This is a guest blog by senior Geography major Emery Ellingson as part of the course GEG345 Remote Sensing of Environment.
Can potential archaeology sites be detected from space using remote sensing? (Source: http://www.archatlas.org)
The Arch Atlas is a project developed by the Department of Archeology at the University of Sheffield, UK to utilize remote sensing to assist with archaeological research. The project focuses on using GIS and remote sensing applications to study key archaeological sites. Remote sensing offers many opportunities to archaeologist because it allows them to provide a visual and spatial summary of historical processes. For example, a past project combined the use of remote sensing, GIS, palaeogeographical data and information from archaeological surveys to study early human settlement patterns in the Near East. Another advantage of remote sensing is it allows archaeologists to study areas that are difficult to access. A past Arch Atlas project used remote sensing to study sites in Pakistan and Afghanistan which have been difficult to study over the years due to mountainous geography and frequent conflict. To find out more how remote sensing is combined with archeology, see http://www.archatlas.dept.shef.ac.uk/Home.php.