Hiking enthusiasts may benefit from Westfield State University research into park management that sheds a light—so to speak—into the history of the forests they explore.
The Journal of Park and Recreation Administration recently published an article written by Westfield State professors Robert S. Bristow, Ph.D., and Timothy LeDoux, Ph.D., and 2020 graduate Anna Therien of Woonsocket, R.I., that details the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing to help park managers in land planning and oversight, and to learn about local history. The article—published in the August 3, 2020, online edition—is titled, “Innovative Methodologies in Park and Recreation Management Applying LiDAR for Parks and Protected Area Management.”
“Park management is concerned with trails, camp sites, wildlife, forest health, and the natural environment,” said Bristow, professor of geography, planning and sustainability (GPS). “I’m fascinated with the cultural environment found in parks and protected areas. When I’m hiking in the woods and I come across an old cellar hole, I want to know more about who lived there and what kind of business was there.”
LiDAR is a remote-sensing technology that enables the user to see what is under the tree canopy or clouds by shooting pulses of light thousands of times a second from an aircraft to objects on Earth’s surface. When the signal reflects back up, the return time and intensity is measured by the sensors’ interactions with objects on the surface like walls, cellars, and foundations. This information is combined with other data recorded on the aircraft such as altitude and aircraft orientation to create three-dimensional information about features on the ground, which are then used to create high-resolution images. The features usually hidden under tree canopies or clouds are measured, down to the centimeter. The result is an incredibly precise measurement that can be manipulated in GIS mapping software.
“It’s really about energy,” said LeDoux, assistant professor of GPS. “The light that is being emitted is at a certain wavelength, and how that wavelength interacts with objects it hits depends on the size of whatever is on the ground or in the atmosphere and the wavelength of that energy that is being emitted. For example, when it hits a tree leaf, part of that energy might get bounced back and some of it will go through, and some might hit the branch and get reflected back.”
Although LiDAR has been used to study major archeological sites, Bristow and LeDoux are interested in more recent local history.
“Once you know it’s there, you decide what to do with the information,” said LeDoux, who is also a member of the West Springfield Historical Commission. “It can become part of your town’s history, your national park’s history. Things that are on the ground may have a really strong cultural and historical significance that you didn’t know about so it can now be protected.”
“We find this evidence of human settlement that may be from the 1700s or 1800s,” said Bristow, “and you do feel like an amateur archeologist or historian. I’m learning about the people that lived in this area and what they were doing 150 years ago.”
LeDoux and Bristow are working on an encyclopedia chapter for the Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing using LiDAR for tourism, resource planning, and management.
For Therien, this wasn’t the first published research article in her portfolio. In August 2019, North America Archaeologist published an article she co-wrote with Professor Bristow titled, “Discovering archaeological landscapes in parks and protected areas.”
She wanted, however, to address a local project and follow her research interests in geospatial environmental analysis for parks and protected areas. To that end, she and Bristow collaborated with LeDoux to research and write the article that focuses on LiDAR technology.
“Working on this research was a great way to finish my last semester at Westfield State,” said Therien, who earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a minor in geographic information systems. “I had the pleasure of taking courses with Dr. Bristow and Dr. LeDoux and learned a great deal from both. “Conducting independent research with Drs. Bristow and LeDoux gave me a chance to better my technological LiDAR skills and an opportunity to be published for the second time in my undergraduate career,” added Therien, who has completed internships at Harvard (University) Forest Research, the City of Springfield’s Office of Planning, the Law Office of Jennifer M. Fournier, and the Brown University Police Department.