Yesterday I was in Leuven sitting on the review panel evaluating if the ANAGHLIA (Analysis and ground truthing of hyperspectral and LiDAR images in Archaeology) project should get funding. It did. You can find my notes from the meeting here.

Although it does not have the temporal depth and vegetation element of DART, ANAGHLIA is a good project, with an excellent multi-disciplinary team that promises to make some significant advances – particularly in the area of spectral analyses (I was impressed by the approaches for ‘unmixing of very similar spectral classes ‘) and interpretation and linking processes to detection.

It is the latter point that I would like to build on. Both DART and ANAGHLIA are developing approaches that require an implicit understanding of site formation processes linked through to contextual modifiers (vegetation cover, land management techniques, environmental dynamics etc.) to inform detection. I think that linking detection frameworks onto an understanding of process gives us a different way to conceptualise and structure the problem. It is easier to build a knowledge base when the underlying data can be represented unambiguously. A process driven approach does this through measuring soil characteristics, environmental dynamics etc.

The reviewers also recommended that many of the outputs from ANAGHLIA could be openly shared with the community. Particular reference was made to the soil spectral libraries. I’m happy to say that this was immediately agreed and supported by the project team who want to see this research entering into a regional or global knowledgebase (I personally look forward to seeing developments on the spectral algorithms shared in the method store).

It’s good to see enhanced capacity for this work within the EU: particularly for science based hyperspectral analyses. This kind of research is gaining momentum which I think is good for future collaborations and collaborative grant opportunities.

P.S. Martjin Van Leusen gave some very constructive criticisms on the web-site. I have changed the about page and links to it. Thanks Martjin