Ancient Landforms of the Australian Rainforest Revealed by Airborne LiDAR

LiDAR remote sensing technology has been used in many archaeological applications around the world, such as finding Mayan pyramids in Central America. Australia has no pyramids to be discovered, but there are places left where the landforms are all but unknown. LiDAR is ideal to shed light on these areas, literally. One of the most inaccessible areas is the rainforest of the Iron Range on Cape York in Queensland. Not only is it covered by thick rainforest with a very dense canopy, but underneath lies one of Australia’s most rugged areas in terms of hills criss-crossed by thousands of narrow and steep creeks. The Iron Range is also the largest contiguous block of lowland rainforest remaining in Australia. In cooperation with the new privately funded Iron Range Research Station, Airborne Research Australia used its RIEGL Q680i-S airborne LiDAR mounted on a motorglider together with a high-resolution aerial camera to map the rainforest in a joint research project. www.riegl.com