CaDHoKUHL
Read more about how the application of high-resolution airborne remote sensing data is now revealing the true character and extent of past human exploitation of Hong Kong's increasingly reforested uplands
Characterising and Dating Hong Kong’s Upland Historic Landscapes (CaDHoKUHL)
EU H2020 MSCA Fellowship. Dr Mick Atha
Project Outline
In the uplands of the Indo-Pacific region, traditional settlement and land-use practices have created historic landscapes with locally distinctive characteristics. In Hong Kong (HK), a regional heritage management focus on the coastal lowlands, compounded by legislation and archaeological practice prioritising discrete heritage resources over landscape- and GIS-based research, has left important upland cultural heritage barely studied, poorly understood, and potentially at risk. However, the application of high-resolution airborne remote sensing data is now revealing the true character and extent of past human exploitation of HK’s increasingly reforested uplands. Of particular interest are the relict cultivation terraces conventionally associated with a former tea industry, which blanket the upper slopes of the territory’s highest mountains, but their morphological diversity and apparent stratigraphic relationships suggest several phases of development and perhaps multiple functional and/or cultural associations.
The European Commission-funded CaDHoKUHL project is targeting this knowledge gap via an innovative GIS-based interdisciplinary approach synergising historical research, remote sensing, scientific dating, geosciences, and digital geospatial analysis to elucidate the character of pre-colonial landscape exploitation in HK’s uplands, and model and explain landscape change through time. The project also serves as a pilot study, showcasing an approach applicable to the landscapes of the wider Indo-Pacific region.
Acknowledgements
The CaDHoKUHL project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101023818. We are also grateful for the support of our colleagues in the Antiquities and Monuments Office of the Hong Kong SAR government.
It is implemented by Dr Mick Atha of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology and the Centre for Landscape at Newcastle University.
Image Copyrights:
CaDHoKUHL project
Harvard-Yenching Library of the Harvard College Library, Harvard University
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