In recent years, height data has become a vital component of many geospatial strategies and is widely used by government agencies and the commercial sector for a variety of applications from flood risk modelling to wind farm site selection, archaeological exploration to urban planning.
LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is now commonly accepted as the most powerful technique for delivering highly accurate height data in a timely and cost-effective manner and Geomatics Group has been at the forefront of its use in the UK for the past 11 years.This project will be using this technology to help us detect archaeological features within the Forest of Birklands.
Figure 1. shows a Lidar image of King's Wood at the southern end of Birklands. This image has the significant trees and buildings left in. The right bottom corner clearly shows the ditches in King's Wood and what may be an outline of a hill top feature on the summit of Bradmere Hill which was orginally in the wood before closed canopy tree cover caused the re-siting of the Triangulation Point.
Figure 2. Shows the same area with the trees and buildings removed and the ground features revealed. This is the level of detail we will be working with to 'ground truth' this part of the Forest. Along with the volunteers involved in the project we hope to detect and record many previously undiscovered archaeological features.
Figure 3. Shows the approximate polygon for the Lidar Data Capture of Birklands. This will also be the area that we intend to survey using 'ground truthing'.
http://issuu.com/piro.co.uk/docs/rutland_ranch_ground_control_report?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222
