학술논문

Deep learning ancient map segmentation to assess historical landscape changes
Document Type
article
Source
Journal of Maps, Vol 19, Iss 1 (2023)
Subject
Land-use change
Human pressure
Paleogeographic study
Semantic segmentation
Rhône basin
Maps
G3180-9980
Language
English
ISSN
17445647
1744-5647
Abstract
ABSTRACTAncient geographical maps are our window into the past for understanding the spatial dynamics of last centuries. This paper proposes a novel approach to address this problem using deep learning. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are today the state-of-the-art methods in handling a variety of problems in the fields of image processing. The Cassini map, created in the eighteenth century, is used to illustrate our methodology. This approach enables us to extract the surfaces of classes of lands in the Cassini map: forests, heaths, arboricultural, and hydrological. The evolution of land use between the end of the eighteenth century andtoday was quantified by comparison with Corine Land Cover (CLC) database. For the Rhone watershed, the results show that forests, arboriculture, and heaths are more extensive on the CLC map, in contrast to the hydrological network. These unprecedented results are new findings that reveal the major anthropo-climatic changes.