Figure 4 - uploaded by Jose Ignacio Fiz Fernández
Content may be subject to copyright.
Necropolis of Vilanera (L'Escala, Girona). (a) General view of where the deposit is located. Black box with dashed line: location of the necropolis. Red box with dashed line: analysed area of Necropolis of Vilanera (L'Escala, Girona). (a) General view of where the deposit is located. Black box with dashed line: location of the necropolis. Red box with dashed line: analysed area of the monastery of Sta. Maria de Vilanera. Fountain. ESRI World Imagery. (b) Detail of a sector of the necropolis during the 2021 campaign. Flight made with UAV in June 2021. ETRS 89 UTM zone 31 coordinates.
Source publication
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also known as drones or RPA) in archaeology has expanded significantly over the last twenty years. Improvements in terms of the reliability, size, and manageability of these aircraft have been largely complemented by the high resolution and spectral bands provided by the sensors of the different cameras th...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... the Vilanera site (Figure 4), in the same year, 2018, another member of the team, Dr. Dolors Codina, obtained the concession in the same call for the project to excavate the necropolis de Vilanera (L'Escala, Girona) under the title The Ancient and Middle Neolithic at the Mouth of the Ter: Archaeological Actions from the Prehistoric Period in Vilanera/Empúries and its Surroundings, with file number 2018-2021. CLT009/18/00015. ...
Context 2
... the Vilanera site (Figure 4), in the same year, 2018, another member of the team, Dr. Dolors Codina, obtained the concession in the same call for the project to excavate the necropolis de Vilanera (L'Escala, Girona) under the title The Ancient and Middle Neolithic at the Mouth of the Ter: Archaeological Actions from the Prehistoric Period in Vilanera/Empúries and its Surroundings, with file number -2021. CLT009/18/00015. ...
Context 3
... the Vilanera site (Figure 4), in the same year, 2018, another member of the team, Dr. Dolors Codina, obtained the concession in the same call for the project to excavate the necropolis de Vilanera (L'Escala, Girona) under the title The Ancient and Middle Neolithic at the Mouth of the Ter: Archaeological Actions from the Prehistoric Period in Vilanera/Empúries and its Surroundings, with file number 2018-2021. CLT009/18/00015. ...
Context 4
... 2016 campaign, focusing on the excavation of the central area of the tumulus (Figure 4), provided a large funerary area of more than 40 m in diameter, in the northern part of which a rectangular chamber was drawn, surrounded by stones placed semivertically that measured 17 m long by 8 m wide. This exceptional funerary structure, without subsequent alterations, has made it possible, for the first time in the northeast of the peninsula, to excavate a very complex Neolithic tomb where the architectures of the early Neolithic are mixed with those of the middle-and end-Neolithic. ...
Context 5
... this sense, apart from the geometric documentation of the site obtained with UAV, we were interested in analysing certain areas near the necropolis. In one of them are the remains of one of the buildings that formed part of the monastery of the Benedictine nuns of Santa Maria de Vilanera (Figure 4a, red box with discontinuous line), founded in 1328. This analysed area is partly at the highest point of the hill of Vilanera, and only conserves a wall of 10 m in length and 4 m at its maximum height. ...
Context 6
... the Vilanera site (Figure 4), in the same year, 2018, another member of the team, Dr. Dolors Codina, obtained the concession in the same call for the project to excavate the necropolis de Vilanera (L'Escala, Girona) under the title The Ancient and Middle Neolithic at the Mouth of the Ter: Archaeological Actions from the Prehistoric Period in Vilanera/Empúries and its Surroundings, with file number 2018-2021. CLT009/18/00015. ...
Context 7
... the Vilanera site (Figure 4), in the same year, 2018, another member of the team, Dr. Dolors Codina, obtained the concession in the same call for the project to excavate the necropolis de Vilanera (L'Escala, Girona) under the title The Ancient and Middle Neolithic at the Mouth of the Ter: Archaeological Actions from the Prehistoric Period in Vilanera/Empúries and its Surroundings, with file number -2021. CLT009/18/00015. ...
Context 8
... the Vilanera site (Figure 4), in the same year, 2018, another member of the team, Dr. Dolors Codina, obtained the concession in the same call for the project to excavate the necropolis de Vilanera (L'Escala, Girona) under the title The Ancient and Middle Neolithic at the Mouth of the Ter: Archaeological Actions from the Prehistoric Period in Vilanera/Empúries and its Surroundings, with file number 2018-2021. CLT009/18/00015. ...
Context 9
... 2016 campaign, focusing on the excavation of the central area of the tumulus (Figure 4), provided a large funerary area of more than 40 m in diameter, in the northern part of which a rectangular chamber was drawn, surrounded by stones placed semivertically that measured 17 m long by 8 m wide. This exceptional funerary structure, without subsequent alterations, has made it possible, for the first time in the northeast of the peninsula, to excavate a very complex Neolithic tomb where the architectures of the early Neolithic are mixed with those of the middle-and end-Neolithic. ...
