Research Projects

SPARC, an NSF-funded program at CAST, is dedicated to promoting geospatial research in archaeology. SPARC offers direct support to archaeological projects through awards in three categories, 1. Fieldwork: On-site data collection; 2. Data and Analytics: Preparation, processing and analysis of geospatial data; 3. Publication: Presentation, publication and archiving of complex geospatial datasets. The SPARC program began in August 2013 with a grant from the NSF Archaeometry Program, and aims to expand the use of spatial analysis, 3D and geophysical remote sensing technologies in archaeological research projects around the world. The availability and sophistication of these technologies and methods has begun to profoundly affect how archaeologists and other scholars work. CAST was selected by the National Science Foundation in September 2015 to receive an additional grant and continue to serve as a national center for innovative geospatial research and methods in archaeology through the Spatial Archaeometry Research Collaborations (SPARC) Program. SPARC has been funded through two NSF Award 1321443 and NSF Award 1519660.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry

CAST researchers worked with the The Milot Archaeological Project (MAP) team, led by Dr. J. Cameron Monroe (UC - Santa Cruz) to collect ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys to map and identify the subsurface features within the Milot complex. With these data, the MAP investigates an example of state formation from the early modern Atlantic World: the short-lived Kingdom of Haiti (1811-1820), which emerged in the years following the Haitian Revolution. Essential research questions that the MAP seeks answer include: (1) did the Kingdom of Haiti draw from earlier forms of power in the region, and (2) did the Kingdom of Haiti restructure and routinize the social lives of its citizenry, or rather was it focused largely on public spectacles that sat suspended above everyday social life? The MAP mobilizes documentary and archaeological evidence to explore the relationship between architectural space and political power, evaluating competing models for the nature of Haitian political authority in the early 19th century.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

CAST, the Gabii Project, and Michigan Publishing are collaborating to produce a series of digital volumes based on the excavations and research of the Gabii Project, bringing together data publication, interactive 3D models, and synthetic text. The first volume, "A mid-Republican House from Gabii" is under preparation. In addition to designing and developing these volumes, this project aims to advance the sustainability of digital long-form publication in the humanities. This work is part of the "Building a Hosted Platform for Monographic Source Materials" Project, generously funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry

The historic Fort Randall Post Cemetery, located in Gregory County, South Dakota, contains well over 100 burials dating to the mid to late nineteenth century. A previous investigation of the site utilizing documentary evidence, aerial photographs, and targeted coring located many previously recorded and undocumented graves within the main fenced area of the cemetery. To locate additional unmarked graves within an area adjacent to the cemetery, a multi-instrument remote sensing investigation of the site was undertaken by CAST and administered through the South Dakota State Historical Society, Archaeological Research Center (ARC). Historic cemeteries are one of the most challenging contexts for remote sensing applications and graves are especially difficult to locate when they lack high contrast materials such as brick burial vaults or metal coffins, which is typical of nineteenth century cemeteries. Multi -instrument approaches offer the greatest likelihood of successfully mapping unknown grave locations. Results of the survey will be published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

This project was an expansion of the CORONA project specifically for extending the site database to southern Syria. The expansion of this dataset coupled with complementary data were combined with the “Do-Not-Strike” list of heritage and culture sites developed through collaboration of the US Department of State, the Blue Shield, and other partners. This list, distributed in August 2013, includes around 200 of the best-known archaeological sites (i.e., those that were home to excavation projects or that are on the tourist itinerary), but critically also includes a quite comprehensive list of museums, libraries, historic buildings, and monuments that are not easily mapped via satellite imagery. Combining this existing list with the archaeological site database helps to produce the most comprehensive inventory of known cultural and heritage sites that is currently achievable for that region.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; Image Analysis; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Reality Capture

The expansion of this NEH-funded project focuses on building a more robust interface for georeferencing, as well as storage and distribution of the CORONA images. The study area increased to include Eastern China and those surrounding regions. CORONA image coverage is abundant in these areas and its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry, Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

