Improved detection of archaeological features using multi-source data in geographically diverse capital city sites

Abstract As one of the world's oldest civilizations, China has a continuous history that extends for more than 5000 years. There are many important capital cities throughout China. However, little information is available in the literature about capital city sites using remote sensing because of its various geographical conditions. This paper designs new methodologies for detecting archaeological features in Northern and Southern China based on multi-source remotely sensed data. Based on various environmental factors, multitemporal images were interpreted to analyse an ancient city located in Southern China, while the integral of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series and thermal infrared images were employed to detect the archaeological features in Northern China; these results were then cross-compared with each other. The results demonstrate that the use of integrated remote sensing technology can provide valuable information and indications of archaeological remains in ancient capital city sites in different geomorphological and vegetated environments in China. Our results also demonstrate that capital city sites can be detected using the proposed approach.