Digital Deforestation: DTM Generation with Agisoft Photoscan

Author(s): Matthew Howland; Thomas E. Levy

Year: 2018

Summary

Image-based Modeling (IBM) is an increasingly-applied technique for field archaeologists for generation of high-resolution spatial data. IBM is effectively and easily applied for generation of Orthophotographs and Digital Surface Models (DSMs). Yet raw DSMs are not suitable for analysis or mapping purposes in vegetated environments due to the fact that they contain measurements of trees, bushes, and even architecture, ancient and modern. Archaeologists often instead require Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), showing only the surface of the underlying earth, for cartography or volumetric calculations. Fortunately, the popular IBM software package, Agisoft Photoscan, contains point cloud classification functionality, allowing researchers to categorize points according to their location or color. By doing so, users can classify and then disregard vegetation in generating elevation models, and in doing so produce a true DTM without the need for complex GIS manipulation. This poster displays an Agisoft-based DTM-generation workflow, using the Mycenaean site of Kastrouli, Greece, as a case study.

Cite this Record

Digital Deforestation: DTM Generation with Agisoft Photoscan. Matthew Howland, Thomas E. Levy. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 442558)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -10.151; min lat: 29.459 ; max long: 42.847; max lat: 47.99 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21638