The TRAIL international meeting took place from March 26 to 28 in Frasne (Doubs, France).  It was dedicated to LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) datas study under forest covered spaces. The LiDAR technology allows generating high precision altimeter models from the floor no matter the vegetal cover. These models had been highly multiplicated for the last five years, in the European area, delivering an important quantity of new archeological discoveries under plants covers. Since 2009, the Franche-Comté region is one of the most emblematics study casesof the European network Archaeolandscape, thanks to a Lidar data acquisition with high precision (8 points / m2) funded by the Region and the development of an integrated methodology for detection and archaeological survey.

The objective of TRAIL 2014 was to bring together specialists of LiDAR remote sensing applied to archeology and archeology specialists under forest cover in order to present the latest methodological advances and to discuss of the different ways of understanding and integrate the results of LiDAR surveys. These exchanges took place in the form of a mini-symposium, a series of 4 workshops conducted in parallel, as well as a round table to propose joint actions of analysis and valuation of forest resources. The audience was made up of professionals (NFB Heritage), researchers and students in the second or third year of doctoral specialists interpretation and processing of LiDAR data in archeology and the study of forestry.

Frasne :

57 researchers from 17 countries :

The documents presented during this meeting have been collected by our team and can be downloaded from the links below :

Conferences :

Benoit Sittler	LIDAR topographic imagery – Towards a paradigm shift in the assessment of ancient landscapes	View
Kasper Hanus	Revealing archaeological landscapes in the tropics using ALS	View
Elise Fovet	LiDAR in macchia	View
Rachel Opitz, Laure Nuninger	Point cloud metrics for separating standing archaeological remains and low vegetation in ALS data	View
Máté Stibrányi – Gábor Mesterházy	See through a glass, darkly…Archaeological predictive modeling and ALS, a case study from Hungary	View
Ole Risbol	Cultural Heritage, ALS and Forestry	View
Tristan Allouis – L’Avion Jaune	The YellowScan® system : a test on the oppida of Nages/Roque de Viou (Languedoc, France)	View
Richard Vuitton – Helimap System	Fast, Flexible, Accurate & Affordable mapping system : Burgruine Griffen Castle (Austria)	View

 

Worshops:

• Processing and visualisation of lidar data: complementary techniques (Ž. Kokalj, L. Nuninger)

This workshop has focused on different means of creating and visualizing terrain models

• Integration of geophysical and LiDAR datas: methodological and technical problems (C. Laplaige, J. Pouncett)

This workshop has focused on combining complementary surface and subsurface datas derived from LiDAR and geophysical surveys.

• Special Problems: non-standard processing of ‘raw’ data (C. Fruchart, A. Klimczyk)

This workshop has focused on the classification of raw discrete return LiDAR datas to improve terrain models or to study the vegetation canopy structure

• Interpretation of LiDAR data: integration with extant data schemas and frameworks  (R. Opitz, B. Štular)

This workshop has focused on integrating the information interpreted from LiDAR data with archaeological survey datas from other sources of information e.g. fieldwalking or aerial photographic survey, or a historical monuments database

Viewing the success of the 2014 edition, a new TRAIL session is already under consideration for 2016 or 2017. These meetings permit to create new research fields at an international level that is express thought the increasing number of new projects at the national and European level.

Among the results obtained, we’ll mention:

–          The obtaining of the SOLIDAR program (Diachrony of land use: LIDAR remote sensing in forests of Chambord, Boulogne, Russy and Blois), financed by the Région Centre, the Domaine National de Chambord and the Ministère de la Culture. The MSHE Ledoux is in the partnership as an expert for the LiDAR remote sensing in under forest cover.

–          The invitation from the LabexMed (Université Aix-Marseille) has an expert to Journée d’études sur la télédétection par laser (Laser remote sensing session) applied to archeological prospections. During this session our international team (LEA ModeLTER) has presented an introduction to LiDAR technology (Nuninger, Fovet) and 5 conferences about projects using LiDAR in archeology (Opitz, Nuninger, Bohbot et Sanchez, Bully and Forlin)

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