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Using lidar data to see the past

A lidar image reveals ancient Mayan structures

Archaeologists have spent more than a century traipsing through the Guatemalan jungle, Indiana Jones-style, searching through dense vegetation to learn what they could about the Maya civilization. Scientists using high-tech, airplane-based lidar mapping tools have discovered tens of thousands of structures constructed by the Maya: defense works, houses, buildings, industrial-size agricultural fields, even new pyramids. SOURCE– National Geographic: Everything we thought we knew about the Maya is being upended

Lidar technology gives us the visual answer to the question, “If you were to strip a forest of all its vegetation, what would you see? The lidar system fires rapid laser pulses at surfaces and measures how long it takes that light to return to sophisticated measuring equipment. Doing that over and over again lets scientists create a topographical map of sorts. Months of computer modeling allowed the researchers to virtually strip away half a million acres of jungle that has grown over the ruins. What’s left is a surprisingly clear picture of how a 10th-century Maya would see the landscape.

A New England lidar images reveals old land use patterns.

This technology also has local applications here in New England. New England’s wooded hills hold a secret—they weren’t always forested. Instead, many were once covered with colonial roads and farmsteads and food production was the primary local economic activity. Today we can use lidar to see remnants of this historical landscape by mapping stone walls and other features. SOURCE–National Geographic: Lost New England revealed by high-tech archaeology

ArcGIS application: Lidar can also be used quickly assess damage and change after a geologically violent incident, as seen in the Oso landslide in Washington state.  View the impact in ArcGIS online in this ArcGIS map, utilizing LiDAR I and II data layers.   

Questions to Ponder:

  • How does lidar work?
  • How can it be used in GIS?
  • What are 2 changes to our understanding of the Maya that come out of this Lidar data?
  • What are 2 New England applications that you found interesting?
  • Examine the Oso landslide in ArcGIS online. How does this visual representation change your understanding?
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What on Earth Is Wrong With Connecticut?

Conservatives say the state has a tax problem. Liberals say it has an inequality problem. What it really has is a city problem.

 

Connecticut is losing rich companies (and their tax revenues) while it’s adding low-wage workers, like personal-care aides and retail salespeople. Yet it remains a high-tax state. That’s a recipe for a budget crisis.

 

The rise and fall of Connecticut fits into the story of American cities. In the 1970s, American metros were suffering a terrible crime wave, and New York was dropping dead. That meant boom times for New York’s suburbs and southwestern Connecticut. But now many of those companies are moving back, lured by newly lower-crime cities and the hip urban neighborhoods where the most educated young workers increasingly want to live.

 

Finally, the hottest trend in American migration today is south, west, and cheap—that is, far away from Connecticut, both geographically and economically. Texas is growing rapidly, and seven of the 10 fastest-growing large metropolitan areas in 2016 were in the Carolinas and Florida. Of the 20 fastest-growing metros, none are in the northeast.

 

Tags: urban, regions, economic.

Source: www.citylab.com

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