Revealing pre-historic Native American Belle Glade earthworks in the Northern Everglades utilizing airborne LiDAR

Locating and mapping methodology of archaeological earthworks for the pre-historic Native American Belle Glade culture can be improved by applying airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) employing FUSION software and the Ground Filter program to these remote areas. This study compares the standard utilization of vendor created classes for ground classification to FUSION's software ground filter program. The two case study locations contain Belle Glade type B circular-linear earthwork formations that were utilized for quantifying the results of each LiDAR processing methodology and visualization method through comparison of identifiable formations. Florida's northern Everglade's landscape and South Florida's tropical climate make traditional methods for archaeological earthwork identification difficult. However, FUSION ground filter program provides more data and discernible features that were not possible from the standard method in both study sites in addition to providing reference points for geo-rectification of the original scaled maps.