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4.2.5 Digital Terrain modelling

Sultan Kala may appear from the aerial imagery to be relatively flat, but in fact it has two strong surface elements: substantial features marking buried wall-lines, streets, and canals; and major contours to the urban sequence, where the present-day surface can drop by c. 4-6m within a relatively short distance. The latter may mark aspects of the underlying topography (e.g. stream channels, ridges of high ground), but in many places these contours appear to reflect the depth of the occupational sequence. To interpret the aerial photographic data, a more detailed understanding of the ground surface is needed. It is unrealistic to cover the whole of Sultan Kala in detail in a single field season, even with the sophisticated differential GPS equipment: the aim will be to collect detailed data from key areas, while capturing sufficient broad interval data to provide a model of the whole city (for example, to explore lines of sight within the urban landscape).

We are aware that at the moment we are not taking topographic variability sufficiently into account. This is largely a factor of the difficulty in producing an accurate enough Digital Terrain Model of the area. The Islamic city alone covers nearly 600ha, and it is not possible to undertake a field-based survey of such a large area in sufficient detail with current resources. We hope to build a DTM from the satellite imagery and ground truth survey points, but this will need to be sufficiently complex in order to be of use in what is a relatively flat environment.


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