Research on the Application of Remote Sensing in search of the Origins of Chinese Civilization

1.Project Name: Research on the Application of Remote Sensing in search of the Origins of Chinese Civilization
2.Project Leader: Nie Yueping, Yang Lin
3.Team Members: Yu Lijun, Zhu Jianfeng, Deng Biao, Yang Ruixia , Liu Jianguo, Yao Yueyin, Gao Huaguang
4.Project Entrusted by: State Administration of Cultural Heritage
5.Project Period: January 2013 – December 2015
6.Project Overview: 
The Research on the Origins of Chinese Civilization and Relevant Cultural Heritage Conservation Technology, funded by the National Key Technology R&D Program, is a multidisciplinary research project on the formation and early development of Chinese civilization, with a view to fully revealing the rich contents and glorious achievements of the early Chinese civilization and answering basic questions about the time, location, process, cause and mechanism of the formation of Chinese civilization. With preceding investigations and advance studies, the research project has entered the fourth phase since it was launched. In the fourth phase, the project will continue to deepen research on remote sensing, GIS, virtual reality, geophysical prospecting, archaeology, architecture, environment and other interdisciplinary subjects, make all-round exploration into the formation and early development of Chinese civilization from multiple angles and study the background, causes and characteristics of its evolution. As a modern high-tech approach, remote sensing has for the first time found systematic application in exploring the origins of Chinese civilization and achieved a series of results. 
7.Project Outcomes: 
The continuous development of China is the one and only in the world. Using space technology to explore the history of Chinese civilization is of great significance to identifying the origins of Chinese civilization. Based on the needs, the project carries out comprehensive and systematic research on the spectral and geometrical characteristics of relic sites, multi-source information fusion, extraction of relic sites’ spatial and temporal distribution information, visual features and spatial information identification of relic sites, remote sensing analysis of relic sites’ spatial features and research on spatial distribution regularities, laying a good foundation for identifying the spatial layout and spatial distribution regularities of ancient ruins and for the restoration of ancient environments. 
1.Spatial analysis of relic sites by remote sensing. There is a close relationship between the environment and the site chosen by the ancient people. Located in the center of the southern water network, the Taihu Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in China, one of the five largest freshwater lakes along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the largest lake in the eastern coastal area of China. Highlighting the application of remote sensing images and topographic overlay, the research on three-dimensional hypsometric map of key relic areas enables us to clearly study the distribution regularities of relic sites in the region. Analysis finds that a large number of relic sites are mainly located in the vicinity of the river tributaries, which complies with the rule that ancient people resided beside rivers while evading river floods. The discovery of this rule provides a scientific basis for predicting the unknown relic sites.