Abstract
Insufficient data and imperfect methods are the main obstacles to realize Target 11.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Very high-resolution (VHR) remote sensing provides a useful tool to elaborate monitor land-cover changes in cultural landscapes so as to evaluate the authenticity and integrity of the cultural heritage sites (CHS). In this study, we developed a semi-automatic two-level workflow to efficiently extract delicate land-cover changes from bi-temporal VHR images (with spatial resolution ≤ 1 m), where most current studies can only manually interpret changes at this scale. Based on the monitoring result, we proposed an indicator named interference degree that can quantify the changes in cultural landscapes of the CHS as a complementary indicator to achieve Target 11.4 for SDGs. Three representative types of CHS with different landscapes were studied in 2015 and 2020 based on the VHR Google Earth images, including cave temples, ancient architectural buildings, and ancient sites. The proposed workflow was demonstrated to be effective in extracting delicate changes efficiently with the accuracy around 85%. The interference degree well reflects the preservation status of these CHS and can be periodically observed in a long term as an evaluation indicator. This study shows the potential to produce the first-hand global-monitoring data of CHS to support Target 11.4, thus serving for the sustainable development of the world’s cultural heritage.
Highlights
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.With urban growth and modernization, the uprising conflict between human activity and heritage conservation has received considerable attention [1]
A semi-automatic workflow was customized to extract land-cover changes from Very high-resolution (VHR) remote-sensing images
Superior to traditional methods based on manually interpretation, the developed workflow can monitor delicate changes and greatly improve the efficiency with the accuracy around 85%
Summary
With urban growth and modernization, the uprising conflict between human activity and heritage conservation has received considerable attention [1]. Monitoring the preservation status of cultural-heritage sites (CHS) is important to maintain their sustainable development [2,3,4]. The United Nations has proposed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 [5]. Target 11.4 aims to strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage.
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