The Gabii Project is an international archaeological initiative under the direction of Nicola Terrenato of the University of Michigan. It was launched in 2007 with the objective of studying and excavating the ancient Latin city of Gabii, a city-state that was both a neighbor of, and a rival to, Rome in the first millennium BC. CAST researcher Rachel Opitz leads the project's survey and digital data team, and is involved in bringing the project to publication. The Gabii Project is supported by generous grants from from the University of Michigan, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the National Endowment for the Humanities, FIAT-Chrysler, the National Geographic Society, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, and several private donors.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

In collaboration with The Field Museum, CAST researchers conducted aerial surveys resulting in photography/photogrammetry, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys, and magnetometry surveys to map the surface and to identify subsurface architecture on and around the platform mounds and sunken circular plazas at the site of Caballete in the Norte Chico region of Peru. This collaboration among CAST researchers and local Peruvian archaeologists uses innovative and experimental geophysical/remote sensing techniques to explore the Late Archair ceremonial structures and plan for later, more targeted excavations.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

This collaboration between CAST, the Gabii Project and Michigan Publishing aims to make 3D models and digital data a core part of scholarly archaeological publications, and to promote the acceptance of 3D models as basic data within the archaeological community. The project developed a prototype publication using data collected through the Gabii Project and conducted a series of peer review exercises and workshops online and at conferences. This work was supported by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; Spatial Archaeometry; Digital Preservation

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

Focusing on the northern Fertile Crescent, a study region of more than 200,000 sq km extending from the eastern Mediterranean to northern Iraq, the project brings together specialists in archaeology, environmental remote sensing, and geomatics to explore settlement and environmental histories through an innovative remote-sensing based series of analyses aimed at creating a model of dynamic trends in land cover and environmental change, or land surface phenology, over the past 30 years based on gridded climate data available through NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and remote sensing-based vegetation series derived from AVHRR and Landsat satellite data. In a region like the northern Fertile Crescent, where nearly all pre-industrial settlement was dependent on highly variable and relatively sparse precipitation, documenting the full effects that minor variations in climate can have is critical to understanding settlement and land use in the past and present. Our methods will enable us to map the actual effects that years or seasons with higher or lower than average rainfall had on land cover throughout the study region.

Project tags:
Image Analysis; Spatial Archaeometry; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; Spatial Archaeometry

CORONA images preserve a high-resolution picture of the world as it existed in the 1960s, they constitute a unique resource for researchers and scientists studying environmental change, agriculture, geomorphology, archaeology and other fields. This NEH-funded project focuses on the Middle East and surrounding regions, areas where CORONA coverage is abundant and where its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry

This project was funded by the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), Department of Defense. ArchaeoFusion is a tool for Archaeologists and others who use ground penetrating sensors to build subsurface maps. ArchaeoFusion will load data from many sources, processes the data, and then integrate it into a clear representation of subsurface features.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

Researchers in the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas have traveled around the world using their advanced remote sensing technology to provide a 3-D perspective of archaeological sites and historic structures. Time Scanners showcases CAST laser-scanning experts collecting and analyze billions of measurements. They use the data collected by laser scanners to produce what is known as a 3-D point cloud. The six-part documentary series includes full episodes from the Egyptian Pyramids, St. Paul's Cathedral, Petra, Machu Picchu, the Colosseum and Jerusalem. Episodes are available online at http://www.pbs.org/program/time-scanners/.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeology, Reality Capture, Technology Education

During the second award period researchers will add an estimated 1,300 items to its existing online database of Rohwer and Jerome materials, including photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, 2D and 3D images of objects, incarceree interviews from the 2004 film, Time of Fear, and biographies of incarcerees and camp administrative staff. A 3D visualization of Barracks Block 12, created with a 2013 Japanese American Confinement Sites grant, will be expanded to include the auditorium, library and athletic fields, with audio narratives integrated into the model.

Project tags:
3D Reconstruction

Almost no trace of the town of Davidsonville remains on the surface of the ground today. Davidsonville, Arkansas was once a flourishing community founded on the banks of the Black River in 1815. The town lasted for about 15 years until 1830 when the county seat was moved to Jackson. Today, archeologists have uncovered remarkable evidence of streets, foundations, and thousands of objects that tell a fascinating story of Davidsonville, its residents, and life on the early Arkansas frontier. Researchers at CAST have combined this information into a highly detailed, 3D reconstruction that depicts what Davidsonville could have looked like in the summer of 1824. Download the free Unity viewer and explore the streets of historic Davidsonville!

