Dr. Dan Thompson, GHF’s Director of Global Projects and Global Heritage Network (GHN), recently attended the 4th International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology (ICRSA4), a three-day conference held in Beijing, where he presented two papers and a poster.

For his paper titled “Multispectral Archaeological Prospection: a satellite-based quantitative model of site prediction,” which presented a summary of his doctoral research in using multispectral satellite imagery to predict site location based on known sites’ spectral signatures, Dr. Thompson received a Best Oral Presentation award.  The award was presented by Dr. Armin Gruen of the Institute of Conservation and Building Research, Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich.

Dr. Thompson’s other paper, “Global Heritage Network: information sharing, threat monitoring & collaborative preservation for cultural heritage sites in the developing world,” and poster, “Global Heritage Network: threat monitoring and collaborative solutions for cultural heritage sites in the developing world,” reflected the merits of GHN, whose online community now has more than 1,000 members representing nearly 100 countries, with high-resolution satellite images for more than two-thirds of the 650+ sites in the network’s database.

Official group photo of the 4th International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology.  Photo: ICRSA4

This year’s conference theme was “New Era of Earth Observation on Natural and Cultural Heritage.”  According to its website, ICRSA4 focused on “cutting-edge space technologies for monitoring, documenting, and preserving world heritage” and provided “experts, policy-makers, administrators and students from around the world an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences in the field of conservation and management of natural and cultural heritage.”

The conference’s organizers included UNESCO, the Chinese Academy of Science, China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Click here to read a Q&A with Dr. Dan Thompson

Click here to learn more about Global Heritage Network (GHN)