Documenting drone remote sensing: a reality-based modelling approach for applications in cultural heritage and archaeology

This paper addresses the design of open, reproducible, and transferable workflows for remote sensing data processing in archaeology, the specific case being drone (UAS) remote sensing data. In the context of increased application of remote sensing, stimulated by both recent technological developments, as well as threats to the buried archaeological record by developments such as agricultural intensification and climate change, it is important to allow the archaeological community to really benefit from the multitude of remote sensing applications and their diverging modalities. With the ever-increasing remote sensing datasets spread throughout the field of cultural heritage and archaeology, it has become even more important to be able to clearly communicate the process from data capture to the eventual visualised data model, and further archiving and dissemination. This is crucial to scientific transparency required for the assessment of data quality, for example to allow for evaluating interpretations, comparative research, and replication studies. The ultimate goal is to permit data publication adhering to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles, for which a good metadata documentation is a cornerstone.