DIGITAL HERITAGE AND PRESERVATION: AERIAL PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND LIDAR APPLIED TO THE MAPPING OF KAPAYUWANAN, INDIGENOUS PAIWAN SETTLEMENTS, TAIWAN

Abstract. This paper discusses the application of UAV and Terrestrial photogrammetry and LiDAR for mapping Taiwanese indigenous Settlements. The relics of Taiwanese indigenous settlements with thousands history are widely distributed in deep forestry mountains with inconvenient transportation. Kapayuwanan is the original place of paiwan indigenous people. Firstly, UAV photogrammetry is applied for mapping supayuan settlement of 8 hectares and those stone houses invisible under dense forest are drawn by in-site investigation. Then UAV photogrammetry and LiDAR are used to document the larger area of Kapayuwanan of 36 hectares and terrestrial Lidar for the area of 1.2 hectares sorted out. It can not only obtain the accurate topography, landscape with architecture but also reveal the hidden settlements, such as roads, stone slab houses, irrigation landscape under the dense forest. Accuracy mapping is fundamental for future preservation planning and virtual conservation.

Shaping the future is from revealing the Past. That is crucial to document, understand, and preserve the precious cultural heritage. Documenting with immediacy, high resolution, high manoeuvrability become possible because of the rapid developments of digital technologies in the recent two decades. It’s astonishing, in the case of Taiwanese indigenous archaeological settlements sites, UAV photogrammetry and Lidar can successfully reveal the relics of stone slab houses in such a sever site – steep slopes, dense forestry with plantation in biodiversity. The reveal of settlements with reclaimed landscape verifies oral transmission of indigenous people as well . Digital technologies support the contention of archaeology, anthropology, heritage preservation, and cultural landscape, indispensable for revealing the past and shaping the future.