Project tags:
3D Reconstruction

project description needed...

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; 3D Reconstruction

During the first award period for Rohwer Reconstructed, a National Park Service-funded collaboration rooted at CAST. One of ten Japanese-American internment camps established during World War II, the Rohwer Relocation Center in rural Desha County, Arkansas opened on September 18, 1942. At the time of its closure on November 30, 1945, the camp had been home - at one time or another - to 11,926 Japanese-Americans forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast. Just as their three years of internment left an indelible mark on the landscape of their lives, so they altered the place called Rohwer, both figuratively and literally. Remnants and ruins of the camp still scatter the fields planted in cotton and soybeans, and the Memorial Cemetery, declared a National Historic Monument in 1992, is a somber reminder of the people who lived and worked here. Interpretive panels constructed at the site in 2013 tell the abridged history of the camp, but are by necessity too brief to articulate the immensity of the full narrative. The documents, maps, and visualizations presented here are fragments of that narrative, pieced together in a technological framework, in an effort to bring the story to life.

Project tags:
3D Reconstruction; Digital Preservation

The 3D Petit Jean project uses state-of-the-art, laser scanning technology to create 3D models of the bluff shelters and the rock art that was created in them by Native Americans hundreds of years ago. This effort aims to precisely document the dozens of pictographs and petroglyphs and the complex environment they were created in as well provide a means to help visitors locate and understand them. Indian Cave is not accessible to visitors, but because of its restricted size and limited number of motifs, it provides an interesting contrast to the larger Rockhouse Cave – home to the largest concentration of rock art in Arkansas with over 100 motifs. Rockhouse Cave is also the only rock art site in Arkansas with public access. Thousands of visitors explore this bluff shelter each year in search of these interesting images, but most walk away without finding a single one. Many are quite small and difficult to see even to someone who has located them before; however, even the largest figures remain hidden to the great majority of visitors in the vastness and complexity of Rockhouse Cave.

Project tags:
3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; 3D Reconstruction

CAST and the U.S. Forest Service Ozark-St. Francis National Forests (USFS) have developed a collaborative approach to documenting the existing conditions of Blanchard Springs Caverns. This inventory of existing conditions will assist the USFS in designing corrective work and maintenance in the future. Complete 3D inventories of the public entrances, service accesses, as well as all portions of the cave, including the natural entrance. The scanning team will use multiple high-density laser scanners throughout the cave system to capture all features.

Project tags:
Reality Capture

The NSF-funded Plant Imaging Consortium (PIC) brings together experts in plant biology, radiochemistry, phenomics, imaging, and computational biology to apply high-throughput phenotyping and molecular imaging techniques to the study of plant stress biology. High-throughput phenotyping (HTP) allows breeders to screen large populations of plants quickly and efficiently, and to quantify numerous complex traits that are not obvious to the naked eye. Molecular imaging (MI) techniques such positron emission tomography (ie. PET scans) utilize radioactive, fluorescent, or luminescent probes to elucidate the physiological processes that govern stress tolerance or susceptibility in plants. Together, these bioimaging technologies have transformative power to link genotype to phenotype and identify genetic sources of stress tolerance for crop improvement.

Project tags:
Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Reality Capture

The 3D Petit Jean project uses state-of-the-art, laser scanning technology to create 3D models of the bluff shelters and the rock art that was created in them by Native Americans hundreds of years ago. This effort aims to precisely document the dozens of pictographs and petroglyphs and the complex environment they were created in as well provide a means to help visitors locate and understand them. Indian Cave is not accessible to visitors, but because of its restricted size and limited number of motifs, it provides an interesting contrast to the larger Rockhouse Cave – home to the largest concentration of rock art in Arkansas with over 100 motifs. Rockhouse Cave is also the only rock art site in Arkansas with public access. Thousands of visitors explore this bluff shelter each year in search of these interesting images, but most walk away without finding a single one. Many are quite small and difficult to see even to someone who has located them before; however, even the largest figures remain hidden to the great majority of visitors in the vastness and complexity of Rockhouse Cave.