Context 10
... this sense, apart from the geometric documentation of the site obtained with UAV, we were interested in analysing certain areas near the necropolis. In one of them are the remains of one of the buildings that formed part of the monastery of the Benedictine nuns of Santa Maria de Vilanera (Figure 4a, red box with discontinuous line), founded in 1328. This analysed area is partly at the highest point of the hill of Vilanera, and only conserves a wall of 10 m in length and 4 m at its maximum height. ...
Similar publications
This paper presents a system for behavioral, environmental, and physiological monitoring of working dogs using on-body and aerial sensors. The proof of concept study presented here includes two trained dogs performing nine scent detection tasks in an uncontrolled environment encompassing approximately two acres. The dogs were outfitted with a custo...
Citations
... 3D models obtained by laser scanning have been used to fill a virtual environment with faithful copies of real objects, such as the interior of a museum or a historic building [24][25][26]. Photogrammetry has been used in the 3D reconstruction of objects based on one or more images for many years [27][28][29]. Active sensors can generate the dense 3D point cloud data required to create high-resolution geometric models, while digital photogrammetry is more suitable for creating highly accurate textured 3D models [30][31][32]. ...
... This technology is used to visualize the object, and the created model has the actual building parameters. The essence of BIM is based on object-oriented modelling [29,32]. Modelling cultural heritage in a BIM environment requires special attention. ...
The construction of the St. Adalbert Church in Gdansk dates to 1310. It is a church of rich history and great historical value, and its care is challenging. In this study, the combination of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) was used to accurately build a 3D model of the church. Together with the collected historical inventory documentation, the historic building information model (HBIM) was generated. The Autodesk-Revit® tool was used for this purpose. On the basis of the generated model, the reflection properties of the laser scanner beam and red–green–blue (RGB) images, a methodology was proposed for analysing the degradation of the church’s components. The main hypothesis of this study is based on the analysis of sunlight outside the church. In addition to the importance of the method for determining the risks of church degradation, a high-quality method for model visualization combining two photogrammetric techniques (TLS + UAV) is presented.
... The objective of this contribution is the presentation of an acquisition methodology in the field of cultural heritage that is independent of the use of specific tools or software and compliant with the methods adopted by researchers in humanities and computer science. Over the last few years, numerous approaches have been based on the use of photogrammetry for the acquisition of artifacts and architectural structures both with field applications, as in the case of Catalhoyuk [1], and through the use of drones for overall environmental acquisitions [2]. The photogrammetric technique is also used in similar fields, such as paleontology [3] or geoarchaeology [4]. ...
The technological advancement of software and hardware and the lowering of the prices of instrumentation has made photogrammetry the preferred instrument for surveying activities in archaeological projects. Consequently, archaeological datasets have been enriched with 3D models of archaeological finds and structures. Each project has developed its work pipeline for raw data acquisition and the elaboration of models and their archiving and dissemination. In most cases, the pipeline is the result of empirical experimentation and is designed to act within the specific context of the project. To date, we still lack a shared method for a photogrammetric survey that derives from the specific design and techniques/contexts. This paper aims at proposing an approach for a shared 3D survey workflow for photogrammetry in archaeology. The general approach relies on the digital data curation framework for cultural heritage and encompasses several specialized tasks. We describe the general functions and processes and how they can be implemented in a practical workflow. As a proof of concept, we show how a preliminary release of the workflow has been applied in the context of the BeArchaeo project, for the acquisition, processing, export, modeling, archiving, and indexing of 3D models, resulting from photogrammetric surveys. A long-term aim is a methodological approach for different endeavors of cultural heritage.
... In recent years, public bodies and superintendencies have allocated funds for research in the digital cultural heritage domain (DCH). A growing need has emerged for the acquisition and restitution of the state of the buildings and archaeological sites and medium-and large-sized infrastructures to support professionals such as restorers and structural engineers in understanding the artefact in the most complete and in-depth way possible [1][2][3][4]. The current inspection methods still require long amounts of time to return and interpret the data, resulting in expenses due to the need for special inspection equipment and the temporary closure of the building, the archaeological site or the infrastructure. ...
