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Historical data processing, modelling,

reconstruction, analysis and visualization of


historical landscape in the region of North-West
Bohemia.

Jan Pacina, Ji Cajthaml

Abstract. The natural development of the region of North-West Bohemia has


been affected by human activity in many ways. In the brown-coal basin, the open-
pit mines and the heavy/chemical industry have completely changed the shape of
the georelief, including hydrographic networks, land-use and settlement. The
neighboring Ore Mountains are victims of settlement extinction caused by the po-
litical situation after the Second World War and huge water dam constructions. In
this paper different methods for preserving the changes that have been occurred in
this region. The methods include historical data processing, modelling, reconstruc-
tions, analysis and visualizations. Historical data preprocessing is a very important
part of the project as it influences the overall quality of all the results. Different
methods for old maps, georeferencing, and aerial imagery processing and digital
terrain models derivation were tested and used throughout the project. Data sup-
porting the research were obtained directly in the field using the KAP (Kite Aerial
Photography) and UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) technology. The task con-
cerning modelling and reconstruction is based on data derived from defined time-
line of processed data here we covered the period from 1720 up to nowadays.
The results of this part of the project are high quality digital terrain models derived
for different time periods, hydrological network reconstructions, land-use devel-
opment, and extinct settlement 3D reconstructions. Analysis and visualization was
performed within the GIS environment. All the processed data are published using
the ArcGIS for Server technology offering data visualizations and basic analysis
to the public within the Internet. The information system resulting from this
project will offer a comprehensive source of processed historical data for other
scientific usages and for preserving the cultural heritage of this region for further
generations.

Keywords: reconstruction, analysis, visualization, extinct landscape, North-


West Bohemia.
2

1. Introduction

The region of North-West Bohemia (the Czech Republic) has been a victim of
very intensive human activity for many decades. Since the beginning of the 20th
century, the landscape has changed from an agriculture region to a heavy indu-
strialized part of the country. The Most brown coal basin contains a huge amount
of brown coal located not very deep under the Earths surface. From the 1930s,
the brown coal in this region has been mined using open-pit technology and cur-
rently the open-pit mines cover a total area of 3800 hectares. Open-pit mining is a
relatively cheap method of coal mining, but has a destructive effect on the sur-
rounding environment. The landscape structure has completely changed - includ-
ing land-use, hydrological network displacement and settlement extinction. Many
towns and villages have disappeared during the last 60 years of brown coal min-
ing. Other types of heavy industries (chemical, power) are closely connected to the
mining industry having other impacts on society and the surrounding environment.
The other major human activity which influences the landscape in this region are
the huge water dams constructed in the Most basin or in the neighboring Ore
Mountains. Water dams have caused settlement and landscape change in their sur-
roundings as drinking water dams require specific regulations and treatment. The
Ore Mountains were densely inhabited in the past but with respect to the political
situations after the 2nd World War, German inhabitants moved to Germany which
resulted in settlement extinction as well.
All of these factors have lead to a significant change in the landscape structure
(including the georelief), hydrological network and settlement during the past 80
years. Our aim is to collect data, such as old maps, aerial photographs, land-use
representation, digital terrain model reconstructions, 3D town reconstructions, old
postcards and photographs, history of the places and much more into a compre-
hensive information system offering all this information to researchers and the
public.
In this paper we focus on the newer methods of data collection, processing,
analysis and visualization for the purposes of the proposed information system.
Fig.1 Landscape changes within the area of interest.
[16]
3

2. The area of interest


Fig. 2 Area of interest.