Project tags:
3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Reality Capture; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

In June 2011, this NSF-funded, collaborative effort helped to preserve the first reported occurrence of theropod trackways, as well as numerous sauropod trackways, in The Natural State. The dinosaur trackways were exposed over an area of approximately 6000 m2 on a thin (ca. 0.5 - 0.7 m thick) limestone layer within the De Queen Limestone member of the Trinity Group (early Cretaceous Periods, approximately 120 - 115 million years old). CAST developed a website that presents an interactive visualization of the main portion of the trackway site (approximately 4200 m2) derived from the high-resolution LiDAR data. Viewers can zoom and pan to investigate tracks and trackways. The apparent illumination and shading can be altered using the check boxes in the legend to better highlight tracks and trackways; depending on their orientation, visibility of tracks and trackways can be enhanced by changing the apparent azimuth of illumination.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; Reality Capture; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Reality Capture; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Reality Capture

Researchers in the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas have traveled around the world using their advanced remote sensing technology to provide a 3-D perspective of archaeological sites and historic structures. Time Scanners showcases CAST laser-scanning experts collecting and analyze billions of measurements. They use the data collected by laser scanners to produce what is known as a 3-D point cloud. The six-part documentary series includes full episodes from the Egyptian Pyramids, St. Paul's Cathedral, Petra, Machu Picchu, the Colosseum and Jerusalem. Episodes are available online at http://www.pbs.org/program/time-scanners/.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeology, Reality Capture, Technology Education

The Hampson Museum Collection represents one of the world's most extraordinary collections of American Indian artistic expression as well as a major source of data on the lives and history of late pre-Columbian peoples of the Mississippi River Valley. The collections at the museum are the result of extensive excavations of the Nodena Site as well as excavations at other sites in the region by Dr James K. Hampson, as well as work by others including the University of Alabama and the University of Arkansas.

Project tags:
Reality Capture; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis

CAST Researcher, Rachel Opitz and tDAR Director of Technology, Adam Brin worked to create a functional prototype that demonstrates the NABO discovery tool prototyped in Umeå. The prototype is meant to allow other members of the NABO community to use and provide feedback on whether such a discovery tool is useful to the overall group, and is a useful direction towards larger issues of data-integration and collaboration.

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Network Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Network Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis; Image Analysis

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

ArkansasView, established in 2002, is a consortium of faculty, staff, students, and employees in university, state agency, and nonprofit organizations building remote sensing and geospatial capacity within Arkansas. This work is being accomplished primarily through educational, targeted research and outreach, and other remote sensing and geospatial endeavors that benefit Arkansans. With support from ArkansasView, a new PhD degree in Geosciences with a geoinformatics track began in August 2014. This program allows doctoral students at the state's flagship University of Arkansas to focus more directly on remote sensing and related research questions. For undergraduate students, an ArkansasView-supported proposal to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education led to the August 2014 launch of an undergraduate certificate at University of Arkansas titled "Certificate of Proficiency in Geospatial Technologies," offered completely online. In a new partnership with Communities Unlimited (www.communitiesu.org), a nonprofit serving communities in Arkansas and six neighboring states, ArkansasView is facilitating student intern development of geospatial workflows that address persistently poor rural communities' access to basic water infrastructure. ArkansasView is committed to geospatial provenance and innovative geodata analysis research that simplifies and strengthens remote sensing workflow design.

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Image Analysis; Technology Education

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

This project expands upon the existing prototype by developing the required programming logic and data analyses necessary to allow more complex quantitative and qualitative reporting of these data. The expansion of the Arkansas Watershed Resource Information Management System (AWRIMS) prototype will yield consistent, automated processes capable of summarizing advanced comparative analyses of data within a watershed and between watershed basins within Arkansas, specifically to support and improve the non-riparian permitting process at the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC).

