ABSTRACT
Earth observation from space has opened new perspectives for many applications, particularly since a new generation of satellites provides very high resolution images comparable to aerial photography. This new data allows for classical visual interpretation as well as for automated classification methods and information extraction techniques that can be applied for the modelling of geocultural landscapes. For this purpose image processing procedures may be used but need to be occasionally adapted because of the unprecedented high level of detail. The objective of this chapter is to introduce imagery from recent satellites like Ikonos-2, QuickBird or OrbView-3 and to outline their benefit for the investigation of geocultural phenomena. Explained methods and techniques comprise the pre-processing of the satellite data, the image enhancement for image quality improvement, the classification process and the information extraction as well as advanced methods such as artificial intelligence. As far as research in (geo-)archaeology has already been done using these introduced methods, practical examples are linked to the theoretical aspects. The aim is to help to overcome constraints to the application of this relatively new high resolution satellite data in the field of geocultural landscape research.
