Geo-informatics in Vadnagar integrated landscape analyses of ancient human habitations in Mehsana, Gujarat
Student name: Ms Priyanka Tiwary and Mr Vikash Shivhare
Guide: Dr P K Joshi and Dr Anu Rani Sharma
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: Archaeological Survey of India, Excavation Branch- V, Vadodara- Gujarat
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Madhulika Sumanta
Abstract: Human beings enjoy a synergic relationship with the environment which gets reflected in
changes occurring over the landscape. Landscape studies often provide clues to human
modifications and usages occurred over different time periods in history. The current study
focuses on Vadnagar town of Mehsana district, Gujarat for understanding associated
archeological sites, their contexts, patterns and interactive relationship with the landscape. Geoinformatics
plays an important role in such studies of human behavior and modification of
environmental resources over the time. This study uses Geo-informatics extensively to reach
provable hypotheses.
Emphases have been given on primary and secondary archaeological records of different
chronological eras by incorporating them into the ArcGIS environment. This data was
juxtaposed to the information on natural resources of the district, creating thematic maps for
ancient land usage. Primarily, topographical maps from the Survey of India (SOI) were digitized
and Topogrid algorithm was used to generate resultant DEMs (digital elevation model).These
DEMs were further utilised for creating slope, aspect and hill shades and view shades. Digital
elevation models were utilised for understanding the steepest to the flattest areas with visibility
issues - showing visible and non visible ranges from a particular cell, especially for Vadnagar. In
addition, geo co-ordinates of various locations in Vadnagar were collected through GPS and a
total station survey. These points were exported into the GIS environment and used for contour
generation and the creation of a TIN (triangulated interconnected network) for Vadnagar.
The study gave special importance to the understanding of cost surfaces around Vadnagar and
creation of least cost paths between Vadnagar and other archaeological sites in the district. The
Cost Surfaces Analysis was used to find the cheapest route (LCP) to reach a destination point
from other source cells. As a result we could successfully create least cost paths from Vadnagar
and other archaeological sites which were probably used as trade routes in the ancient times.
Keywords: CSA, LCPA, MCDA, Topogrid, TIN, DEM, GPS and Total Station