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

The historic Fort Randall Post Cemetery, located in Gregory County, South Dakota, contains well over 100 burials dating to the mid to late nineteenth century. A previous investigation of the site utilizing documentary evidence, aerial photographs, and targeted coring located many previously recorded and undocumented graves within the main fenced area of the cemetery. To locate additional unmarked graves within an area adjacent to the cemetery, a multi-instrument remote sensing investigation of the site was undertaken by CAST and administered through the South Dakota State Historical Society, Archaeological Research Center (ARC). Historic cemeteries are one of the most challenging contexts for remote sensing applications and graves are especially difficult to locate when they lack high contrast materials such as brick burial vaults or metal coffins, which is typical of nineteenth century cemeteries. Multi -instrument approaches offer the greatest likelihood of successfully mapping unknown grave locations. Results of the survey will be published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

During this project CAST worked with the Bicycle Coalition of the Ozarks to develop and host a map and database management system for the Razorback Greenway trail system. CAST provided technical expertise while working with the project team to develop and publish an interactive, user-friendly, regional map with all NWA trails presented within a homogeneous and consistent digital web map infrastructure.

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

This project funded by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States through the Transatlantic Research and Debates program aiming to engage researchers, producers and the public in the TTIP discussions. During the two year funding period a series of panels will be held in sequence of explanation, each panel building on the knowledge and concepts of the previous. A schedule of ten panels currently planned for the project are listed in the table below; specific dates for each panel will be added as they are planned. As each panel concludes a video and any supplementary materials will be posted to this site.

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

The expansion of this NEH-funded project focuses on building a more robust interface for georeferencing, as well as storage and distribution of the CORONA images. The study area increased to include Eastern China and those surrounding regions. CORONA image coverage is abundant in these areas and its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry, Image Analysis

The Gabii Project is an international archaeological initiative under the direction of Nicola Terrenato of the University of Michigan. It was launched in 2007 with the objective of studying and excavating the ancient Latin city of Gabii, a city-state that was both a neighbor of, and a rival to, Rome in the first millennium BC. CAST researcher Rachel Opitz leads the project's survey and digital data team, and is involved in bringing the project to publication. The Gabii Project is supported by generous grants from from the University of Michigan, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the National Endowment for the Humanities, FIAT-Chrysler, the National Geographic Society, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, and several private donors.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

CAST Researcher, Rachel Opitz and tDAR Director of Technology, Adam Brin worked to create a functional prototype that demonstrates the NABO discovery tool prototyped in Umeå. The prototype is meant to allow other members of the NABO community to use and provide feedback on whether such a discovery tool is useful to the overall group, and is a useful direction towards larger issues of data-integration and collaboration.

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Network Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Reality Capture; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

In June 2011, this NSF-funded, collaborative effort helped to preserve the first reported occurrence of theropod trackways, as well as numerous sauropod trackways, in The Natural State. The dinosaur trackways were exposed over an area of approximately 6000 m2 on a thin (ca. 0.5 - 0.7 m thick) limestone layer within the De Queen Limestone member of the Trinity Group (early Cretaceous Periods, approximately 120 - 115 million years old). CAST developed a website that presents an interactive visualization of the main portion of the trackway site (approximately 4200 m2) derived from the high-resolution LiDAR data. Viewers can zoom and pan to investigate tracks and trackways. The apparent illumination and shading can be altered using the check boxes in the legend to better highlight tracks and trackways; depending on their orientation, visibility of tracks and trackways can be enhanced by changing the apparent azimuth of illumination.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
3D Reconstruction; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Network Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

Focusing on the northern Fertile Crescent, a study region of more than 200,000 sq km extending from the eastern Mediterranean to northern Iraq, the project brings together specialists in archaeology, environmental remote sensing, and geomatics to explore settlement and environmental histories through an innovative remote-sensing based series of analyses aimed at creating a model of dynamic trends in land cover and environmental change, or land surface phenology, over the past 30 years based on gridded climate data available through NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and remote sensing-based vegetation series derived from AVHRR and Landsat satellite data. In a region like the northern Fertile Crescent, where nearly all pre-industrial settlement was dependent on highly variable and relatively sparse precipitation, documenting the full effects that minor variations in climate can have is critical to understanding settlement and land use in the past and present. Our methods will enable us to map the actual effects that years or seasons with higher or lower than average rainfall had on land cover throughout the study region.

