Innovators I - HORUS

The objectives of the Heritage Retrieval and Observation Under Sand (HORUS) project were to provide innovative services for the End-user, the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT), in order for them to analyze, monitor and control the archaeological heritage of Egypt.
Current resources and practices limit the extent to which the archaeological heritage can be monitored. The services implemented by the HORUS project provide the End-user with new techniques to more effectively analyze and monitor the areas of interest.

The first service consists of identifying undiscovered or lost archaeological sites, using Earth observation data from a variety of sources, superimposed with cartography in a GIS environment and by applying shape detection techniques matched to the archaeological structures.

The second service consists of the recognition and monitoring of illegal excavations based on the comparison of validated maps and a time series of satellite images. The products of the services were integrated into the GIS framework of CULTNAT, thereby enabling the end-user to optimize the available information in order to focus their resources.