Kayaking the Main Line Canal along the Kiski: Use of LiDAR in Predictive Modelling for Historical Linear Structures

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

As part of a complex transportation project, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s cultural resource professionals developed an interdisciplinary approach to identifying and managing extant and abandoned portions of the Main Line Canal’s Western Division in western Pennsylvania. Using a combination of background research, LiDAR imagery and analysis, pedestrian and kayak survey, a model for the archaeological signature of slack-water navigation was developed and tested. LiDAR analysis identified anomalies that were later compared to a blind test of on-site identification of linear features. The overlap of independently identified features resulted in a 76.5 percent rate in identifying canal-related features, as opposed to a 65.4 percent success rate of overlapping features, in general. From a cultural resource management perspective, this exploratory study of using LiDAR to predict, identify, and delineate partially extant and linear archaeological resources proved both time- and cost-effective as a method to help manage our shared cultural heritage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 194