=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=Integrated Topographic, GNSS, Remote Sensing and GIS/WebGIS
Techniques Applied to the Study of Aquileia River Port Structures
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-806/paper6.pdf
|volume=Vol-806
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/aquileia/CefaloCBFIMM11
}}
==Integrated Topographic, GNSS, Remote Sensing and GIS/WebGIS
Techniques Applied to the Study of Aquileia River Port Structures==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-806/paper6.pdf
G-1
Integrated Topographic, GNSS, Remote Sensing and
GIS/WebGIS Techniques Applied to the Study of
Aquileia River Port Structures
Raffaela Cefalo1 , Alexia Cociancich1 , Michele Di Bartolomeo1 , Francesca Ferro1 ,
Massimo Iansig1 , Giorgio Manzoni2 and Giulio Montagner1,
1
GeoSNAV Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of
Trieste, P.le Europa 1, 34127 Trieste, Italy
2
CER (Centre of Excellence for the Research in TeleGeomatics), University of Trieste, P.le
Europa 1, 34127 Trieste, Italy
cefalo@dicar.units.it; alexia.cociancich@gmail.com; michele.dibartolomeo@email.it;
francesca212@gmail.com; massimo.iansig@libero.it; manzoni@units.it;
giulio.montagner@gmail.com
Abstract. Integrated use of multidisciplinary researches have been applied in
the last years for the study of Aquileia archeological sites and, in particular the
River Port structures. Since 1992 GPS (Global Positioning System) techniques
have been adopted with the aim of linking together various independent
topographic networks and georeferencing single relevant points. In 2001 a
scientific cooperation between different Institutions and national and
international Research Centres has been established and renewed in 2006, in the
framework of PICS 3064 CNRS Project. Different 3D topographic, geodetic,
remote sensing, laser scanner and geophysical surveys have been performed and
analyzed with the principal aim of reconstructing the ancient Aquileia
landscape and, in particular, the integrated water system. GIS (Geographical
Information System) and WebGIS applications have been implemented by
researchers of GeoSNAV Laboratory, University of Trieste, joining all the data
on a common cartographic basis, in order to enhance their sharing inside the
scientific community.
Keywords: Aquileia; Port River Structures; Archeological survey; GNSS;
Remote Sensing; Laser Scanner; Geodatabase; GIS; WebGIS.
1 Introduction
Aquileia is one of the most important archaeological sites in Italy. It was a rich
Roman town and a commercial centre connecting Central Europe with the
Mediterranean area during the imperial period with a maximum population of more
than 200.000 inhabitants. Attila razed it to the ground by the 5 th century.
The Aquileia River Port is considered as one of the best-preserved examples of the
Roman world 1 .
G-2 R.Cefalo, et al.
In the last years the integrated use of multidisciplinary researches has been applied for
the study of this archaeological complex, with the principal aim of reconstructing the
Aquileia ancient landscape and, in particular, the integrated water system.
1.1 The Topographic and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) surveys
Since 1992 GPS (Global Positioning System) techniques have been adopted with the
aim of linking together various independent topographic networks and georeferencing
single relevant points [2].
This need arose in the framework of the cooperation existing between Geometer
Giovanni Meng†,1 and the group of Topography and Geodesy, directed at that time by
prof. Giorgio Manzoni, Department of Civil Engineering (actually Department of
Civil Engineering and Architecture), university of Trieste.
A GNSS network was then established and surveyed choosing the vertexes in such
a way as to optimize the link between the topographic networks surveyed by G.
Meng. Moreover, thanks to the presence of a 100 meters height crane, it was possible
to include the first order geodetic vertex of the Basilica of Aquileia into the GNSS
network. This allowed the georeferencing of the GNSS survey into WGS84
ellipsoidal Global Geodetic Reference System and the subsequent coordinate
transformations to the Italian ITA40 and Gauss-Boaga Systems.
2 The Aquileia river port and the GIS-implemented application
Already in the past some hypotheses relative to the Aquileia Port permitted to locate,
on the topographic map of Pietro Kandler (1869), two big zones at the West and East
of cardo maximus, respectively called the port of navicelle and the port of ships [2].
Kandler based his studies on the observations done by the Zuccolo brothers in 1806.
He put into evidence the artificial origin of the Anfora canal and the ramifications of
the Isonzo river, supposing at least a partial circumnavigability of Aquileia [3]. All
the current archaeological researches are based on the Giovanni Brusin experiences.
Starting from the Kandler’s discovers, he tried to put in relation the ruins with the
ancient sources. In the 30’s he disclosed and excavated the river port. Using the
materials extracted from the excavations, he built the archaeological path located on
the river bed, thus highly increasing the value of the impressing artifact.
Almost all the existing archaeological data come from the excavations done in the
first half of the twentieth century that unearthed some structures aligned along a front
long some hundreds of meters 1 .
