Combining Multiple Algorithms for Road Network Tracking from Multiple Source Remotely Sensed Imagery: a Practical System and Performance Evaluation

In light of the increasing availability of commercial high-resolution imaging sensors, automatic interpretation tools are needed to extract road features. Currently, many approaches for road extraction are available, but it is acknowledged that there is no single method that would be successful in extracting all types of roads from any remotely sensed imagery. In this paper, a novel classification of roads is proposed, based on both the roads' geometrical, radiometric properties and the characteristics of the sensors. Subsequently, a general road tracking framework is proposed, and one or more suitable road trackers are designed or combined for each type of roads. Extensive experiments are performed to extract roads from aerial/satellite imagery, and the results show that a combination strategy can automatically extract more than 60% of the total roads from very high resolution imagery such as QuickBird and DMC images, with a time-saving of approximately 20%, and acceptable spatial accuracy. It is proven that a combination of multiple algorithms is more reliable, more efficient and more robust for extracting road networks from multiple-source remotely sensed imagery than the individual algorithms

Preserving and interpreting the mining company office : landscape, space and technological change in the management of the copper industry

The purpose of this research is to examine the role of the mining company office in the management of the copper industry in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula between 1901 and 1946. Two of the largest and most influential companies were examined – the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company and the Quincy Mining Company. Both companies operated for more than forty years under general managers who were arguably the most influential people in the management of each company. James MacNaughton, general manager at Calumet and Hecla, worked from 1901 through 1941; Charles Lawton, general manager at Quincy Mining Company, worked from 1905 through 1946. In this case, both of these managers were college-educated engineers and adopted scientific management techniques to operate their respective companies. This research focused on two main goals. The first goal of this project was to address the managerial changes in Michigan’s copper mining offices of the early twentieth century. This included the work of MacNaughton and Lawton, along with analysis of the office structures themselves and what changes occurred through time. The second goal of the project was to create a prototype virtual exhibit for use at the Quincy Mining Company office. A virtual exhibit will allow visitors the opportunity to visit the office virtually, experiencing the office as an office worker would have in the early twentieth century. To meet both goals, this project used various research materials, including archival sources, oral histories, and material culture to recreate the history of mining company management in the Copper Country

Lower Cambrian bioherms in central Nevada and eastern California

A comparative sedimentological and paleontological study was made of two approximately coeval Lower Cambrian bioherm complexes, one in the Ravenswood area of Lander County in central Nevada, and the other in the Montenegro Member of the Campito Formation in the White-Inyo Range of eastern California. Although both bioherm complexes were constructed by archaeocyaths and calcareous microbial organisms, there are significant differences in the structure and fabric of the biohermal limestones, in the taxa and diversity of archaeocyaths, and in the diversity of the bioherm community in general. The Ravenswood bioherms developed as framework reefs in a high-energy, normal marine setting and display a relatively high diversity of archaeocyaths and associated organisms, as well as distinct core and flank facies. The Montenegro bioherm complex developed in a restricted, low-energy setting as a mud mound composed of lenticular units (kalyptrae); it contains a lower diversity archaeocyathan fauna and a depauperate fauna of other organisms

Angkor Underground - Applying GPR to analyse the diachronic structure of a great urban complex

This thesis is based on surveys of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) conducted at Angkor, Cambodia. The appraisal of preceding remote sensing surveys led to selective ground based prospection for archaeological objects of interest on different scales. The successive relocation of the political and religious centre from the 9th to the 14th century has left a palimpsest landscape that reaches from small artificial habitation mounds, masonry monuments and their enclosures, to the extensive water management network of channels and earthworks that covered large parts of the floodplain between the Kulen Hills and Lake Tonle Sap. To make efficient use of the technique, the GPR survey had to be adjusted to those dimensions. The area-covering grid method was chosen for small scale surveys on habitation patterns, production sites and cemeteries, testing potential and limits in the application. A major factor in the measuring and processing of data was the floodplain geology of predominantly clayey sand and an environment prone to inundation that provided varying signal penetration depths depending on either compact or soft soil. For the larger scales, GPR was used in combination with GPS, GIS and remote sensing data sets. The concept of spatial configuration of monuments in and outside of enclosures led the search for remains of missing laterite and sandstone structures. A survey in the centre of Angkor Wat revealed the outline of six towers as part of a potential quincunx formation. They were further analysed by excavations to establish a preliminary construction history of the area. Surveys inside the peripheral enclosures of Chau Srei Vibol, Banteay Sra and Prasat Komnap showed evidence of demolished structures, some of it possibly from the Angkorian period. For questions concerning the functioning of a water management system in the Angkorian floodplain, GPR profiles in search for infrastructure were conducted alongside and over the embankments of the giant reservoirs. Evidence of outlets in the central areas of the eastern embankments of all four baray at Angkor confirmed them being part of the network. On the largest scale, GPR transects were run across parts of the floodplain to investigate the network of canals and earthworks that had been mapped by remote sensing. Obstacles, profiles and grids as well as the detected anomalies were integrated into a geo-referenced GIS database. Potential connections between centres and temples were integrated at areas where associated and previously mapped earthworks discontinued. Anomalies associated to the water management features were classified according to their characteristics and potential function as former artificial and natural channels, moats, ponds as well as masonry remains, and analysed with regard to archaeological maps and available remote sensing data. Newly acquired high resolution satellite radar (TerraSAR-X) data was used to evaluate a potential relation between water saturation and anomalies. The complete dataset was analysed for a complementation of archaeological maps and with the intent to separate features of the artificial canal network of Angkor from the natural landscape and the original distribution of rivers