Project tags:
Image Analysis; Spatial Archaeometry; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; Reality Capture; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; 3D Reconstruction

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Reality Capture; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

CORONA images preserve a high-resolution picture of the world as it existed in the 1960s, they constitute a unique resource for researchers and scientists studying environmental change, agriculture, geomorphology, archaeology and other fields. This NEH-funded project focuses on the Middle East and surrounding regions, areas where CORONA coverage is abundant and where its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry

While the Center is involved in a broad range of geospatial research and development of new approaches to the acquisition, management and analysis of spatial information, a key focus area is also our public outreach initiatives within Rural America. We are able to accomplish these community and local government "decision support" initiatives through a long-term USDA-NIFA funded effort called "The National Consortium for Rural GeoSpatial Innovations (RGIS)". Though this initiative has now ended, CAST continues to persue public outreach initiatives within the community.

Project tags:
Technology Education; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

ArkansasView, established in 2002, is a consortium of faculty, staff, students, and employees in university, state agency, and nonprofit organizations building remote sensing and geospatial capacity within Arkansas. This work is being accomplished primarily through educational, targeted research and outreach, and other remote sensing and geospatial endeavors that benefit Arkansans. With support from ArkansasView, a new PhD degree in Geosciences with a geoinformatics track began in August 2014. This program allows doctoral students at the state's flagship University of Arkansas to focus more directly on remote sensing and related research questions. For undergraduate students, an ArkansasView-supported proposal to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education led to the August 2014 launch of an undergraduate certificate at University of Arkansas titled "Certificate of Proficiency in Geospatial Technologies," offered completely online. In a new partnership with Communities Unlimited (www.communitiesu.org), a nonprofit serving communities in Arkansas and six neighboring states, ArkansasView is facilitating student intern development of geospatial workflows that address persistently poor rural communities' access to basic water infrastructure. ArkansasView is committed to geospatial provenance and innovative geodata analysis research that simplifies and strengthens remote sensing workflow design.

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Image Analysis; Technology Education

CAST’s involvement with EAST Initiative, Inc. is primarily focused around geospatial and visualization technologies, which are applicable to a broad spectrum of student community service projects. CAST research staff collaborate with EAST’s administration to provide a wide variety of training and support services to EAST students and teachers. These include: 2- and 3-day technology workshops for students; full-day visits to EAST schools; student and teacher support through the EAST web forum, e-mail, and telephone; extensive web resources available here; technology introductions for EAST teachers; break-out sessions, presentations, demo and support at the annual EAST Partnership Conference. In addition CAST supports and manages the Northwest Arkansas EAST Training Center located on the second floor of the J.B. Hunt Center for Academic Excellence Buildind (JBHT) at the University of Arkansas.

Project tags:
Technology Education

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; Spatial Archaeometry; Digital Preservation

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; Spatial Archaeometry

Oregon Public Broadcasting enlisted two specialists from CAST as part of their television series Time Team America. The CAST researchers were tasked with 1. documenting a significant prehistoric rock art panel at Crow Canyon in southeast Utah and 2. recording an archaeological dig site focused around a Paleo-Indian bison kill site, known as Badger Hole, in the plains of Oklahoma near the town Woodward. The teams employed laser scanning, RTK and photogrammetric methods to document these sites.

Project tags:
Technology Education

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping

While the Center is involved in a broad range of geospatial research and development of new approaches to the acquisition, management and analysis of spatial information, a key focus area is also our public outreach initiatives within Rural America. We are able to accomplish these community and local government "decision support" initiatives through a long-term USDA-NIFA funded effort called "The National Consortium for Rural GeoSpatial Innovations (RGIS)". Though this initiative has now ended, CAST continues to persue public outreach initiatives within the community.

Project tags:
Technology Education; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

Researchers in the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas have traveled around the world using their advanced remote sensing technology to provide a 3-D perspective of archaeological sites and historic structures. Time Scanners showcases CAST laser-scanning experts collecting and analyze billions of measurements. They use the data collected by laser scanners to produce what is known as a 3-D point cloud. The six-part documentary series includes full episodes from the Egyptian Pyramids, St. Paul's Cathedral, Petra, Machu Picchu, the Colosseum and Jerusalem. Episodes are available online at http://www.pbs.org/program/time-scanners/.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeology, Reality Capture, Technology Education

This project was an expansion of the CORONA project specifically for extending the site database to southern Syria. The expansion of this dataset coupled with complementary data were combined with the “Do-Not-Strike” list of heritage and culture sites developed through collaboration of the US Department of State, the Blue Shield, and other partners. This list, distributed in August 2013, includes around 200 of the best-known archaeological sites (i.e., those that were home to excavation projects or that are on the tourist itinerary), but critically also includes a quite comprehensive list of museums, libraries, historic buildings, and monuments that are not easily mapped via satellite imagery. Combining this existing list with the archaeological site database helps to produce the most comprehensive inventory of known cultural and heritage sites that is currently achievable for that region.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; Image Analysis; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Digital Preservation

project description needed...

