Airborne laser scanning (lidar), prospection and modelling the Irish archaeological landscape

Light Detection and Ranging (hereafter lidar) has become an increasingly popular tool for remote archaeological prospection over the last decade. Lidar uses lasers to record the three­dimensional location of points. There are two main ways of capturing lidar data: terrestrial scanning, where points are recorded from a static scanner, and Airborne Laser Scanning (hereafter ALS), where the scanning apparatus is connected to an aircraft. The terrestrial technique is called 3D scanning and is discussed elsewhere in this publication (Hanley & Barrett, this volume). The aerial approach is the subject of this paper, which explores how ALS has been used in archaeological prospection in Ireland over the last decade. In addition, a series of Irish examples and a case-study demonstrate how this technique can best be used in current and future archaeological projects.