(Semi) automatic extraction from Airborne Laser Scan data of roads and paths in forested areas

The possibilities of airborne laser scanning as a tool for visualisation and reconstruction of micro topography have been known for some decades. Indeed, in the archaeological field a lot of new features have been detected or reconfirmed. However, the task to map manually the enormous amount of features is time consuming and costly. Therefore, there is a need for automation. In this paper four workflows of visualisation and (semi) automatic extraction of (historical) roads and paths are compared. It proved that the concept of openness is preferred over the break line concept for visualisation. Regarding the extraction the software plug in Feature Analyst showed the best results. Openness and Feature Analyst stand also out when costs and processing time were considered. Therefore, we suggest the workflow which combines openness, for visualisation, and Feature Analyst for extraction. The results of this study contribute to the development of automatic extraction techniques in general. In this regard software packages like eCognition look promising to improve extraction methods.