A Geographic Information System Approach to Mapping Disturbed Landscapes for Cultural Resources Management: United States Air Force Academy

Summary

This is an abstract from the "MARS General Military CRM Poster Session" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Situated on 7,484 ha (18,494 acres) at the foothills of the Rampart Range in Colorado, the main campus of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) has experienced human activity across the precolonial, historic, and military eras, as well as natural disturbance from water courses and soil slumping along steep slopes. Both natural and cultural activities have resulted in ground disturbances potentially affecting the integrity of cultural deposits. Using a Geographic Information System approach, this project delineates land disturbances at USAFA, resulting in a map that illustrates disturbed areas along with the severity of disturbances. Using historical imagery from before, during, and after the construction of USAFA, and high-resolution lidar data, land disturbance features were mapped for the entirety of the campus. A total of 953 disturbance features were mapped manually while 48,959 features were automatically assigned a disturbance value from existing built environment geospatial data. The resulting disturbance map and geospatial data provide a tool for informing USAFA’s future planning activities and decision-making, including consideration of impacts on cultural resources. The mapping efforts indicate that undisturbed land accounts for approximately 46% of the installation with remaining land containing some severity of disturbance.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• MARS General Military CRM Poster Session   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39800.0