Integration and Analysis of Multi-Modal Geospatial Secondary Data to Inform Management of at-Risk Archaeological Sites
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Research Area
2.2. Ancient Hydraulic System
2.3. Digital Elevation Extracted Site Parameters
2.4. Spatio-Temporal Analysis of NDVI
2.5. Modelling Soil Erosion
2.6. Estimation of Future Erosion Risk
2.7. Web Dashboard
3. Results
3.1. Water System Dynamics
3.2. Ancient Hydraulic System
3.3. Trends in Vegetation Cover
3.4. Spatial Variation in Soil Erosion Risk
3.5. Inter-Annual Variability in Erosion Risk
Projected Future Changes in Erosion Risk
4. Discussion
4.1. The Aquifer and Hydraulic System
- The Roman sewage system, usually located underneath the mains roads, collecting wastewater from the buildings of the fort and settlement (from the anomaly plan of the Timescape geophysical survey of 1999 we can observe the position of possible roads and related drains).
- The Roman drainage system, consisting of open-air channels with a drainage function, located along the perimeter of the fort and in the site’s ground lowest levels to remove waters from the area.
- The numerous modern farming drains built from the 1820s for agricultural purposes, that constitute the actual drainage system of the site.
4.2. Lack of Visible Long-Term Degradation
4.3. Potential Future Degradation
5. Conclusions
5.1. Short-Term Recommendations:
- Carry out geological surveys to the north east of Carvoran Farm (distance 240 m) to investigate the presence of the water source suggested in the literature.
- Plan priority excavations of the ancient drainage/sewage system channels and ditches aimed for water management along with the modern agricultural field drains to be purposefully blocked or opened up depending on the requirements to either re-saturate or remove water from different parts of the site.
- Facilitate additional risk analysis layers for actions of tourists at the site, particularly in the summer months when erosion risk is highest, and around erosion hot spots identified in Figure 9.
5.2. Long-Term Recommendations:
- Investigate the ancient hydraulic system general outflow at the south-west corner of the Stone Fort and at the south-west corner of the potential earlier Timber Fort. Monitoring of continued water drainage in this area should occur, to guard against future erosion.
- Locate, excavate and, if possible, restore the Roman aqueduct’s channel along the route proposed by the hydraulic system map. A new water inlet will help enlarge the area of the bog and maintain soil moisture levels for the entire site, sustaining the conditions in which organic materials and wooden artefacts can be preserved.
- Investigate the presence and consistency of the local aquifer.
- Plan geognostic surveys to analyse the soil stratigraphy and to evaluate its geological and geotechnical characteristics and chemical analysis of the soil.
- Plan new and detailed geophysics surveys.
- Undertake a detailed geoarchaeological assessment of the sites various preservation conditions through a selected sampling system with limited bore holes to establish the state of the remains across the site.
- Provide a monitoring system of the oscillation of groundwater levels in the well of Carvoran Farm to understand the impact of the water table oscillation on the humidity of the surface soil.
- Plan photogrammetric monitoring surveys, regularly scheduled if research excavations progress.
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Archaeological Data | Data Source |
---|---|
Hadrian’s Wall | Lidar/Birley 1998, 8, 10 |
Vallum | Lidar/Birley 1998, 8, 10–11 |
Milecastle 46 | Barri Jones’ survey 1981—83/Birley 1998, 8, 10, 83 |
Timber Earlier Fort | Barri Jones’ survey 1981—83/Birley 1998, 10 |
Stone Fort | Lidar/Birley 1998, 12, 20 |
Stanegate Road | Lidar/Birley 1998, 7 |
Maiden Way | Lidar/Birely 1998, 7–8 |
Stone Fort Roads | Birley 1998, 20/Timescape geophysical survey 1999 (magnetometry) |
Settlement Area | Timescape geophysical survey 1999 (magnetometry) |
Hydraulic Data | Function | Element Name | Data Source |
---|---|---|---|
Springs | Source | Spring 1 Spring 2 Spring 3 | Timescape geophysical survey 1999 Timescape geophysical survey 1999 Timescape geophysical survey 1999 |
Rill | Source | N-E rill | McLauchlan’s map 1857/Birley 1998, 22–23 |
Wells | Supply | Well 1 Well 2 Well 3 Well 4 (Fort N-E corner) Well 5 (Carvoran Farm) Moss wells | Aerial survey 27.4.2020 Aerial survey 27.4.2020 Aerial survey 27.4.2020 Birley 1998, 42, 72 (square deep well) BGS Waterwells (1980, 75 m) Birley 1998, 89 (no location) |
Aqueduct | Supply | Aqueduct | Birley 1998, 23 |
Ditches | Drainage | Ditches (Carvoran Farm) Ditches (Timber Fort) Ditches (Stone Fort) | Barri Jones’ survey 1981—83/Birley 1998, 23 Barri Jones’ survey 1981—83/Birley 1998, 8 Aerial photogrammetry Sumo survey 2019 |
Drains | Drainage/sewage | Drains | Timescape geophysical survey 1999 (magnetometry) |
Baths | Building related to supply/sewage | Commanding officer bathhouse Main bathhouse | Bell’s map/Birley 1998, 73–75 Birley 1998, 24 (ruins of substantial building) |
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Guiney, R.; Santucci, E.; Valman, S.; Booth, A.; Birley, A.; Haynes, I.; Marsh, S.; Mills, J. Integration and Analysis of Multi-Modal Geospatial Secondary Data to Inform Management of at-Risk Archaeological Sites. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10, 575. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10090575
Guiney R, Santucci E, Valman S, Booth A, Birley A, Haynes I, Marsh S, Mills J. Integration and Analysis of Multi-Modal Geospatial Secondary Data to Inform Management of at-Risk Archaeological Sites. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 2021; 10(9):575. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10090575
Chicago/Turabian StyleGuiney, Rebecca, Elettra Santucci, Samuel Valman, Adam Booth, Andrew Birley, Ian Haynes, Stuart Marsh, and Jon Mills. 2021. "Integration and Analysis of Multi-Modal Geospatial Secondary Data to Inform Management of at-Risk Archaeological Sites" ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 10, no. 9: 575. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10090575