Project description DEENESFRITPL Cracking down on looting of archaeological sites The upsurge of illegal excavation of archaeological sites and the subsequent trafficking of antiquities is a multibillion euro industry that has gathered pace in connection, for example, to turmoil in Middle East. Moreover, the looting of archaeological sites has exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EU-funded OPTIMAL project will develop an automatic means of identifying looting activities. It will take a machine learning approach based on optimal transport to automatically detect looting (past and present) directly on airborne lidar time series. The project will also assemble lidar data set and make them publicly available, to be used free of charge for identifying illegal activities. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective "Illegal excavation of archaeological sites aimed at collecting historical material culture (""looting"") is a pressing problem on a global scale. The global upsurge of in the illegal excavation of cultural heritage sites (e.g. in connection to turmoils in Middle East or due to the impossibility of monitoring inaccessible areas, like in South America) and the subsequent trafficking of antiquities, exacerbated by the Covid lockdown, calls for the timely development of automatic means for identifying looting activities. The OPTIMAL (OPtimal Transport for Identifying Marauder Activities on LiDAR) project aims to tackle this challenge by developing an efficient and principled Machine Learning (ML) approach based on Optimal Transport to automatically detect looting (past and present) directly on airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) point cloud time-series. OPTIMAL proposes, for the first time, the use of LiDAR for monitoring and assessing the damages of looting based on LiDAR’s unique ability to penetrate forest canopies and enabling to see a range of looting-related features under the canopy (e.g. shape and depth of the lootings pits) that otherwise would remain hidden due to vegetation covers. OPTIMAL will create and make publicly available the first multi-temporal LiDAR dataset for illegal activities’ identification to foster the interest of MLs researchers in developing new methods to tackle challenges in landscape archaeology and to evaluate the developed ML approach. Results of this interdisciplinary research will be widely disseminated within Cultural Heritage, Remote Sensing and Machine Learning communities and to others that can exploit OPTIMAL’s results. A communication strategy will be designed to ignite enthusiasm for technological advancements for the protection of our Heritage." Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputer visionengineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringremote sensinghumanitieshistory and archaeologyarchaeologynatural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsstatistics and probabilitynatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2020 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2020 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF-GF - Global Fellowships Coordinator FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA Net EU contribution € 184 117,44 Address Via morego 30 16163 Genova Italy See on map Region Nord-Ovest Liguria Genova Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 Partners (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all Partner Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement. KOKURITSU DAIGAKU HOJIN KYOTO DAIGAKU Japan Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Yoshida honmachi 36-1 sakyo ku 606 8501 Kyoto See on map Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 92 380,80
