LiDAR in the Maya Heartland: Results of the 2016 LiDAR survey in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve

During the summer of 2016, the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping conducted the first phase of an ambitious LiDAR survey of over 1400 km2 of forested areas within the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) of the northern Petén district of Guatemala. The project, sponsored by Fundación PACUNAM (a Guatemalan non-profit organization focused on the research and conservation in the MBR), included areas currently under investigation, including Tikal, El Zotz, Holmul, La Corona, Xultun, San Bartolo, Waka’, Naachtun and Uaxactun. These are some of the most important lowland Maya centers that flourished throughout both the Preclassic and Classic periods, many of which have been mapped to various degrees of completeness with traditional field methods. The project also targeted areas where only cursory archaeological research has been conducted, such as between the sites of Xmakabantun and Holmul in the northeast and swaths of the Parque Laguna del Tigre in the west. The participants will present results relevant to not only the detection and interpretation of archaeological and environmental features in each coverage area, but also the methodological issues raised during the various stages of LiDAR data analysis that might prove useful to future applications of this technology in similar environmental conditions.