This research is part of a wider framework of index literature studies that have been conducted in the past few years. Some of these have had a focus on specific remote sensing (RS) technologies, while others have tackled specific threats to cultural heritage and landscapes. By considering both damages to heritage sites and technologies used for documentation and the monitoring of such occurrences, this paper unveils the current trends on a global scale in the study of the threats to heritage caused by both human-induced and natural hazards. Papers published by Europe-based researchers over the last 20 years using RS and Earth Observation (EO) techniques were surveyed alongside recommendations and programmatic documents issued by institutions in charge of heritage protection and management of several countries in Europe. Around 300 documents, including scientific articles (published from 2000 until 2022) and Grey literature (from 2008 and 2022), were analysed. The data collection and analysis were undertaken by a working group that was intentionally composed to bring together diverse perspectives and expertise, i.e., requirements of heritage professionals using RS and EO technologies, knowledge on technologies and their use in the field, and expertise in methodology implementation to support heritage management. The results highlight the type of hazards considered the most and the geographical distribution of the archaeological sites and monuments targeted by these studies; the countries the researchers are affiliated with; the types of RS and specifically satellite-based technologies used (and hence the type of data used); the tendencies of satellite data usage—visual interpretation, image processing, employment of machine learning, and AI; the technologies most applied by public institutions and practitioners; and many others. Recommendations and future trajectories are then outlined to efficiently reframe discrepancies between types of damage that have received the greatest attention in the literature and the most impactful ones in terms of the number of sites damaged.

This paper proposes a classification of the risks threatening archaeological sites in southern Iraq and suggests some possible remediation to better preserve them. This has been possible thanks to a research methodology that combines remote sensing and ground control on a sample of 558 sites documented by the Iraqi-Italian QADIS survey project. A three-tier typological framework has been created illustrating the risks jeopardising the cultural heritage of the region. This research showed that the most impacting risks are the ones caused by agricultural activity, despite current narratives which mainly focus on looting and violent destruction. To get at the root of the problem, current laws protecting cultural heritage in Iraq are analysed, as well as how the cultural authorities are organised on the ground. Improving the organisation of the SBAH, engaging the local communities towards the issue of sites’ protection and introducing preventive archaeology are among the solutions proposed.

The destruction of cultural heritage caused by dams represents a major issue especially in an age of climate change and narrowly focused development policies. To counteract this phenomenon, archaeologists and cultural heritage experts have relied upon rescue archaeology practices generally limited to fieldwork methodologies, while remote sensing of satellite imagery remains under-considered. To bridge this gap, we build on a multidisciplinary collaboration exploring the potential of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and open access multispectral satellite imagery, for quantifying the archaeological evidence located within a prospective reservoir area before dam construction. Based on previous research by Marchetti (2020) claiming the necessity for ad hoc protocols to document and monitor the impact of dams on cultural heritage, we selected two complementary situations: the planned dam of Halabiyeh in Syria and the under construction Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Ethiopia. These case studies were analyzed with state-of-the-art methodologies to develop a feasible workflow that may contribute to fostering the use of satellite imagery in operational contexts such as those represented by these particular cases, and be replicated by archaeologists in other areas. The workflow is designed to be integrated to ground-truthing methodologies into two dedicated protocols named Pre-Construction Archaeological Risk Assessment (PCARA) and Pre-Flooding Rescue Archaeological Program (PFRAP) which could eventually become a standard procedure for rescue archaeology in dams areas.

This paper draws on the preliminary results of the QADIS survey project, conducted by the University of Bologna and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage since 2016 in the Qadisiyah province. The project addresses phenomena related to anthropogenic transformation of landscapes in a region that was at the core of the early Mesopotamian urbanization process. Building upon the seminal work conducted by R. McC. Adams in the 1960 s and 1970 s, we implemented an integrated documentation technique to reconstruct at regional levels the changes in the dense network of human settlements and artificial water infrastructures characterizing the evolution of this archaeological landscape over time. The aim of the article is that of providing a finer-grained regional picture of 4^th and 3^rd millennium BC urban developments which can be useful for better conceptualizing the scale and pace of early Mesopotamian urbanism.

The processes of long-term urbanization in southern Mesopotamia are still insufficiently investigated, even though recent studies using large datasets and focusing on neighboring regions have paved the way to understanding the critical role of multiple variables in the shaping of settlement strategies by ancient human societies, among which climate change played an important role. In this paper, we tackle these issues by analyzing, within the new FloodPlains Web GIS project, a conspicuous amount of archaeological evidence collected over the past decades at approximately 5000 sites in southern Mesopotamia. We have measured modifications over time in a variety of demographic proxies generated through probabilistic approaches: our results show that the rapid climate changes, especially those that occurred around 5.2, 4.2, and 3.2 ka BP, may have contributed—in addition to other socioeconomic factors—to triggering the main urban and demographic cycles in southern Mesopotamia and that each cycle is characterized by specific settlement strategies in terms of the distribution and the dimension of the urban centers.