[OSGeo Africa] Africa Digest, Vol 78, Issue 12
Gerhard Brits
BritsJG at eskom.co.za
Mon Jul 15 23:13:34 PDT 2013
HI
I think your best option will be to use some type of Geo physical survey. You would want to maybe test the resistivity/conductivity and the density of the surrounding geology and or soils. It is expensive but the results are very good. Contact the Council for Geoscience.
Regards
G
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Subject: Africa Digest, Vol 78, Issue 12
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Today's Topics:
1. Use of remote-sensing technology to locate old burial sites ?
(Chris)
2. Re: Use of remote-sensing technology to locate old burial
sites ? (christopher legg)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 15:26:53 +0200
From: "Chris" <chris at airphotoafrica.co.za>
To: africa at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [OSGeo Africa] Use of remote-sensing technology to locate old
burial sites ?
Message-ID: <51E414BD.15669.7CA6A4DD at chris.airphotoafrica.co.za>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Dear Listees ,
I know that there are a lot of really clued up people on the list.
I am hoping someone can suggest / help / provide some insight into the
following scenario.
Someone is trying to locate an historical site of mass burial ( about 180
years ago ) The general area is known but the exact location of the mass
burial site is lost. Apparently earlier writers who visited the scene
describe a location based on vegetation ( the area has changed a lot over
the years )
Is there any way using remote-sensing / any other form of geophysical
technology / methodology to attempt a location discovery ?
I am guessing that the disturbed soil may have different properties that
might be picked up by some form of specialised imageing --hyperspectral /
multispectral ( something else ? )
Would something like a Landsat 8 image be useable ? Or would the area
have to be flown by an aerial borne sensor ? The battle site is easily
located but the mass burial site would obviously be smaller ( not sure of
exact dimensions but probably something along the lines of half an
olympic sized pool )
Finding the site would be of important historical significance.
Any and all suggestions welcomed
Thanks
CM
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:28:44 +0100
From: christopher legg <christopher.legg at blueyonder.co.uk>
To: chris at airphotoafrica.co.za, Africa local chapter discussions
<africa at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [OSGeo Africa] Use of remote-sensing technology to locate
old burial sites ?
Message-ID: <1373905724.3352.11.camel at christopher-desktop>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
A critical factor will be the land-use history of the site since burial.
If there has been occasional (or continuous) cultivation, this would be a problem. If left undisturbed, then soil properties might well be different from surroundings.
The cheapest option would be to try Landsat ETM imagery from two seasons
- end of rainy season and end of dry season. This would highlight vegetation anomalies due to different water retention of soils. Spatial resolution would be a problem, since the site might only occupy a few pixels of Landsat imagery. Two similar dates of very high resolution satellite imagery - IKONOS or better - a NIR band would be very good, but expensive. You could check whether there is any HYperion imagery of the area, this would be free but you would have to be very lucky.
ASTER might show some anomalies due to soil disturbance - cheap but poor spatial resolution, especially in the thermal which might be best spectral option. Otherwise airborne scanners, which could be expensive depending on what is already available in RSA.
Once you have some anomalies for follow-up from satellite imagery, then ground geophysics - high resolution magnetics and/or ground penetrating radar - would be very useful.
Hope that this helps,
Chris Legg
On Mon, 2013-07-15 at 15:26 +0200, Chris wrote:
> Dear Listees ,
>
> I know that there are a lot of really clued up people on the list.
> I am hoping someone can suggest / help / provide some insight into the
> following scenario.
>
> Someone is trying to locate an historical site of mass burial ( about 180
> years ago ) The general area is known but the exact location of the mass
> burial site is lost. Apparently earlier writers who visited the scene
> describe a location based on vegetation ( the area has changed a lot over
> the years )
>
> Is there any way using remote-sensing / any other form of geophysical
> technology / methodology to attempt a location discovery ?
>
> I am guessing that the disturbed soil may have different properties that
> might be picked up by some form of specialised imageing --hyperspectral /
> multispectral ( something else ? )
>
> Would something like a Landsat 8 image be useable ? Or would the area
> have to be flown by an aerial borne sensor ? The battle site is easily
> located but the mass burial site would obviously be smaller ( not sure of
> exact dimensions but probably something along the lines of half an
> olympic sized pool )
>
> Finding the site would be of important historical significance.
>
> Any and all suggestions welcomed
>
> Thanks
>
>
> CM
>
> _______________________________________________
> Africa mailing list
> Africa at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
------------------------------
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End of Africa Digest, Vol 78, Issue 12
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