Angkor Underground - Applying GPR to analyse the diachronic structure of a great urban complex

This thesis is based on surveys of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) conducted at Angkor, Cambodia. The appraisal of preceding remote sensing surveys led to selective ground based prospection for archaeological objects of interest on different scales. The successive relocation of the political and religious centre from the 9th to the 14th century has left a palimpsest landscape that reaches from small artificial habitation mounds, masonry monuments and their enclosures, to the extensive water management network of channels and earthworks that covered large parts of the floodplain between the Kulen Hills and Lake Tonle Sap. To make efficient use of the technique, the GPR survey had to be adjusted to those dimensions. The area-covering grid method was chosen for small scale surveys on habitation patterns, production sites and cemeteries, testing potential and limits in the application. A major factor in the measuring and processing of data was the floodplain geology of predominantly clayey sand and an environment prone to inundation that provided varying signal penetration depths depending on either compact or soft soil. For the larger scales, GPR was used in combination with GPS, GIS and remote sensing data sets. The concept of spatial configuration of monuments in and outside of enclosures led the search for remains of missing laterite and sandstone structures. A survey in the centre of Angkor Wat revealed the outline of six towers as part of a potential quincunx formation. They were further analysed by excavations to establish a preliminary construction history of the area. Surveys inside the peripheral enclosures of Chau Srei Vibol, Banteay Sra and Prasat Komnap showed evidence of demolished structures, some of it possibly from the Angkorian period. For questions concerning the functioning of a water management system in the Angkorian floodplain, GPR profiles in search for infrastructure were conducted alongside and over the embankments of the giant reservoirs. Evidence of outlets in the central areas of the eastern embankments of all four baray at Angkor confirmed them being part of the network. On the largest scale, GPR transects were run across parts of the floodplain to investigate the network of canals and earthworks that had been mapped by remote sensing. Obstacles, profiles and grids as well as the detected anomalies were integrated into a geo-referenced GIS database. Potential connections between centres and temples were integrated at areas where associated and previously mapped earthworks discontinued. Anomalies associated to the water management features were classified according to their characteristics and potential function as former artificial and natural channels, moats, ponds as well as masonry remains, and analysed with regard to archaeological maps and available remote sensing data. Newly acquired high resolution satellite radar (TerraSAR-X) data was used to evaluate a potential relation between water saturation and anomalies. The complete dataset was analysed for a complementation of archaeological maps and with the intent to separate features of the artificial canal network of Angkor from the natural landscape and the original distribution of rivers

Visual Analysis of Urban Environment

International audienceThis paper presents a survey of methods used to model and to analyse visual events in urban scenes. What we call a visual event is an event which occurs in the visual field while we are moving or while the scene is moving. This could be an object appearance or disappearance, or a shape, a colour, or a texture modification. But here, we mainly consider the visual events provided by objects set during a motion. In the second section, we examine some methods to model the events that come inside our visual field, giving a first interpretation to a urban environment. This is done after showing methods to represent the visual field. In the third section, we focus on different methods used to analyse and to evaluate the visibility in urban environment. Finally, we conclude on the way each of these representations of visual perceptions and each of these visual analysis methods act, and in which way they could be extended

Symbols of protection : the significance of animal-ornamented shields in early Anglo-Saxon England

The significance of shields with animal ornament on the boss and/or board in early Anglo-Saxon society is sought in the coincidence of artefactual, stylistic and iconographic symbolism. Twenty shields buried in the 6th to earliest 7th century, together with seventeen further mounts which were probably originally designed for shields, form the basis of a systematic typological review; decoration in Salin's Style I is emphasised. Analysis of dating, distribution and use in burial establishes cultural and social contexts. The meaning of the ornamental repertoire is sought through iconographic analogies, notably with Scandinavian bracteates and their putative association with a cult of Óðinn/Woden. It is proposed that the animal ornament invested the shields with a specific apotropaic quality, which emphasised, and amplified, the protective role of select adult males, and hence their authority over kin, community and even kingdo

Dead body language: Deciphering corpse positions in early Anglo-Saxon England

This work provides a study of corpse positioning as an aspect of mortuary practice. The positional representation of the dead body is fundamental to the perception of death and the deceased, but this aspect of burial treatment has been overlooked and under-theorised in archaeological and anthropological scholarship. With an aim to explore the significance of the positioning of the corpse and its place within wider debates surrounding dying and death, this research examines burial positioning in inhumation graves in early Anglo-Saxon England, c AD 400–750. Bringing together 3,053 graves from 32 cemeteries, this thesis combines statistical methods, artistic reconstructions, typological analysis, grave artefacts, osteological data, literary sources, and representational art to produce a new and challenging examination of funerary remains. This work has identified a positional norm of supine deposition, extended legs, and arms positioned according to one of seven ‘main types’. Patterns and variations in burial positions were manifested as an interplay between conformity to this positional norm and variations beyond it: from the individual level to regional practices, and in relation to long-term changes through the early Anglo-Saxon period. The arrangement of the cadaver was intimately linked with the deceased’s social identity and relationship with other people, mediated by the bodily engagements that took place between the living and the dead in the mortuary performances. The positions of corpses can be argued through this new evidence to be comparable as a source to human representations in art, revealing a wider gestural repertoire in the early medieval world. This work has offered new and exciting insights into living and dying in early medieval England, and has set new agendas for studying body positions from archaeological contexts. This has far-reaching methodological and interpretive implications for the study of death and burial, in the past as well as the present