This huge excavation work transformed Aquileia into one of the best known sites with
regard to the port structures. Nevertheless, the techniques used at that time prevent the
exact dating and surveying of the modifications of this complex.
1 Geometer Giovanni Meng†, born in Trieste on 21 April 1932 and dead in Trieste on 12 May
2006, dedicated a big part of his professional work and life to the topographic survey of the
Aquileia archeological ruins, in cooperation with Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del
Friuli-Venezia Giulia. This paper is dedicated to his great professionalism and passion.
Integrated Topographic, GNSS, Remote Sensing… G-3
Thus, in the 90’s, under the impulse of the Ministry of Cultural Activities, a scientific
cooperation between different researchers belonging to the Department of
Geosciences and the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture (DICAR),
University of Trieste, Italy, has been established. The principal aim of this
cooperation was to define the evolution of the Aquileia recent landscapes and, in
particular, the hydrographic net.
Subsequently, also the archaeologists and historians2 working since 1991 to an
archaeological excavation planned on the site of the river port, the geographers
belonging to Université Paris-73 and Physics Department4, University of Trieste,
joined the Project. This Consortium was formalized in 2001 with the signature of a
scientific Agreement of studies and researches, renewed in 2006.
Since 2005 to 2007 a funding given by CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique) has been dedicated to this cooperation agreement, in the framework of a
“Programme International de Coopération Scientifique” (PICS) entitled “Recherches
paléoenvironnementales sur le territoire d’Aquilée (Italie Nord-orientale) dans
l’Antiquité” (“Paleo-environmental Researches on Aquileia territory in the ancient
times”) coordinated by M.B.Carre, CCJ - Centre Camille Jullian - CNRS, Aix-en-
Provence, Marseille, France and N. Pugliese, Department of Geosciences, University
of Trieste. The organ gram of the PICS Project is shown in Fig.1. An intense and long
cooperation has been established between prof. M.B.Carre and a number of students,
PhD students and researchers scientifically working inside the GeoSNAV (Geodesy
and Satellite Navigation) Laboratory, directed by prof. R.Cefalo, university of Trieste.
The great amount of existing archaeological, geodetic and geophysical data,
coming from different sources and characterized by not homogeneous formats and
accuracies, induced the idea of implementing a GIS application able to join all the
data onto a common cartographic platform and take advantage from all the
potentialities of the GIS solutions.
The data used to implement the GIS application are shown in Fig. 2. They include
all the data surveyed in the framework of the PICS Project and other archaeological
data from previous surveys: the archaeological ones (Department of History and
Cultures from Antiquity to Contemporaneous World, university of Trieste); the
SARA (Subacquea Archeologia Romana Aquileia – Roman Aquileia Underwater
Archaeology) data, surveys directed by F. Maselli Scotti, at that time Director of the
Archeological Museum of Aquileia); the cadastral cartographic data by scanning the
old cadastral maps; the georadar profiles (Department of Geosciences, University of
Trieste); the laser-scanner data (prof. G. Giannini, INFN, University of Trieste); and
2 Excavation directed by prof. C.Zaccaria, Department of History and Cultures from Antiquity
to Contemporaneous World, university of Trieste, Italy) and prof. M.B.Carre (CCJ - Centre
Camille Jullian - CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille Université, France) and given in
concession to the École Française de Rome (EFR) with the participation of dr. P.Maggi, dr.
F.Oriolo, Department of History and Cultures from Antiquity to Contemporaneous World,
university of Trieste, Italy, R.C.Rousse, CCJ, M.Sternberg and C.Machebeuf.
3 Prof. Arnaud Fassetta, équipe “Dynamique des Milieux et Risques”, PRODIG, CNRS,
université Paris-7, France, and dr. I.Siché.
4 Prof. Gianrossano Giannini, INFN – National Institute of Nuclear Physics - university of
Trieste, Italy.
G-4 R.Cefalo, et al.
those relative to the drilling sites (prof. R.Marocco, Department of Geosciences,
University of Trieste) [4].
ESRI® ArcGIS 9.3 was initially chosen as the software platform, being the most
diffused within the scientific community.
Fig. 1. Organ gram of the PICS CNRS 3064 Project, showing all the national and international
Institutions and Research Centres involved.
Archeological surveys
Georadar Profiles
Laser scanner surveys
DATA Typologies
Cadaster data
S.A.R.A.
(Subacquea Archeologia Drilling sites
Romana Aquileia)
Fig. 2. The different typologies of data surveyed by the researches involved inside the PICS
CNRS 3064 Project and implemented inside the GIS application relative to the Aquileia River
Port
Integrated Topographic, GNSS, Remote Sensing… G-5
In the meantime different GNSS surveys had been carried out by GeoSNAV
Laboratory, in order to study possible alignments between the river port
archaeological structures and to precisely localize the drilling sites.
