D digital 
Industry, 
ototipale 
| rilievo 
tor prof. 
e, A.A. 
GIS DESIGN USING HIGH GEOMETRIC RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGES 
AND HYPERSPECTRAL AIRBORNE DATA 
P. Boccardo ®, F. Giulio Tomolo ®, A. Spano ® 
@DIGET, Politecnico di Torino, C.so Duca degli Abruzzi - Italy boccardo@polito.it - giulio.tonolo@polito.it 
®)DINSE, Politecnico di Torino, viale Mattioli 39 — 10125 Torino - Italy spano@archi.polito.it 
Commission V, Working Group V/4 
KEYWORDS: Archaeology, cultural heritage, classification, GIS, hyperspectral 
ABSTRACT 
This paper concerns a GIS design using high geometric resolution images and hyperspectral airborne data, devoted to landscape 
analysis. The study area is localized in the southern part of the Piedmont region (North-West Italy) and in particular, a valley that 
ranges in height from 600 m to 2500 m, whose name is Valle Po. 
The aim of the GIS in to integrate different thematic data such as archeology, geology, botany and cultural antropology using a 
medium scale cartography (up to 1:5.000) and Ikonos and Eros high resolution satellite images, which are useful to georeference the 
above mentioned data. In addition, a hyperspectral survey, conducted by acquiring the data from a MIVIS airborne scanner, has been 
orthoprojected and used to derive different thematic maps which give information related to: 
e  archeologic evidence; 
e mine and quarry positions; 
e  lithotype characterization; 
e vegetation cover and types. 
All these ancillary data have later been linked to a relational database that is useful for any kind of query and which is able to 
correlate different and previously disjointed information. 
1. INTRODUCTION. MAIN OBJECTS OF GIS 
Before explaining why is useful to integrate digital images in 
the present GIS is better to relate some topics about it. 
It's the second year that the Politecnico di Torino team works 
on it (last year it has been presented to the CIPA international 
Symposium at Potsdam) and thus this paper is going to explain 
what kind of new datasets have been involved and what 
analyses have been added to GIS management. 
The most important role of this project is to characterise the 
development setting and the land use occurred between the 10^ 
and the 16? century in a North Italy region reconstructing a 
medioeval scenery. GIS can manage it making possible 
meaningful comparisons and integration of different kinds of 
datasets. 
The first part of this project included the relational database 
structure design. It was necessary to have a good instrument to 
collect and store data about the existance and characteristics of 
ancient villages, buildings and other evidences such as road 
networks, mines, quarries or metallurgical sites. Data collection 
has been accurately verified in order to better understand how 
data had been related and what comparisons were possible. 
Infact, an accurate planning and mastering of relatedness 
between any trace left by an existed society — material or 
immaterial — can. provide much more useful and richer 
information than single studies. 
Moreover, interdisciplinarity is a successful approach to 
understand and completely know how dynamical settlements 
and enviromental exploitation of resources occurred in those 
centuries. 
Since very long time archaeological investigations have 
achieved great benefits from aerial photographs; shadowmarks 
and cropmarks have made it possible to locate a huge deal of 
sites. More recently, satellite images analyses have improved 
this kind of researches, and so we know that remote sensing 
applications are widely used and sometimes successfully 
applied. 
The innovation of the present application is about the location 
where digital images are acquired. No one from the team-work 
has selected it, but crossing data suggested the areas where 
apply further investigations. Finding out unknown sites is 
obviously exciting, but our most important aim is to verify the 
ability of GIS to single out where searching sites has to be 
located and how it should be led. 
Innovative surveying techniques, used in a such way among 
GIS, achieve better results for predictive and preventive 
Archaeology. 
The object is not only to increase knowledge about the past, nor 
simply offering a significant aid in archaelogical data 
management. 
Another important role is to spread historical and archaeological 
culture and finally, such an archaeological GIS, helps local 
administrations to realize a correct environmental management 
and an accurate safeguard of cultural heritage. 
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