LiDAR TECHNOLOGY & THE HISTORY OF LANDSCAPE IN SOUTHERN NE

Sakonnet Preservation Association, in collaboration with the Tiverton Land Trust, is hosting a presentation by Katharine Johnson at the Little Compton Community Center on Wednesday evening April 30th.  Doors open at 6:30 and her presentation will start at 7PM.  Refreshments will be served.  The public is invited to attend this free educational event.  Recent articles in the Sakonnet Times newspaper and the ecoRI newsletter have featured her work.

Little Compton resident and PhD student Katharine Johnson will present her research that uses a remote sensing technology called Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to understand the history of New England's landscape.  This laser scanning device is attached to an aircraft, and has the ability to map the ground surface below the forest canopy.  Work in Tiverton's Weetamoo Woods, Westport, MA and eastern Connecticut have led to discoveries of archaeological landscape features such as stone walls, building foundations, roads, and other features now in areas that are completely forested, but which at one point would have been cleared agricultural land.  The technology makes it possible to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the development and history of the landscape that might not otherwise have been possible.