This project is focused on the whole region of st nad Labem. With respect to
limited space within this article, we will introduce the methods used mainly on site
2 presented in Fig. 2. The areas 1 to 6 were processed in detail and the results are
available on our server http://mapserver.ujep.cz1. A short description of the sites
of interest:
Site 1 The water dam Psenice flooded the former town Psenice in 1974.
The surrounding settlement had to be destroyed due to hygienic regulations.
Analysis results presented at [14].
Site 2 Water dam Nechranice flooded villages in the Ohe valley. The neigh-
boring open-pit mine Nstup Tuimice provides brown coal to the surrounding
power plants.
Site 3 Open-pit mine SA is located at the foot of the Ore Mountains. Huge
landslides have endangered the surroundings including the castle Jeze. More
about the site in [8].
Site 4 Open-pit mine Vrany has brown coal deposits till the year 2035. De-
tailed site description and analysis in [15].
Site 5 Lake Most a symbol of brown coal mining in this region. The royal
town Most has been completely destroyed, brown coal mined and the empty pit
turned into a lake. Detailed site description and analysis in [9].

1 The links to the resulting web-mapping applications are presented in chapter 4.


4

Site 6 The biggest2 active open-pit mine in this region Blina mine and the
neighboring large deposit Radovesice. More about the site in [7] and [18].

3. Data and methods

Different data and methods are used within this project to cover the variety of
proposed tasks. The basis of the information system are well processed old maps
and aerial photographs used for further processing and analysis. Other sources of
information are used for better understanding of the selected localities here data
collection using standard surveying methods, Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) and
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is performed.

3.1 Old maps


Old maps of different scale and age were used for the purposes of this project. We
have covered the area of interest with well distributed time-line of the old maps.
The oldest processed map is Mllers map of Bohemia (ca. 1720) followed by the
1st, 2nd and 3rd Military survey of the Habsburg empire (1792, 1894, 1938). The
Military survey presents the natural development of the area until the heavy indu-
strialization3. This time-line is well supported by the Stabile cadaster maps (1842,
1:2880) containing detailed information about the land-use.
The time period of heavy industrialization is covered by State maps and the State
maps derived in the scale 1:5000 (SMO5) from the years 1953, 1972 and 1981.
The map contains two main compounds hypsography (derived from a Base map
1:10 000) and planimetry (derived from cadastral maps). The hypsography has a 1
meter contour interval4 and thus is well suitable for georelief reconstruction analy-
sis.
Processing (georeferencing) old maps requires an individual approach as each map
has to be handled based on its characteristics. Different georeferencing methods
were applied to obtain sufficient results for the purposes of our project.
The most problematic was the georeferencing of the 1 st Military survey maps as
these maps have no geodetic basements. A unique method introduced in [3] based
on polynomial transformation was used for georeferencing the 1 st Military survey
map sheets preserving the neighboring map sheet continuation.
Georeferencing of the other data sources was based on a large set of identical
points (2nd and 3rd Military survey, Stabile cadaster maps) or on the knowledge of
the map corner coordinates (SMO5 maps). All maps were georeferenced into the

2 Our computations in [7] have shown that the material deployed from the mine in-between the
years 1938 and 1995 would fill so many railway wagons that length of such a train would be
twice the length of the equator.
3 The 3rd Military Survey already shows the beginnings of industrialization and open-pit mining.

4 The SMO5 from the year 1953 have, in some areas, the contour interval 5 20 m, thus the re-

sults are not that accurate. But anyway this map is a unique source of information.
5

Czech national S-JTSK coordinate system [6] and visualized by the ESRI file
geodatabase mosaic dataset which is used to mask the map frame information pro-
ducing a seamless map. An example showing the different time scales of an area is
in Fig. 3.
The processed maps are accessible as a web-mapping application using ArcGIS
API for Flex on URL: http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/Zanikle_obce/.
Fig. 3 Example of prcessed maps Stabile cadaster (left) and SMO5 year 1981 (right)
showing the same area.

