Utilization and Field Testing of LiDAR in the Maya Hinterlands

Summary

Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is an active remote-sensing technique which records the surface of the earth using laser scanning. The recent acquisition of LiDAR data for a portion of the Three Rivers regions in northwestern Belize offered the opportunity for a new way to analyze settlement and landscape utilization by the ancient Maya. This paper will focus on the systematic analysis of the dataset, ground verification, and post-processing methodologies. ArcGIS was used for the interpretation, LAS classification, and tiling of the maps for hand-held GPS (Global Position System) units. Household groups, single mounds, courtyard groups, depressions, and scabeob were identified and verified during field surveys. Ground truthing took place during the 2017 field season of the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project (DH2GC).

Cite this Record

Utilization and Field Testing of LiDAR in the Maya Hinterlands. Marisol Cortes-Rincon, Jonathan Roldan, Cady Rutherford, Byron Smith, Walter Tovar Saldana. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 443174)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -107.271; min lat: 12.383 ; max long: -86.353; max lat: 23.08 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21814