historical map data set can also be used to reconstruct historical landscape dynamics [90], and/or the development of land-use practices, hydrological schemes and irrigation, and urban growth from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.…”

“…It is important to acknowledge that the methods outlined here for making use of these Survey of India 1" to 1-mile maps are only likely to be useful for identifying mounded sites, and will not be suitable to aid detection of a wide range of other features of archaeological significance. Therefore, it is essential to integrate the use of these historical maps into comprehensive approaches that make use of the full suite of earth observation and remote sensing techniques, potentially integrating open-source multi-spectral data and the computational power of platforms like Google Earth Engine to identify hydrological and topographic features not easily visible on the surface [35,90,91]. It is also imperative that these remote prospection approaches are co-ordinated with large-scale ground-truthing surveys, that will verify which of the mound features are archaeological sites, and establish a reliable chronology for those sites and the associated landscapes.…”

Earth Observation, Remote Sensing, and Geoscientific Ground Investigations for Archaeological and Heritage Research

“…The authors present a method for accurately georeferencing these maps and review the symbology that was used to represent elevated mound features that have the potential to be archaeological sites. Certainly, this method will be very useful to support further studies by other scholars willing to use this mapping resource alongside modern RS data, as it is well demonstrated by the accompanying Garcia et al paper [36]. Within the latter paper, the authors investigate the historical inundation that hit the city of Dera Ghazi Kkan, in Punjab, Pakistan, in 1909.…”

“…Petrie et al [35] and Garcia et al [36] are two interlinked papers that need to be read in conjunction, because they were conceived and published in the framework of TwoRains, WaMStrIn and Marginscapes projects. Petrie et al [35] advocates the value and importance of the Survey of India 1" to 1-mile map series, an historical mapping resource which was under-utilized and, with this paper, gains the attention it deserves since it is a precious reservoir of spatial information of topographic features and elevated mounds visible at the time of the surveys, but which were either damaged or destroyed by the expansion of irrigation agriculture, and urbanism, and are no longer visible.…”

Automated detection of archaeological mounds using machine-learning classification of multisensor and multitemporal satellite data

“…When available, the use of declassified historical photographs such as CORONA imagery has been critical to the detection of mounds ( 7 – 9 ). Georeferenced historical map series have also been used solely or in combination with contemporary declassified data ( 10 – 14 ). In recent years, RS-based archaeological research has gradually incorporated machine-learning techniques and algorithms that facilitate the automated detection of sites and features.…”