Spatial Archaeology: Remote Sensing for the Study and Preservation of Cultural Heritage through Open Data and FLOSS Tools

This paper focuses on a preliminary space-based detection protocol to identify proxy indicators useful to assess a specific threat to the archaeological heritage: quarry development. This research used diverse open-access satellite repositories offered by space programs such as Copernicus and, as case studies, analyzed two inland highland sites in Sicily (Italy). All images were processed with filters, algorithms, and routines in free Open-Source software such as QGIS 3.34.0 and cloud computing platforms like Google Earth Engine. The results of the classification were validated with statistical accuracy techniques.