3.2 Aerial photographs

Aerial photographs are a very reasonable data source as they contain a different
type of information then old maps. In old aerial photographs there are recogniza-
ble different types of land-use, abandoned buildings and other interesting details.
The methods of aerial imagery processing are very capable of producing a Digital
Surface Model (DSM) based on the input images. Thanks to the location of our
area of interest along the border with Germany and thanks to its industrial impor-
tance this region has been fully covered by an aerial imagery survey in the year
19385. Different timelines of aerial imagery were tested for the purposes of this
project (1938, 1946, 1953, 1987, 1995 and 2008). Finally only three time-lines
will be processed for the whole area of interest:

1938 the first aerial imagery taken in the whole Czechoslovakia, representing
the landscape almost untouched by open-cast mining.
1953 precise aerial imagery taken shortly after the 2 nd World War showing
the landscape partly affected by heavy industry and open-pit mining activity.
This imagery is very well usable for the detection of abandoned houses and vil-
lages after the transfer of German citizens from the Czech borderland.

5 The first test with aerial photogrammetry were within the Czechoslovakia performed (accord-
ing to [12]) in 1932. The first photogrammetrical campaign covering a continuous area was per-
formed in 1938.
6

2008 imagery showing the up-to-date situation in the region. High quality im-
agery used mainly for the georelief reconstruction.

Aerial images are processed by the standard ways of photogrammetry using the
Leica Photogrammetry Suite environment. The issues of handling old aerial im-
agery is introduced for example in [10] and [18]. An example of processed
orthophotos is shown on Fig. 4.
Fig. 4 Landscape changes presented on processed aerial images from 1938 and 2008. See
the identical buildings in the circles.

3.3 Digital terrain modelling

Reconstruction of the original shape of the landscape is a very important part of


this project. During the years of intensive open-pit mining the georelief has been
transformed in a very dramatic way, which has affected not only the landscape
structure but as well the hydrology network and surface water run-off ([1], [11]).
The georelief can be reconstructed from types of elevation data in this project
three data types were used contour lines, aerial imagery and LIDAR.
The oldest map with georelief represented by contour lines originates from
1938 (the 3rd Military Survey) when the landscape is almost untouched by min-
ing activity. The consequent time lines (1953, 1972 and 1981) represent the
georelief development. The result of georelief reconstruction is a Digital Ter-
rain Model (DTM) representing the base ground a surface without building,
trees, etc.
Aerial imagery is produced with DSMs from the processed images a surface
containing all the objects on the ground (houses, bridges, trees, etc.). DSM
processing is faster than hand digitizing the contour lines, but the resulting
model is affected by the quality of the input imagery.
7

The latest Digital Terrain Model of the Czech Republic of the 4th generation
(DMR 4G) data are used for representing the current state of the georelief as
they represents a picture of natural or human activity modified terrain surface
in a digital form as heights of discrete points with X,Y, H coordinates in regu-
lar 5 x 5 m grid. These data were obtained using LIDAR technology [4].
Fig 5. Georelief reconstruction in the area of interest. Year 1953 (left) and 2012 (right).

The resulting DTMs from the year 1953 and 2012 are shown in Fig. 5, where the
original state of the georelief and the current state is introduced with a large wa-
ter dam and open-pit mine. This data requires special handling methods and has
been tested in [8] and [9].
Different types of analysis may be performed on the resulting surfaces here we
may perform different analysis to delineate the areas with major georelief changes
and further apply volumetric analysis to compute the total volume of the add-
ed/removed material from the area. The results of the differential analysis of
DTMs are presented in Fig. 5 is shown in Fig. 6. The dark green represents re-
moved material (open-pit mine) and the orange transported material (deposit, wa-
ter dam). Detailed results and analysis possibilities are presented in [8] and [9].
8

Fig. 6 Differential analysis results year 1953 and 2012.

The project results will be offered to the public not only by a web-mapping appli-
cation but as well as an exhibition showing the results in reality. The reconstructed
DTMs (the original and current state) are printed using the ZPrinter 450 (a 3D
printer) in tiles 20 x 25 cm, in the scale 1:50 000. The resulting tiles will seamless-
ly cover the Most basin in areas with georelief change. Printed tiles of our area of
interest are presented in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 Tiles representing the year 1953 and 2012 printed on a 3D printer.
9

3.4 Field data collection

A field survey is another reliable data source used for gathering data for our in-
formation system. Several methods were used:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) - so called drone, can be used for carrying
different kinds of cameras (classic, multispectral, thermal). Results from UAV
survey may be orthophotos, DSMs, object 3D models, etc.
Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) used for aerial photography (ortophoto, obli-
que photography) from ca 200m altitude in areas where UAV is not suitable 6.
GPS survey for identifying the remains/original locations of extinct settle-
ment and measuring the ground control points for UAV and KAP.