One of the main objectives of today’s archaeological sites and museums is the development of research, understood as the interpretation and contextualisation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage to broaden the knowledge and accessibility of archaeological parks often unknown to visitors and the public on a large scale. In this perspective, the Appia Antica Archaeological Park aims to support research in digitising infrastructures and archaeological contexts of high historical and cultural value to plan short- and medium-term preservation and maintenance projects. In this context, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are tools with enormous potential in survey, inspection and digitisation, providing the basis for the subsequent phases of data interpretation, representation and material analysis. Thanks to the photorealistic reconstruction of dense structure from motion (DSfM) in the application of structural inspections, today it is possible to intercept the geometry and material conditions of small, medium and large structures, reducing the costs of inspections, limiting the interruption of the public and providing professionals and visitors with a better volumetric understanding of the system. However, inserting information that gradually accumulates throughout the process requires advanced 3D digital representation techniques, such as HBIM (historic building information modelling), scan-to-BIM approach and interactive forms, such as virtual and augmented reality (VR-AR). For these reasons, this study summarises the experience and lessons learned from the UAV inspection of three research case studies at archaeological, architectural, and infrastructure scales to increase awareness of the Roman-built heritage.
... Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), due to their affordability and the ability to generate accurate photogrammetric products, are used in many areas, including land surveying (Koeva et al., 2018;Šafář et al., 2021), agriculture (Delavarpour et al., 2021;Kaivosoja et al., 2021), forestry (Dainelli et al., 2021;Pessacg et al., 2022), mining (Ge et al., 2016;Park and Choi, 2020), archeology (Campana, 2017;Fiz et al., 2022), construction (Li and Liu, 2019;Yahya et al., 2021), and road construction (Cardenal et al., 2019;Zulkipli and Tahar, 2018). Furthermore, 3D modelling of the existing infrastructure is crucial for developing increasingly popular smart cities. ...
Photogrammetric products obtained by processing data acquired with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are used in many fields. Various structures are analysed, including roads. Many roads located in cities are characterised by heavy traffic. This makes it impossible to avoid the presence of cars in aerial photographs. However, they are not an integral part of the landscape, so their presence in the generated photogrammetric products is unnecessary. The occurrence of cars in the images may also lead to errors such as irregularities in digital elevation models (DEMs) in roadway areas and the blurring effect on orthophotomaps. The research aimed to improve the quality of photogrammetric products obtained with the Structure from Motion algorithm. To fulfil this objective, the Yolo v3 algorithm was used to automatically detect cars in the images. Neural network learning was performed using data from a different flight to ensure that the obtained detector could also be used in independent projects. The photogrammetric process was then carried out in two scenarios: with and without masks. The obtained results show that the automatic masking of cars in images is fast and allows for a significant increase in the quality of photogrammetric products such as DEMs and orthophotomaps.
... In order to document the cultural heritage site affected by geo-hazards, UAV images and laser scanning are used 33,34 . Cultural sites mapping with different materials, and techniques including images acquired from NGB (Nir + Green + Blue), Red Edge, and Thermographic cameras was presented 35 . Other researchers presented the survey campaign that they performed in order to solve all the operational difficulties of using UAVs in an urban environment, mainly because short distance shooting of nearly vertical surfaces was required for the Bergamo City Walls 36 . ...
The preservation of cultural heritage and landscapes, which are constantly endangered by man-made hazards and natural
disasters (earthquakes, landslides, floods, fires, urbanization, etc.) is a strategic priority for humanity. Nowadays, remote
sensing stands out as an important, innovative and cost-effective tool with great potentialities for the protection and
monitoring of cultural heritage as well as the prevention of monuments and sites, due to non-invasiveness in such a
vulnerable research objective. In this context, remote sensing data, acquired by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and
Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) surveys were utilized for the precise mapping and monitoring of rockfalls occurred over
an eleventh-century BC. Holy Monastery. The monastery is built on a rocky slope, which hangs over the bank of the
ancient river Triton, and it is located a few kilometers away of the village of Andritsena within the Region of Western
Greece. Significant damages to the dome of the monastery were detected after the occurrence of rockfalls in late January
2021. Remote sensing data were collected over the monastery area and were processed appropriately. UAV and TLS point
cloud were generated and change detection methods were applied for the precise mapping of the rockfalls. Moreover, UAV
and TLS point clouds were integrated towards a more comprehensive mapping.
... In archaeology, the need to take measurements from multiple angles (aerial and ground) and to combine aerial measurements with reconstructed structures and complex soil morphology places high demands on the resolution of the acquired images [4]. As research continues, through improvements in photogrammetry and identification, different cameras are developed with sensors that can provide different high resolutions and complementary spectral bands [5]. In ecology, the establishment of protected areas can better protect ecological environments and historical artifacts, so the use of drones to assess the level of protected areas and to monitor and measure sensitive areas has an important position, and this work relies on high-resolution images [6]. ...
In this paper, we consider the difference in the abstraction level of features extracted by different perceptual layers and use a weighted perceptual loss-based generative adversarial network to deblur the UAV images, which removes the blur and restores the texture details of the images well. The perceptual loss is used as an objective evaluation index for training process monitoring and model selection, which eliminates the need for extensive manual comparison of the deblurring effect and facilitates model selection. The UNet jump connection structure facilitates the transfer of features across layers in the network, reduces the learning difficulty of the generator, and improves the stability of adversarial training.