In Table 1 the coordinates of a part of the points obtained from a geodetic GNSS
survey performed some years ago inside the River Port, have been reported as an
example. The planimetric coordinates are expressed into the Gauss - Boaga Italian
Cartographic System and have been obtained through a 7 parameters transformation
using the official IGM (Italian Geographic Military Institute) parameters relative to
IGM95 Aquileia – Chiusa vertex. The heights are referred to the WGS84 ellipsoid.
Table 1. Gauss-Boaga coordinates and WGS84 ellipsoidal heights of the surveyed points. The
7-parameter transformation has been performed using the official IGM parameters relative to
the IGM95 Aquileia – Chiusa vertex.
Point N. Northing (m) Easting (m) Height (m)
P001 5070407.410 2393207.344 45.600
P002 5070360.524 2393200.109 46.108
P003 5070275.399 2393221.143 45.630
P004 5070225.101 2393225.335 46.275
P006 5069912.709 2393352.590 46.994
A complex relational geo-database, able to put together the huge amount of
archaeological, cartographic, geodetic and geophysical data, was projected and
created by A. Cociancich [5], using Access 2003. This database, shared between the
members of the involved scientific community, allows an easy and friendly data input
by the users and can be used also by not expert users. The choice of Access 2003 was
driven considering the large data volume, the relative small number of users and the
easiness of use. Furthermore, it allows to easily create the input masks using also the
support of VBA (Visual Basic for Application) programming.
A scheme of the database realized has been reported in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. The relational geo-database structure [5].
G-6 R.Cefalo, et al.
A further database implementation specifically projected to manage the drilling sites
data, the laser-scanner data and the cadastre cartographic data has subsequently been
implemented by F. Ferro [6] in 2009. A mixed typology strategy for the identification
of the entities and the main relationships has been applied. The database has been
realized in Access 2007 and linked to the ArcGIS software platform.
3 WebGIS application and the use of remotely-sensed images
A WebGIS open source application for the management of archaeological, paleo-geo
morphological and historical-cartographic data relative to the Aquileia ancient
hydrographic network has been realized by M. Di Bartolomeo [7] using a MapServer
platform. This platform allows for a dynamic connection to the georeferenced data by
the user on the basis of his/her own choices. The user interacts with HTML pages,
structured in a proper way, through a web browser (Fig. 4).
In order to simplify the implementation of a WebMapping interface, the front-end
user friendly “p.mapper” application has been used, developed on PHP/Mapscript e
JavaScript. PHP/Mapscript is an extension of the PHP language allowing to
dynamically check the syntax and logic of object PHP scripting programming
language.
Fig. 4. The Client/Server structure of the MapServer Web/GIS application [7]
Integrated Topographic, GNSS, Remote Sensing… G-7
Furthermore, in 2010 an integrated study using aerial photos and MIVIS images for
the individuation of archaeological anomalies has been carried out by G. Montagner
[8]. Different data analysis techniques were applied in order to enhance the image
quality and radiometric characteristics, and allow for the visualization of anomalies
that could be due to archaeological underground structures. A result is shown in
Fig.5, where the comparison between a hyperspectral MIVIS5 (Multispectral Infrared
and Visible Imaging Spectrometer) RGB image of a portion of terrain and the same
image processed using PCA (Principal Component Analysis) (P.C.5) is presented.
Fig. 5. A comparison between a MIVIS RGB image of a portion of terrain (on the left) and the
same image processed using PCA (Principal Component Analysis) (P.C.5) (on the right) [8].
4 Conclusions and future developments
Since 1992 the Group of Topography and Geodesy of the Department of Civil
Engineering and Architecture, university of Trieste has been involved in
multidisciplinary researches on the territory of Aquileia.
Thanks to a scientific agreement of studies and researches formalized in 2001 in
Aquileia and renewed in 2006, an important cooperation between different
researchers belonging to national and international Institutions and Research Centers
was realized. The funding provided by the by CNRS - Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique - in the framework of the PICS Project, gave the possibility to
carry out different multidisciplinary studies and surveys, and made available a huge
amount of data to the scientific community.
The GIS and WebGIS open source applications implemented by the Authors and
relative to the Aquileia river port structures allowed to join all the available data on a
common cartographic base (CTRN 1:5000 and CRN 1:25.000 digital maps) and take
advantage from all the potentialities of the GIS solutions. The added information
coming from the performed surveys permitted to better study and spatially correlate
5 The MIVIS images used for this study have been kindly put at disposal by the Cartographic
Direction of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region.
G-8 R.Cefalo, et al.
the data relative to the Aquileia river port structures with the aim of creating a map of
the ancient and recent hydrology.
The WebGIS application will also allow the multiuse and update of the geo database
by the researchers. Furthermore, remote sensing analyses have been studied and
applied taking advantage from the most recent technologies, with the aim of
enhancing the actual knowledge on the Aquileia territory.
Acknowledgments. The Authors wish to thank M.B.Carre, CCJ - Centre Camille
Jullian - CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France for being a main animator of the
multidisciplinary Project in which the researches here presented were carried out.
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