UAV

UAV is a very popular and available method nowadays for collecting spatial data.
A UAV can carry different types of sensors like cameras, multi/hyper spectral
sensors and thermo sensors, LIDAR or precise GPS. The great advantage of a
UAV is the low cost of the equipment compared to manned aircraft, flexibility and
possible repeating of the campaigns in different time periods [13].
Within this project hexa and octo-copters (drone) are used for taking oblique pho-
tography and creating orthophotos of areas of interest. The images are taken using
a calibrated camera and further processed using the Agisoft software [17]. In Fig.
8 orthophoto created in the former village Flje7 is presented, showing the resi-
duals of the former settlement. Fig. 9 shows an abandoned church near Chvaletice
an oblique photograph.
Fig. 8 Orthophoto showing settlement residuals in the locality of Flje.

6 Areas unsuitable for UAV may be considered as a high windy area or an area with legislative
problems (borders with another country). KAP may be used as well when a person is not li-
censed to fly an UAV.
7 The village Flje was flooded by a water dam in 1960.
10

Fig. 9 Imagery showing an abandoned church by Chvaletice village.

KAP

KAP is a rather simple way of taking aerial images from ca 200m altitude. The
kite parameters are the following: one string kite Elliot Rhombus Mega Power
Sled, size 300 170cm, string length ca 250m, wind acceptance 2-5 Bft. The kite
can carry a Canon PowerShot D10 camera on a special mount (Fig. 10). The im-
ages are taken in time-lapse ca every 10 seconds. The kite has to be operated at
least by two people (during take-off/landing, identifying the real camera position
in the air). This method is cheaper in comparison with UAV, applicable by less
skilled users but dependent on stabile wind. It has been proved that during good
weather conditions more than 40% images are usable. During worse weather con-
ditions the amount of usable images decreases below 20%. Suitable images are
further processed to orthophotos or used for other land-study purposes. [2]
11

Fig. 10 KAP the kite and camera mounting.

KAP was used to study the landscape and for identifying settlement relics in
abandoned villages located at the border with Germany. The first stage of this re-
search was the preparation of old maps for use in a field GPS receiver. Based on
the information contained in the old maps, the boundaries of the former settlement
were identified and staked. The KAP survey was performed in early October as
the vegetation was low and the weather conditions up in the mountains (ca 900 m)
were still suitable. The partial results from the locality Jilmov are presented in
Fig. 11 and Fig. 12.
Fig. 11 Area for field survey the identified buildings are numbered.
12

Fig. 12 Vanished building identification using KAP imagery.

5. Information system front-end

The main purpose of this project is to present a comprehensive information system


(IS) offering all the project outputs in one place and in a user friendly way (the
scheme of the resulting IS is presented in Fig. 13). The home page of our IS will
offer to the user several main themes to choose from.
The main part is dedicated to the presentation of spatial data obtained and
processed for the whole area of interest. All the data published uses the ESRI
technology and are stored in a file geodatabase [5] and published by ArcGIS for
Server 10.2. The data may be accessed in two different ways as a web mapping
application and ArcGIS Rest Services8.
The basemap layers (old maps, orthophotos) are published as tiled (cached) ser-
vices allowing faster data viewing by the end users. The operational layers (vector
layers, DTMs) are published as dynamic layers so they are easily transformed into
another coordinate system within a desktop GIS. All the published data are pro-
tected, so the user is allowed to view, query or print the data, but not to save them
to a hard drive. This allows the user to work with a variety of processed maps.