... UAVs are utilized in various monitoring and inspection projects, for example, in agriculture (González-Jorge et al., 2017;Radoglou-Grammatikis et al., 2020), forestry (Torresan et al., 2016), environmental sciences (Eltner et al., 2022;Eskandari et al., 2020), Hydrology (Acharya et al., 2021), industrial inspection of large structures (Maboudi et al., 2021;Seo et al., 2018;Sun and Ma, 2022), Virtual Reality (Sharma et al., 2019) and civil engineering (Debus and Rodehorst, 2021;Jacob-Loyola et al., 2021;Rakha and Gorodetsky, 2018). Especially the demand for high-quality 3D models in many applications such as construction (Li and Liu, 2018), urban modelling (Malihi et al., 2018;Song et al., 2021), aerial cinematography (Bucker et al., 2020), transportation (Sahebdivani et al., 2020;Xu and Turkan, 2020), landscape planning, archeology (Fiz et al., 2022), emergency rescue, and disaster analysis (Kerle et al., 2019) is still increasing. Nevertheless, restricted access to the objects stereo cameras can estimate accurate and dense depth maps in real-time. ...
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely used platforms to carry data capturing sensors for various applications. The reason for this success can be found in many aspects: the high maneuverability of the UAVs, the capability of performing autonomous data acquisition, flying at different heights, and the possibility to reach almost any vantage point. The selection of appropriate viewpoints and planning the optimum trajectories of UAVs is an emerging topic that aims at increasing the automation, efficiency and reliability of the data capturing process to achieve a dataset with desired quality. On the other hand, 3D reconstruction using the data captured by UAVs is also attracting attention in research and industry. This review paper investigates a wide range of model-free and model-based algorithms for viewpoint and path planning for 3D reconstruction of large-scale objects. The analyzed approaches are limited to those that employ a single-UAV as a data capturing platform for outdoor 3D reconstruction purposes. In addition to discussing the evaluation strategies, this paper also highlights the innovations and limitations of the investigated approaches. It concludes with a critical analysis of the existing challenges and future research perspectives.
The province of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain), despite being declared the European territory with the largest number of defensive constructions (castles and fortifications), has few conservation plans, with many remains included on the Red List of Spanish Heritage lying abandoned. This presents a problem for the conservation of the landscape and the optimal use of the province’s tourism potential. Through the study case of Magaña hamlet two actions are proposed to alleviate this situation: The creation of an archaeological and environmental risk chart with which to answer such questions as “How have climate change, anthropic alterations and environmental charac-teristics affected the state of conservation of certain heritage sites?” and to put forward proposals for improving their protection using as a basis digital and technological tools, such as remote sensing (SAR), taking advantage of data from the Sentinel 2A and 2B satellites, HBIM, RPAS and GIS. To foster the promotion of smart tourism by digitalising and virtualising tourist routes and archaeological remains by building a Smart Tourism App for mobile devices. Finally, public administrations will be apprised of the need to implement a conservation policy for cultural as-sets and their surroundings in a simple, quick and cost-effective manner.
Volubilis was founded in the second century B.C. and was one of the largest cities on the fringe of the Roman Empire. In 1997, it was listed as a world cultural heritage site by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and is one of the most important archaeological sites of Morocco. Volubilis is renowned for its large number of mosaic floors. Among the major mosaics of Volubilis, and undoubtedly the most remarkable ones given their aesthetic and the variety of themes they hold, are found in the house of Venus. These mosaics have been restored between the 1940s and 1950s, but unfortunately, most of these restorations are past due or nearing their ends. Today, the mosaic floors are becoming unleveled, fractured and separated from their surrounding walls. These deteriorations can be triggered by many factors including inadequate foundation, a clayey soil beneath it sensitive to moisture and the heaving of the thin concrete layer due to the expansion of the soil. The corrosion of the reinforcing bars within these concrete slabs is enabling these deformations as well. The objective of this study is to examine the causes of the mosaics' deterioration by integrating three techniques including a laser level survey, photogrammetry using a small unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAV) and ground-penetrating radar. The methodology adopted herein can generate documentation that can be used during the preparation and decision making prior to any restoration. The restoration should not only be focused on the visible tesserae on the surface but must also consider the entire layer of the mosaics. These techniques were applied to several mosaics in Volubilis, yet only two mosaics within the house of Venus were selected for this study, and the following findings were accomplished: (1) Void spaces were found beneath the mosaic floors, (2) presence of sinking and heaving of concrete slabs and (3) potential corrosion of rebars. The three methods used in this study were in perfect concurrence in showing how the settling of the concrete slab was directly related to the deteriorations visible on the mosaic surface.
