Seeing the Invisible: An Integrated Remote Sensing Approach to Mapping Buried Architecture at Las Colmenas, Virú Valley, Peru
Abstract
This thesis reports on the results of a survey project conducted in 2018 and 2019, intending to address two main research questions: (1) What remote sensing technique(s) worked best to identify buried features at Las Colmenas? (2) What combinations of techniques proved to be optimal for identifying buried features, and what are the benefits and limitations of the use of an integrated approach? This project incorporated two scales of analysis: macroscale optical and thermal Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) surveys and microscale Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), magnetic susceptibility, and magnetometry surveys. A side-by-side comparison proved the thermal UAV, GPR, and magnetic susceptibility surveys were most successful at Las Colmenas. However, by integrating these methods, we noted that a multi-faceted approach is indeed useful, but a small subset of these techniques can be used depending on funding, expertise, time available, environmental conditions, and goals of the project.