Review of satellite resources to assess environmental threats in rammed earth fortifications

Abstract

The nature of rammed earth fortifications and the environmental conditions where they are located determine the pathologies that these structures suffer in the presence of humidity sources and strong winds. The objective of this project is to revise the main mechanisms of deterioration of rammed earth fortifications and evaluate the use of remote detection as a tool to register environmental threats that affect their preservation. The selected images and satellite results offer information about precipitation, ground humidity, temperature, wind intensity and direction and the presence of particles in the wind. The use of statistical analysis methodologies for large volumes of satellite images makes it possible to acquire daily, monthly and yearly maximums, averages and minimums of these variables. The application of satellite resources GPM, SMAP, MODIS, Merra-2 and the statistical analysis of large volumes of images for preventive conservation in Andalusia has become useful to monitor the main threats that affect rammed earth fortifications on a global level: humidity, wind and temperature.