High and Medium Resolution Satellite Imagery to Evaluate Late Holocene Human–Environment Interactions in Arid Lands: A Case Study from the Central Sahara

We present preliminary results of an Earth observation approach for the study of past human occupation and landscape reconstruction in the Central Sahara. This region includes a variety of geomorphological features such as palaeo-oases, dried river beds, alluvial fans and upland plateaux whose geomo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2017-04, Vol.9 (4), p.351
Main Authors: Biagetti, Stefano, Merlo, Stefania, Adam, Elhadi, Lobo, Augustin, Conesa, Francesc C., Knight, Jasper, Bekrani, Hayette, Crema, Enrico R., Alcaina-Mateos, Jonas, Madella, Marco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alluvial fans
Anthropogenic factors
Archaeology
Arid lands
Arid zones
Aridity
Classification
Climate
Climate change
Detection
Dispersal
Dispersion
Earth Observation
Geomorphology
GIS
High resolution
high-resolution imagery
Holocene
Human influences
Human-environment relationship
Hydrology
Identification methods
Inspection
Landscape
Late Holocene
Mapping
Oases
Occupations
Reconstruction
Remote sensing
River beds
Sahara
Satellite imagery
Spatial distribution
Vegetation
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Summary:We present preliminary results of an Earth observation approach for the study of past human occupation and landscape reconstruction in the Central Sahara. This region includes a variety of geomorphological features such as palaeo-oases, dried river beds, alluvial fans and upland plateaux whose geomorphological characteristics, in combination with climate changes, have influenced patterns of human dispersal and sociocultural activities during the late Holocene. In this paper, we discuss the use of medium- and high-resolution remotely sensed data for the mapping of anthropogenic features and paleo- and contemporary hydrology and vegetation. In the absence of field inspection in this inaccessible region, we use different remote sensing methods to first identify and classify archaeological features, and then explore the geomorphological factors that might have influenced their spatial distribution.
ISSN:2072-4292
2072-4292
DOI:10.3390/rs9040351