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; 3D Reconstruction

During the first award period for Rohwer Reconstructed, a National Park Service-funded collaboration rooted at CAST. One of ten Japanese-American internment camps established during World War II, the Rohwer Relocation Center in rural Desha County, Arkansas opened on September 18, 1942. At the time of its closure on November 30, 1945, the camp had been home - at one time or another - to 11,926 Japanese-Americans forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast. Just as their three years of internment left an indelible mark on the landscape of their lives, so they altered the place called Rohwer, both figuratively and literally. Remnants and ruins of the camp still scatter the fields planted in cotton and soybeans, and the Memorial Cemetery, declared a National Historic Monument in 1992, is a somber reminder of the people who lived and worked here. Interpretive panels constructed at the site in 2013 tell the abridged history of the camp, but are by necessity too brief to articulate the immensity of the full narrative. The documents, maps, and visualizations presented here are fragments of that narrative, pieced together in a technological framework, in an effort to bring the story to life.

Project tags:
3D Reconstruction; Digital Preservation

The expansion of this NEH-funded project focuses on building a more robust interface for georeferencing, as well as storage and distribution of the CORONA images. The study area increased to include Eastern China and those surrounding regions. CORONA image coverage is abundant in these areas and its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry, Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; Spatial Archaeometry; Digital Preservation

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; Spatial Archaeometry

CORONA images preserve a high-resolution picture of the world as it existed in the 1960s, they constitute a unique resource for researchers and scientists studying environmental change, agriculture, geomorphology, archaeology and other fields. This NEH-funded project focuses on the Middle East and surrounding regions, areas where CORONA coverage is abundant and where its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry

The Hampson Museum Collection represents one of the world's most extraordinary collections of American Indian artistic expression as well as a major source of data on the lives and history of late pre-Columbian peoples of the Mississippi River Valley. The collections at the museum are the result of extensive excavations of the Nodena Site as well as excavations at other sites in the region by Dr James K. Hampson, as well as work by others including the University of Alabama and the University of Arkansas.

Project tags:
Reality Capture; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

CAST researchers worked with the The Milot Archaeological Project (MAP) team, led by Dr. J. Cameron Monroe (UC - Santa Cruz) to collect ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys to map and identify the subsurface features within the Milot complex. With these data, the MAP investigates an example of state formation from the early modern Atlantic World: the short-lived Kingdom of Haiti (1811-1820), which emerged in the years following the Haitian Revolution. Essential research questions that the MAP seeks answer include: (1) did the Kingdom of Haiti draw from earlier forms of power in the region, and (2) did the Kingdom of Haiti restructure and routinize the social lives of its citizenry, or rather was it focused largely on public spectacles that sat suspended above everyday social life? The MAP mobilizes documentary and archaeological evidence to explore the relationship between architectural space and political power, evaluating competing models for the nature of Haitian political authority in the early 19th century.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

ArkansasView, established in 2002, is a consortium of faculty, staff, students, and employees in university, state agency, and nonprofit organizations building remote sensing and geospatial capacity within Arkansas. This work is being accomplished primarily through educational, targeted research and outreach, and other remote sensing and geospatial endeavors that benefit Arkansans. With support from ArkansasView, a new PhD degree in Geosciences with a geoinformatics track began in August 2014. This program allows doctoral students at the state's flagship University of Arkansas to focus more directly on remote sensing and related research questions. For undergraduate students, an ArkansasView-supported proposal to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education led to the August 2014 launch of an undergraduate certificate at University of Arkansas titled "Certificate of Proficiency in Geospatial Technologies," offered completely online. In a new partnership with Communities Unlimited (www.communitiesu.org), a nonprofit serving communities in Arkansas and six neighboring states, ArkansasView is facilitating student intern development of geospatial workflows that address persistently poor rural communities' access to basic water infrastructure. ArkansasView is committed to geospatial provenance and innovative geodata analysis research that simplifies and strengthens remote sensing workflow design.

