The development of lidar opens a new era in archaeological survey. Working with Forest Research, staff of the Unit for Landscape Modelling here explain the technique, and demonstrate its application to woodland, showing how it can be used to see through the trees. The article by Bewley et al. (pages 636-647 of this volume) shows the technique applied to the Stonehenge landscape.

Digital terrain model (DTM) generation is the fundamental application of airborne Lidar data. In past decades, a large body of studies has been conducted to present and experiment a variety of DTM generation methods. Although great progress has been made, DTM generation, especially DTM generation in specific terrain situations, remains challenging. This research introduces the general principles of DTM generation and reviews diverse mainstream DTM generation methods. In accordance with the filtering strategy, these methods are classified into six categories: surface-based adjustment; morphology-based filtering, triangulated irregular network (TIN)-based refinement, segmentation and classification, statistical analysis and multi-scale comparison. Typical methods for each category are briefly introduced and the merits and limitations of each category are discussed accordingly. Despite different categories of filtering strategies, these DTM generation methods present similar difficulties when implemented in sharply changing terrain, areas with dense non-ground features and complicated landscapes. This paper suggests that the fusion of multi-sources and integration of different methods can be effective ways for improving the performance of DTM generation.

Operational use of remote sensing as a tool for post‐fire, Mediterranean forest management has been limited by problems of classification accuracy arising from confusion of burned and non‐burned areas. Frequently, this occurs as a result of slope illumination and shadowing effects caused by the complex topography encountered in many forested areas. Cloud shadows can also be a problem. The aim of this work was to investigate how image classification results could be improved by removing the illumination effects of topography from satellite images. This was achieved by applying supervised classification to both uncorrected and topographically corrected LANDSAT TM data for a site on the Greek island of Thasos. The classification methodology included atmospheric and geometric correction, field‐based training, seperability/contingency analysis and maximum likelihood processing. The classification scheme was determined on the basis of consultation with the Greek Forest Service. Overlay of the resulting class maps enabled comparison of the total burned area and its spatial extent using the two different approaches to processing. The results of each approach were compared with the forest perimeter map generated by the Forest Service using traditional survey methods. Accuracy assessment and error analysis clearly indicated that the removal of the topographic effect from the satellite image before its classification resulted in more accurate mapping of the burned area. It is concluded that operational use of satellite remote sensing for forest fire management depends on accurate, robust, widely available and proven techniques. Topographic correction should now be regarded as an essential element of any classification methodology which will be used for operational, post‐fire management of forests in complex Mediterranean landscapes.