Better Management Through Measurement: Integrating Archaeological Site Features into a GIS-Based Erosion and Sea Level Rise Impact Assessment—Blueskin Bay, New Zealand

Abstract

Climate change poses a formidable site management challenge to coastal archaeologists and heritage planners. To manage its impacts, multi-scalar assessments are being employed that incorporate spatial technologies such as GIS, LiDAR, and GPS. While these technologies provide a powerful means of identifying susceptibility and tracking impacts, their ability to direct site management is limited by the accuracy of their incorporated archaeological geospatial data. Without current information regarding the location, condition, and extent of sites, spatial analyses cannot readily adapt to changing site conditions or drive site-specific management. To address this issue, this paper sets out a methodology that combines field survey with GIS-based spatial analysis to track erosion and inundation’s impact on coastal sites. This approach is applied to Blueskin Bay, New Zealand, where 26 sites were visited and had Differential GPS (DGPS) data collected of their visible archaeological features. The inclusion of this geospatial data into the GIS-based Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) tool and Sea Level Rise (SLR) model allowed sites to be considered on a scale much finer than conventional computer-based impact assessments. Ultimately, this fine scale approach has the capability of driving better, more informed site management.