High-Precision Photogrammetry Mapping of the South Kohala Agricultural Field System, Hawai‘i Island

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Many archaeologists employ high-precision remote sensing to study surface remains at a landscape scale. Hawaiian archaeologists pioneered remote sensing using aerial photography in the Kohala peninsula of north Hawaiʻi Island, beginning in the 1960s, and it was the location for the first regional-scale application of lidar in Hawai‘i. In March 2022, researchers conducted a high-precision drone-based survey of agricultural features spread across nearly 5 km2 in the lightly vegetated uplands of Kawaihae in South Kohala. The survey produced both a photogrammetric Digital Surface Model and a series of orthophotographs of the surface archaeology and terrain at high resolution. We show here how photogrammetry improved identification of surface agricultural features including field borders, individual plots, and in-field rock planting mounds. We also mapped in detail an extensive irrigation-based network of ditches and natural drainages that transported water 5 km downslope from upland streams to fields located in areas where dryland farming would have been impossible. We suggest photogrammetry might be preferable to other forms of remote sensing in arid environments where surface archaeology is visible.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35616.0