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Spotting historical monuments and sites Mapping of historical monuments and sites of Delhi using SPOT satellite image B. S. Sokhi Head, Human Settlement AnalysisGroup Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun-248001 b.s.sokhi@ait.ac.th world’s cultural legacy consists of rich archaeological ruins (monuments and palaeontological deposits that illuminate past life on earth. Unique historical structures tell us how our ancestors lived and worked. But exceptional population growth, coupled with powerful technologies and industrialisation, caused a serious cultural crisis. With every destroyed site an opportunity is lost forever for future generations to be enriched by their cultural history. The biggest fallacy lies in improper mapping where such monuments are depicted with ordinary symbols of presentation and only the famous and well-known monuments are mapped. Delhi: The Study Area In Delhi, history is not confined to dusty tombs and archives, but lives in the architecture, in every stone of its buildings, well-preserved old buildings and others in ruins, scattered all over the city. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has listed 1151 monuments worth preserving but there is not a single map showing locations of even 10% of these listed monuments. Objectives There are three broad objectives of this study:
For this study the panchromatic SPOT (10 metres resolution) of 1:25,000 scale of September 1989- Geo-coded sub-scenes: GRS D207/41 Scene centre: N28-42/E77-03 N28-41/E77-12 N28-33/E77-12 and April 1987, Row: K207, Path: J293 were used. Panchromatic aerial photographs of 1:10,000 scale of the year 1984 for a small sample area were available and were used for comparison. Definition of Terms Historical Sites: A historical site is a place where significant past events have occurred or an area containing property employed in, or monuments commemorating, such events.  Fig. 1: Interpretation key Archaeological Sites: An archaeological site is a place where material remains give evidence of past human life and activities. These remains can be movable and can lie above or below the ground. Difference between Historical and Archaeological Sites and Monuments Specialists usually differentiate historical sites from archaeological sites by the advent of writing. If a written history exists of the area or building in question; the site or building is considered a historical site building. If the remains were left at a time when writing did not exist or by a culture that did not possess writing, the site or building is considered an archaeological one. Non- specialists often differentiate a historical site from an archaeological one by its visibility and state of preservation. Most of the structures and artifacts on archaeological property lie under the ground and must be excavated, whereas most of the structures and artifacts on a historical site lie above the ground. Although not always reliable or accepted, this latter distinction is useful for the purpose of this paper. Development of Interpretation Key Interpretation Key is a very useful clue and tool for identification and image interpretation. Most questions about classification, interpretation and delineation are answered by the key. Here an attempt has been made to develop a key for interpretation. After the visual image analysis of the panchromatic SPOT image, a key has been prepared which is shown in Fig.1. The explanation of each key is given here:
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