8
Only data with a valid license are offered as ArcGIS Rest Services. OGC map services are
considered to be used as well.
13

Fig. 13 The information system structure.

The web mapping application offers the user to view and visually analyze all
the processed data. Different types of processed data are currently available for
each of the sites of interest as different methodologies for data processing were
tested. A comprehensive webpage is under preparation and thus there are currently
several isolated web-applications covering all the sites of interest an application
example is presented on Fig. 14.
The applications are built using the ArcGIS API for Flex and are based on the
ArcGIS Viewer for Flex. This technology is very flexible and presents the data in
a very effective and feasible way.
Within the web mapping application the user can view the processed maps as the
base layers, switch between them and change their transparency. This allows the
user to visually compare the presented base maps. Other tools available are im-
plemented for visually comparing the data for example a swipe tool or a magni-
fying glass. The user is allowed to export the currently viewed data to different
graphic formats see Fig. 15.
14

Fig. 14 Example of the web-mapping application (Site 2).

The user is offered different types of operational layers for each of the sites.
Within these layers we can encounter hydrology network reconstructions, digital
terrain models and their analysis (see Fig. 14), land-use interpretations, data ob-
tained from local surveys (KAP, UAV) and other data extracted from old maps
and aerial imagery.
Fig. 15 Visual analyses available within the web-mapping application.
15

A list of web-applications currently available for public containing the following


processed data:
Site 1 complete web-portal available at http://prisecnice.eu/ contains 3D
houses reconstructions, town-center reconstruction and land-use development
analysis.
Site 2 georelief reconstruction, land-use reconstruction, hydrology network
reconstruction: http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/NAKI_mapy/Nechranice/
http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/NAKI_mapy/Hydrorekonstrukce_CSA/
Site 3 - georelief reconstruction and land-use reconstruction:
http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/NAKI_mapy/Jezeri/
http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/NAKI_mapy/CSA/
Site 4 - georelief reconstruction and land-use reconstruction:
http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/NAKI_mapy/Vrsany/
Site 5 detailed analysis of georelief development:
http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/NAKI_mapy/Jezero_Most/
Site 6 experimental processing of old aerial imagery:
http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/NAKI_mapy/Bilinsko/
More sites hydrology network analysis for wider area:
http://mapserver.ujep.cz/Projekty/NAKI_mapy/Hydrorekonstrukce_CSA/

6. Conclusions

In this article, new methods for processing, modelling, reconstruction, analysis


and visualization of the vanished landscape are implemented. These methods for
processing old maps and aerial photographs were tested in a wide range of areas
(see Site 1 to Site 6). Each of the processed data sources required very special
handling to obtain sufficient results like the right choice of georeferencing me-
thod, identical point selection or defined work-flow for processing old aerial im-
agery.
Modelling, reconstruction and analysis are dependent on the quality of the input
data. Digital terrain modelling or digital surface model derivation from the
processed aerial imagery is very sensitive to input errors. The resulting georelief
reconstructions will be an important part of the information system when printed
on a 3D printer, as well a part of an exhibition. A detailed study of the resulting
DTMs and DSMs precision is currently under development. Other types of recon-
struction (hydrology network, or land-use for example) will be a part of the infor-
mation system as well.
New methods of vanished landscape visualization were tested within this
project aerial imagery taken from a KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) or a UAV
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) are bringing a very new point of view on all localities.
These methods allow us to obtain orthophotos or oblique photographs of an arbi-
trary scale (in comparison to traditional photogrammetry), repeated observations,
16

and with the use of a specialized software create orthophotos, DSMs and 3D
models objects. All processed data are presented to the public by web mapping
applications accessible at http://mapserver.ujep.cz allowing the user to browse and
visually analyse the data. When finished, all data will be accessible in one com-
prehensive application and by ArcGIS Rest Services.

This work was supported by the Czech Ministry of Culture through the
NAKI programme Landscape Reconstruction and Vanished Municipalities
Database for Preserving the Cultural Heritage in the Region of st nad La-
bem no. DF12P01OVV043.

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