Novel Methods and Trending Topics in Landscape Archaeology

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Landscape Archaeology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 691

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (ISAC), National Research Council (CNR), Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Rome, Italy
Interests: landscape evolution; geophysical hazards; archaeology; cultural heritage; remote sensing; earth observation; InSAR; landslides; land subsidence; ground instability
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue, titled “Novel Methods and Trending Topics in Landscape Archaeology”, welcomes positioning, overview, and reflecting research contributions focusing on novel data analysis methods, hot and trending topics related to the key goals of the “Landscape Archaeology” Section of the journal Land. These include the observation, recording, and interpretation of archaeological remains, traces, and sites with respect to the broader context of past human activities and interactions with the environment and landscape.

This thematic volume seeks to feature contributions that tackle one or more of the following trending topics, among others:

  • Multi-decadal surveying of human–environment interactions;
  • Novel remote sensing methods and high-resolution LiDAR in landscape archaeology;
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning in landscape archaeology;
  • Historical landscape mapping and GeoAI in human geography;
  • Past and future climate change-driven transformations of ancient landscapes;
  • Data mining and big data analytics for (geo)archaeological research;
  • Geospatial and geophysical surveying of cultural landscapes.

Feature papers (either original research articles, reviews, or communications) should provide significant pieces of research work, giving insights into current and novel theories, data, methods, and/or new discoveries, delving into key topics of landscape archaeology. As such, these articles are expected to be influential and impactful in their nature.

Expressions of interest to contribute to this Special Issue are warmly recommended and should be addressed to the Guest Editor and the journal team before manuscript submission.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Francesca Cigna
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • remote sensing
  • LiDAR
  • artificial intelligence
  • machine learning
  • GeoAI
  • climate change-driven transformations
  • data mining
  • big data analytics
  • geospatial and geophysical surveying

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

48 pages, 41760 KiB  
Article
Environmental Challenges and Vanishing Archaeological Landscapes: Remotely Sensed Insights into the Climate–Water–Agriculture–Heritage Nexus in Southern Iraq
by Francesca Cigna, Louise Rayne, Jennifer L. Makovics, Hope K. Irvine, Jaafar Jotheri, Abdulameer Algabri and Deodato Tapete
Land 2025, 14(5), 1013; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14051013 - 7 May 2025
Viewed by 588
Abstract
Iraq faces significant challenges in sustainable water resource management, due to intensive agriculture and climate change. Modern irrigation leads to depleted natural springs and abandoned traditional canal systems, creating a nexus between climate, water availability, agriculture, and cultural heritage. This work unveils this [...] Read more.
Iraq faces significant challenges in sustainable water resource management, due to intensive agriculture and climate change. Modern irrigation leads to depleted natural springs and abandoned traditional canal systems, creating a nexus between climate, water availability, agriculture, and cultural heritage. This work unveils this nexus holistically, from the regional to the local scale, and by considering all the components of the nexus. This is achieved by combining five decades (1974–2024) of satellite data—including declassified HEXAGON KH-9, Copernicus Sentinel-1/2/3, COSMO-SkyMed radar, and PlanetScope’s Dove optical imagery—and on-the-ground observations (photographic and drone surveying). The observed landscape changes are categorised as “proxies” to infer the presence of the given land processes that they correlate to. The whole of southern Iraq is afflicted by dust storms and intense evapotranspiration; new areas are desertifying and thus becoming local sources of dust in the southwest of the Euphrates floodplain and close to the boundary with the western desert. The most severe transformations happened around springs between Najaf Sea and Hammar Lake, where centre-pivot and herringbone irrigation systems fed by pumped groundwater have densified. While several instances of run-off and discharge highlight the loss of water in the western side of the study area, ~5 km2 wide clusters of crops in the eastern side suffer from water scarcity and are abandoned. Here, new industrial activities and modern infrastructure have already damaged tens of archaeological sites. Future monitoring based on the identified proxies could help to assess improvements or deterioration, in light of mitigation measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Methods and Trending Topics in Landscape Archaeology)
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