Application of satellite remote sensing data in investigation and management of the heritage site, a case study in the Grand Canal of China

Biao Deng, Huadong Guo, Changlin Wang, Yueping Nie

the CAS Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, CHINA

Remote sensing began with the use of aerial photography and is acknowledged as a valuable tool for viewing, analyzing, characterizing, and making decisions about our environment. The Grand Canal of China is the longest ancient canal in the world and recently approved as the Key National Relics-preservation Unit. In our work multi-source and multi-temporal remote sensing data, including the aerial photographs taken half a century ago and the recently acquired SPOT5 multi-spectral images and the RADARSAT-1 images are collected. First, all the data were pre-processed, then through a comparative and complementary analysis of the data sets, the overall spatial information of the canal was given, which provide important information for the field investigation conducted later. Based on the interpretation of the SPOT5 data, the land cove and land use in the vanity of the canal, which provides key information for the management of the canal, were retrieved. From the successful implementation of this research, we can conclude that the satellite remote sensing data has great potential in the investigation, preservation and management of the heritage sites.