TRAIL 2027
Accessibility of airborne laser scanning for landscape archaeology
13 to 15 April 2027, Kočovce, Slovakia
This international meeting builds on six previous meetings (TRAIL 2011, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022, and 2025), and will be devoted to the study of airborne laser scanning (ALS) applications in archaeology, with a special focus on projects considering accessibility of ALS data.
Open to researchers, PhD students, and professionals in archaeology and heritage management wishing to enhance their knowledge of lidar and who are interested in using machine learning for archaeological applications.
Presentations are in English.
In order to promote discussion and interactions, we encourage participants to prepare a poster on their own case study or project.
TRAIL VII Theme
Airborne laser scanning (ALS, lidar) is now an established data source in landscape archaeology, as it supports site identification and the mapping of landscape structure and change, including routes, settlement patterns, agricultural remains, and environmental change. Project, regional, and national datasets are increasingly available, and the focus is shifting from case studies towards systematic research on historical landscapes. The key question is no longer only what can be discovered, but also how these data can be used simply, reliably, and across different research settings, without dependence on expensive software, large computing resources, or narrow technical expertise.
In practical terms, data accessibility means lowering the thresholds between point clouds, archaeological interpretation, and fieldwork. This is the focus of the TRAIL 2027 meeting. We will consider how to process point clouds, prepare DEMs, create clear visualisations, and optimise outputs so that they work not only on a workstation, but also in the field using open-source tools. We will also approach computer vision and AI-assisted workflows in the same spirit: not as a technological barrier, but as practical tools for sorting, searching, and interpreting large datasets, while keeping archaeological expertise at the centre of the process.
This practical orientation leads directly to the question of ground truthing: how digital outputs can be brought into the landscape and used to guide observation, verification, and interpretation in the field. The aim is to make ALS-derived data available on a mobile phone or tablet screen, where they can support decisions directly in the landscape.