Towards an operational use of remote sensing data (satellite, drone, and ground) for Cultural Heritage: from discovery to documentation, monitoring, and valorisation

The research work was developed starting from the idea of an operational and practical use of remote sensing data from satellite, drone, and ground, as suggested by the title. “Towards an operational use of remote sensing data (satellite, drone, and ground) for Cultural Heritage: from discovery o documentation, monitoring and valorisation” was carried out as part of a PhD at the University of Basilicata, but a fundamental contribution was made by the possibility offered by the National Research Council (CNR) - Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (IMAA), and Institute of Heritage Sciences (ISPC) - to carry out the research as part of their projects. The CNR has been useful and fruitful for the development of new ideas, and access to otherwise inaccessible technologies and tools. Above all, the National Research Council was useful for the people and researchers who provided the author with expertise, advice, experience, and support in times of need. For this reason, the work proposed within the individual chapters follows the same idea and is the result of research carried out in Italy and all around the World, over the last three years. The main aim was to research methodologies, theories and tools useful for real case studies, which could support archaeological research both in its phases of discovery and knowledge, and in the phases of planning and prevention of events damaging the cultural and natural heritage. The activity focused on the predominant use of open source and freely accessible (open) and usable tools and data, where available. In particular, on the use of large databases and powerful calculation platforms made available online free of charge by large service providers such as Google, the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The choice of structuring methods and workflows based on opensource and open-data was also dictated by the desire to be able to reapply the same methodologies on a global scale to (i) test their robustness, and (ii) provide a reusable and replicable tool. The chapters focus on (i) the use of the ESA (European Space Agency) Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 satellites, and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Landsat-7 TM and Landsat-8 OLI satellites for the discovery of CH and preservation of the CNH; (ii) the use of tools for the management of Big and Open Data; (iii) the use of the new PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) hyperspectral data of the ASI (Italian Space Agency) for the discovery of new archaeological sites; (iv) the use of close-range technologies such as UASs (Unmanned Aerial System) for the discovery of buried structures; (v) the integrated use of different RS technologies (satellite, UAS, and geophysics) for the discovery and reconstruction of ancient contexts; and, of course, on the use of the related pre- and post-processing methodologies. On the other hand, used methodologies and previous studies on specific topics are set out in more detail in the individual chapters. This choice has been made because it is considered more explanatory and didactic in the context of a global reading of the entire work. The chapters are structured in the form of a paper, some of which have already been published in peer-reviewed journals (e.g. Remote Sensing, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing, etc.). The topics covered are Remote Sensing (RS) and Earth Observation (EO) applied to the discovery, protection, and safeguarding of Cultural and Natural Heritage, with several methodologies and different hardware and software tools.