Remote Sensing of Historic Landscapes: A Case Study of The National Road near Wheeling, West Virginia

Brian Renzella, Department of Geology and Geography & Institute for the History of Technology and Industrial Archaeology, West Virginia University, brenz72@yahoo.com

Cultural resource inventory for corridor and interpretive management practices has been used in support of designation as American Historic Routes or Byways by the National Scenic Byway program. Traditional methods of corridor management planning include a base inventory and mapping of significant natural or cultural resources along a proposed route. This research is an investigation of how remote sensing may be used to supplement traditional methods. Specifically, this case study shows how contemporary and historic aerial photography may be used to delineate the age of landscapes along the National Road near Wheeling, WV. The National Road was America’s first federally funded interstate route. The National Road has been locally encroached upon in the Wheeling area by the development of the Interstate-70 highway and the Interstate-470 bypass.

Aerial photography from 1938 and 1969 was scanned and orthorectified, using 1997 USGS digital orthophoto quadrangles (DOQQs) for map control. The three digital orthophotos were overlaid, and used to create digital vector maps of interpreted historical and current land-use patterns along the National Road near Wheeling. Through GIS overlay, an age of landscape map was created, and the pattern of urban growth in this region was identified.

It was found that the processing of historic aerial photography can be challenging. The National Archives has excellent coverage of Wheeling. However, obtaining camera calibration information, including such crucial information as the camera focal length, can be difficult. The images of Wheeling tend to be of very high contrast, making it hard to identify subtle ground control points, and even sometimes to identify the locations of the fiducials. Perhaps most challenging was identifying control points in areas that have undergone extensive change. Nevertheless, the remote sensing data provides a valuable tool for highway cultural management. The age of landscape map provides an excellent reconnaissance tool for identifying areas that have potentially retained the historic integrity. One limitation to the remote sensing approach, however, is that it is impossible to identify changes to buildings, such as new facades, or sometimes even entire replacement of the structure, if the footprint remains similar. The historic pattern of development near Wheeling, as documented by the historic and contemporary orthophotos, demonstrates the importance of careful planning of highway access points so as to minimize impacts on the historic integrity of areas.