A geoarchaeological study of the metaponto coastal belt, southern Italy, based on geomorphological mapping and gis-supported classification of landforms

In this work we tried to infer the settlement rules and archaeological site patterns in pilot coastal area with high “archaeological potential” through the analysis of the spatial relationships between landform unit maps deriving from a GIS-supported procedure of landform extraction integrated with geomorphological analyses and archaeological evidence. This approach has been tested in the coastal Ionian sector of the Basilicata region, where a detailed geoarchaeological research has been carried out in the frame of the multidisciplinary MeTIBas project (the Italian acronyms for Innovative Methods and Technologies for the Cultural Heritages in the Basilicata region), funded by the European Community. The study area extends on the southernmost part of the Bradano Foredeep, southern Italy, and roughly coincides with the Greek settlement territory of Metaponto and its Chora (the area of influence of Greek colonists). Archaeological investigations, regarding about 1400 sites, consisted of a re-examination of literature data and new field surveys. The relationships between landscape elements deriving from the procedure here proposed and archaeological sites have been statistically investigated to derive settlement patterns and rules. Results highlight a preferential distribution of the identified categories of archaeological sites on gently-dipping marine terrace surfaces and near their edges, thus implying that settlement dynamics of the Metaponto territory partially driven by the topographic position

SEMI-AUTOMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF LANDFORMS AS A TOOL TO STRESS GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL ISSUES: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE METAPONTO COASTAL BELT, SOUTHERN ITALY

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Electromagnetic Sensing Techniques for Non-Destructive Diagnosis of Civil Engineering Structures

Environmental policy & protocol

Transport Infrastructure Surveillance and Monitoring by Electromagnetic Sensing: The ISTIMES Project

The ISTIMES project, funded by the European Commission in the frame of a joint Call “ICT and Security” of the Seventh Framework Programme, is presented and preliminary research results are discussed. The main objective of the ISTIMES project is to design, assess and promote an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-based system, exploiting distributed and local sensors, for non-destructive electromagnetic monitoring of critical transport infrastructures. The integration of electromagnetic technologies with new ICT information and telecommunications systems enables remotely controlled monitoring and surveillance and real time data imaging of the critical transport infrastructures. The project exploits different non-invasive imaging technologies based on electromagnetic sensing (optic fiber sensors, Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite platform based, hyperspectral spectroscopy, Infrared thermography, Ground Penetrating Radar-, low-frequency geophysical techniques, Ground based systems for displacement monitoring). In this paper, we show the preliminary results arising from the GPR and infrared thermographic measurements carried out on the Musmeci bridge in Potenza, located in a highly seismic area of the Apennine chain (Southern Italy) and representing one of the test beds of the project

Geoarchaeology and geomorphology of the Metaponto area, Ionian coastal belt, Italy

A 1:28,000-scale geoarchaeological map has been prepared for a large sector of the Ionian coastal belt of the Basilicata region, southern Italy, in order to investigate the relationships between the spatial distribution of archaeological sites of Greek settlement of Metapontum and the main landforms of this sector of the Bradano Foredeep. Archaeological investigation consists of an examination and a re-organisation of published data and new field surveys, which has allowed us to infer the relationships between landform elements and spatial distribution of about 1400 archaeological remnants of the Greek colony of Metapontum. Our results highlight a non-random distribution of the archaeological evidence and the strong influence of geomorphological features and processes on the settlement pattern

A new combined wavelet methodology: implementation to GPR and ERT data obtained in the Montagnole experiment

International audienceGround penetrating radar (GPR) and electric resistivity tomography (ERT) are well assessed and accurate geophysical methods for the investigation of subsurface geological sections. In this paper, we present the joint exploitation of these methods at the Montagnole (French Alps) experimental site with the final aim to study and monitor effects of possible catastrophic rockslides in transport infrastructures. The overall goal of the joint GPR–ERT deployment considered here is the careful monitoring of the subsurface structure before and after a series of high energetic mechanical impacts at ground level. It is known that factors such as the ambiguity of geophysical field examination, the complexity of geological scenarios and the low signal-to-noise ratio affect the possibility of building reliable physical–geological models of subsurface structure. Here, we applied to the GPR and ERT methods at the Montagnole site, recent advances in wavelet theory and data mining. The wavelet approach was specifically used to obtain enhanced images (e.g. coherence portraits) resulting from the integration of the different geophysical fields. This methodology, based on the matching pursuit combined with wavelet packet dictionaries, permitted us to extract desired signals under different physical–geological conditions, even in the presence of strongly noised data. Tools such as complex wavelets employed for the coherence portraits, and combined GPR–ERT coherency orientation angle, to name a few, enable non-conventional operations of integration and correlation in subsurface geophysics to be performed. The estimation of the above-mentioned parameters proved useful not only for location of buried inhomogeneities but also for a rough estimation of their electromagnetic and related properties. Therefore, the combination of the above approaches has allowed us to set up a novel methodology, which may enhance the reliability and confidence of each separate geophysical method and their integration