Image Enhancement, Feature Extraction and Geospatial Analysis in an Archaeological Perspective

The goal of image processing for archaeological applications is to enhance spatial patterns and/or local anomalies linked to ancient human activities and traces of palaeo-environments still fossilized in the modern landscape. In order to make the satellite data more meaningful for archaeologists and more exploitable for investigations, reliable data processing may be carried out. Over the years a great variety of digital image enhancement techniques have been devised for specific application fields according to data availability. Nevertheless, only recently these methods have captured great attention also in the field of archaeology for an easier extraction of quantitative information using effective and reliable semiautomatic data processing. The setting up of fully-automatic methodologies is a big challenge to be strategically addressed by research communities in the next years.