Christopher Sevara

Title
In Visible Landscapes: Development of Novel Integrated Techniques for Remnant Historic Land-Use Detection and Characterization.

Supervisors
Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Michael Doneus
Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Wolfgang Kainz

Case study
Kreuttal
Carnuntum
Uppåkra

Summary
This project will focus on the creation of a continuous coverage geospatial dataset which characterizes the present remains of historic land use through the detection of remnant historic linear and areal landscape elements visible in remote sensing (Aerial Photography, Airborne Laser Scanning) and geophysical prospection (GPR and Magnetometry) datasets. Using historic maps, aerial photographs, and other archival materials as structuring elements to determine correlations between relict boundaries of landscape objects, a relative time-depth of the present remains of past land use will be created and will serve as a baseline for a retrogressive analysis to determine the likely spatial and temporal relationships between different elements of the landscape. As an initial component of this project, new software tools which take advantage of recent developments in image analysis and parallel computing will be developed to aid in the rapid categorization and extraction of these data.

Abstract