Project tags:
GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Image Analysis; Technology Education

The historic Fort Randall Post Cemetery, located in Gregory County, South Dakota, contains well over 100 burials dating to the mid to late nineteenth century. A previous investigation of the site utilizing documentary evidence, aerial photographs, and targeted coring located many previously recorded and undocumented graves within the main fenced area of the cemetery. To locate additional unmarked graves within an area adjacent to the cemetery, a multi-instrument remote sensing investigation of the site was undertaken by CAST and administered through the South Dakota State Historical Society, Archaeological Research Center (ARC). Historic cemeteries are one of the most challenging contexts for remote sensing applications and graves are especially difficult to locate when they lack high contrast materials such as brick burial vaults or metal coffins, which is typical of nineteenth century cemeteries. Multi -instrument approaches offer the greatest likelihood of successfully mapping unknown grave locations. Results of the survey will be published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

The NSF-funded Plant Imaging Consortium (PIC) brings together experts in plant biology, radiochemistry, phenomics, imaging, and computational biology to apply high-throughput phenotyping and molecular imaging techniques to the study of plant stress biology. High-throughput phenotyping (HTP) allows breeders to screen large populations of plants quickly and efficiently, and to quantify numerous complex traits that are not obvious to the naked eye. Molecular imaging (MI) techniques such positron emission tomography (ie. PET scans) utilize radioactive, fluorescent, or luminescent probes to elucidate the physiological processes that govern stress tolerance or susceptibility in plants. Together, these bioimaging technologies have transformative power to link genotype to phenotype and identify genetic sources of stress tolerance for crop improvement.

Project tags:
Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Digital Preservation

The expansion of this NEH-funded project focuses on building a more robust interface for georeferencing, as well as storage and distribution of the CORONA images. The study area increased to include Eastern China and those surrounding regions. CORONA image coverage is abundant in these areas and its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry, Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

In collaboration with The Field Museum, CAST researchers conducted aerial surveys resulting in photography/photogrammetry, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys, and magnetometry surveys to map the surface and to identify subsurface architecture on and around the platform mounds and sunken circular plazas at the site of Caballete in the Norte Chico region of Peru. This collaboration among CAST researchers and local Peruvian archaeologists uses innovative and experimental geophysical/remote sensing techniques to explore the Late Archair ceremonial structures and plan for later, more targeted excavations.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

Focusing on the northern Fertile Crescent, a study region of more than 200,000 sq km extending from the eastern Mediterranean to northern Iraq, the project brings together specialists in archaeology, environmental remote sensing, and geomatics to explore settlement and environmental histories through an innovative remote-sensing based series of analyses aimed at creating a model of dynamic trends in land cover and environmental change, or land surface phenology, over the past 30 years based on gridded climate data available through NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and remote sensing-based vegetation series derived from AVHRR and Landsat satellite data. In a region like the northern Fertile Crescent, where nearly all pre-industrial settlement was dependent on highly variable and relatively sparse precipitation, documenting the full effects that minor variations in climate can have is critical to understanding settlement and land use in the past and present. Our methods will enable us to map the actual effects that years or seasons with higher or lower than average rainfall had on land cover throughout the study region.

Project tags:
Image Analysis; Spatial Archaeometry; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

project description needed...

Project tags:
Network Analysis; Image Analysis

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; Reality Capture; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

This project was funded by the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), Department of Defense. ArchaeoFusion is a tool for Archaeologists and others who use ground penetrating sensors to build subsurface maps. ArchaeoFusion will load data from many sources, processes the data, and then integrate it into a clear representation of subsurface features.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

The Hampson Museum Collection represents one of the world's most extraordinary collections of American Indian artistic expression as well as a major source of data on the lives and history of late pre-Columbian peoples of the Mississippi River Valley. The collections at the museum are the result of extensive excavations of the Nodena Site as well as excavations at other sites in the region by Dr James K. Hampson, as well as work by others including the University of Alabama and the University of Arkansas.

Project tags:
Reality Capture; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis