What do we do with those shapes?
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 23/10/2018

The Forestry Commission is a major manager of land in protected areas including World Heritage Sites, National Parks, National Nature Reserves and Areas of Outstanding Beauty. With a brief to manage forests to benefit people, environment and the economy there are several challenges to meet especially where objectives may compete. Managing the history of the woods and the land they occupy is no exception to this. Over the last decade vast quantities of new data have increased our knowledge of the extent of what lies beneath the trees. Of course, Lidar has played a prominent role in this; points have become polygons and hachured plans terrain models. This paper is not about how data is obtained or handled but the choices that are faced by managers when presented with it. Archaeologists often refer to the finite and non-renewable resource. In woodland that resource is now demonstrably a lot greater than many thought it was. So, when a land manager presented with all this data how do we answer their question ‘What do we do with all those shapes’?

Tim Yarnell, Forestry Commission