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LIDAR, Point Clouds, and Their Archaeological Applications

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Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Archaeology ((BRIEFSARCHHERIT,volume 5))

Abstract

It is common in contemporary archaeological literature, in papers at archaeological conferences, and in grant proposals to see heritage professionals use the term LIDAR to refer to high spatial resolution digital elevation models and the technology used to produce them. The goal of this chapter is to break that association and introduce archaeologists to the world of point clouds, in which LIDAR is only one member of a larger family of techniques to obtain, visualize, and analyze three-dimensional measurements of archaeological features. After describing how point clouds are constructed, there is a brief discussion on the currently available software and analytical techniques designed to make sense of them.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is currently no professional consensus with respect to the capitalization of the “I” in the LIDAR acronym, which stands for LIght Detection And Ranging. In this chapter, the established capitalization convention for RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging), another active remote sensing technology, is used. The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing also follows this convention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    Devin Alan White

  2. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO, USA

    Devin Alan White

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  1. Devin Alan White
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White, D.A. (2013). LIDAR, Point Clouds, and Their Archaeological Applications. In: Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology(), vol 5. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6074-9_14

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