Innovative Technologies for Coastal Paleo-Landscape Reconstruction and Paleo-Sea Level Measuring

This paper is aimed at presenting an innovation-technology based approach for reconstructing underwater paleo-landscapes and related paleo-sea levels in coastal archaeological sites of great cultural value. Due to the low operational depth of the investigated area (between −0.5 and −5 m) an Unmanned Vessel Surface was used. It is equipped with instrumentation composed of both acoustic (Single Beam Echo Sounder and Side Scan Sonar) and optical sensors (a suite of cameras). This integrated instrumentation (data-fusion) has allowed acquiring simultaneously a large amount of georeferenced data by means of a Multi-Modal Mapping approach, in order to increase the perception and identification of targets. These innovative techniques have been tested in three different submerged archaeological areas of the Roman time located along the coasts of Campania (Southern Italy), with different operational scenarios. In detail, the port structures (pilae) of the Nisida harbour, and two fishponds located in the Underwater Archaeological Park of Baia have been investigated with the twofold purpose of recreating the ancient landscape and assess the vertical ground movements that have affected the volcanic district of Campi Flegrei in the last 2000 years.