TRAIL 2016 (Training and Research on the Archaeological Interpretation of LiDAR)

TRAIL 2016 (Training and Research on the Archaeological Interpretation of LiDAR) took place in Domaine national de Chambord (Loir-et-Cher, France) from 17th to 20th May 2016. This international meeting builds on two previous meetings (TRAIL 2011 and 2014), and was devoted to the study of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) applications in archaeology, with a special focus on projects in in forests and woodlands.

They were organized as part of SOLiDAR regional project (coord. X. Rodier and C. Laplaige, UMR 7324 CITERES-LAT (Université François-Rabelais de Tours/CNRS), which is part of the interdisciplinary programme of research and innovation Intelligence des Patrimoines, the LEA ModeLTER and in partnership with the Domaine national de Chambord, the DRAC Centre-Val de Loire, the ISA network, the european network Archeolandscape,  the zone atelier Loire, the companies Helimap and Sintegra, and RTR Image.

This international meeting brought together specialists in exploration and processing of LiDAR data, archaeologists, biologists, physicists and forest management experts to present the latest methodological advances and discuss different ways of understanding and integrating the results of LiDAR surveys. A total of 70 people from North America, Central America and throughout Europe, were gathered during these 4 days.

The meeting included both plenary sessions and workshops, and emphasizes promoting exchanges between different specialisms. This year key themes were:

• the links between human practices (pastoral, forestry etc.) and their microtopographic signatures
• data interpretation and management on a regional or national level
• advanced data processing
• automatic processing of LiDAR data