Ekodenge is a Turkish SME with a team of sustainability experts, providing consultancy, engineering, architecture, and software solution services.

Created in 1996, Ekodenge is headquartered in Ankara, at the Hacettepe Technopark research and business centre. The company can count on a multi-disciplinary team of 40 people, including architects, chemical, environmental and mechanical engineers.

The challenge

Climate change is exposing historical and cultural sites to threats such as floods, wildfires and heatwaves, among others. Data on land cover is critical to understand these hazards, as well as to monitor changes around cultural heritage sites.

Even though spatial information becomes more and more abundant thanks to global Earth Observation (EO) systems, spatial data collected by different entities for different regions of the world still lack standardisation and harmonisation.

Since 2019 Ekodenge is part of the Consortium implementing the Horizon 2020 SHELTER project (Sustainable Historic Environments holistic reconstruction through Technological Enhancement and community-based Resilience). The project involves 23 partners from 10 countries.

SHELTER includes five test beds, representing the main climatic and environmental challenges in Europe and different heritage’s typologies.

Ekodenge is responsible for creating a risk assessment tool visualised on a Geographic Information System (GIS), containing information on land use, that can used to foresee resilience and threats to the heritage and to plan recovery measures. To do this, Ekodenge needs accurate information on land cover in the sites targeted by the project.

The satellite solution

To build the platform for disaster risk management in the areas targeted by the project, Ekodenge uses data on land cover and climate and historical data from the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites of the Copernicus programme.

The historical data allow them to retrace soil movements, changes in landcover, and weather events, such as heatwaves and floods, that damaged the cultural heritage sites in the past. These data are integrated in the datadriven platform for disasters risk management produced within the project.

The Copernicus data is particularly useful for this kind of assessments, since the data are freely available across Europe and accessible in the same format. This means that the data acquired through Copernicus allow Ekodenge to calibrate all different and site-specific data to be used into the same platform. Moreover, the information contained in the platform for each site can be easily compared and updated.

The results

Thanks to Copernicus data, Ekodenge can acquire data on land cover for the five different areas targeted in the open labs in a harmonised and standardised format.

The platform not only includes information relevant for safeguarding cultural heritage, but also for protecting natural heritage and human settlements from natural disasters and climate change at the regional level.

The GIS platform developed by the partners of the SHELTER project will contribute to building a model to improve the resilience of cultural heritage sites through better decision-making processes and policies applicable at local and regional levels.

All data will be made available on an IT platform after the project ends in 2023. Based on the information regrouped in the platform, the project partners will propose measures to increase the resilience of cultural heritage sites and make recommendations on “building back better” techniques.

The platform is intended to be used by all the stakeholders operating in the sites targeted by the SHELTER project, such as policymakers, fire brigades, construction companies, and research institutes.

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Operating under the authority of the Greek Ministry of Culture, the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese is responsible for protecting, preserving, and studying all antiquities in the islands of the Dodecanese.

Rodini was part of the necropolis of the ancient city of Rhodes, in the largest island of the Dodecanese. The area includes the remains of some of the ancient monumental graves and cave sanctuaries, and a park in a valley crossed by a torrent. Shortly before the torrent meets the sea, a bridge built in Roman times is still in use today, being one of the main entry points to the modern city of Rhodes.

The challenge

Soaring temperatures, increasingly frequent floods, summer fires and storms, sea-level rise, and geological movements represent major threats to archaeological remains and historical beauties.

In Rodini, throughout the centuries, summer fires, storms and floods eroded the archaeological remains, which are also severely threatened by land displacements.

Due to the earthquakes, part of the Mausoleum complex in Rodini has collapsed. Another nearby grave complex presents a cracked rock façade, which could cause the crumbling of the grave monuments cut in it. Also the roman bridge, even though statically stable, is presenting fissures on the inner sides of the arches, which makes its monitoring necessary.

To prevent further damage to the monuments in Rodini and to adopt effective conservation measures, the Ephorate needed accurate and up-to-date information on land deformation in the area.

The satellite solution

In 2019, the Ephorate of Antiquities established a collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens, which resulted in their participation in the EU Horizon 2020 HYPERION project.

In Rhodes, HYPERION aimed at recording the damage to the monuments in Rodini that is directly related to the natural environment and the microclimate of the area, at assessing their degree of risk and the rate of their deterioration over time, and at building tools to plan for conservation and restoration measures.

More than 100 Sentinel images from 2016 to 2019 allowed the scientists from the University to create a land deformation map of Rodini and to assess the level of ground deformation in the area. The map shows a 10mm uplift between 2016 and 2019, which clearly affects the structural integrity of the monuments there.

The results

The ground deformation maps classify the level of ground deformation with different colours, and allow users to zoom on specific locations to know how the ground is moving there.

The maps serve as a non-invasive tool to collect the information needed to preserve cultural heritage in Rhodes. The movements are assessed with millimetre accuracy, providing the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese with extremely precise data on the structural stress affecting the monuments. This information can be consulted for a specific day or as an annual average.

The Ephorate can identify the structures that need more urgent action and propose measures to secure and restore the monuments. For example, they will take action to stabilise the monuments that are more affected by land deformation in the ancient necropolis in Rodini and will ask the Municipality to stop or lighten the traffic on the Roman bridge.

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Hans Hack is a sata visualiser, mapmaker and artist with a background in Heritage Conservation. Hans works with JavaScript, open data sources and whatever might come handy to tell stories. Based in Berlin, he works for museums, foundations, newspapers, NGOs, graphic design studios, and artists.

The satellite solution

Maps are quite a powerful tool to communicate on research findings to the general public. Satellite Imagery can serve as a basis for data visualisation, challenge our perspectives and stimulate reflection on our world. Hans Hack uses aerial or satellite images as a first layer for many of his artistic or graphic projects. As an example, in the Alpen project, he took satellite images of cities that are mainly flat, like Berlin, London, Hamburg, and Brussels, and then modified them to exaggerate their heights. In these 3D city maps, all elevation data has been hugely increased in scale to give users the perception of how their cities would look like on hills or mountains.

An exaggerated view of London heights

The initiative “Reprojected Destruction”

“Reprojected Destruction” is a data visualisation project realised by Hans that relies on satellite imagery to sensitise the public to the damages suffered by the city of Alepo. For this project, the artist found inspiration in a satellite-based map published by the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). The satellite-based map of Aleppo was created between November 2010 and September 2016. The images in the map showed the percentage of buildings damaged in the area since the beginning of the Syrian war. In six years, more than 40%, a total of 33.521 structures, have been damaged as an outcome of the war. As a geographical reference point, Hans superposed the Citadel of Aleppo on that of the Museum Island in Berlin and the Tower of London. He then showcased the re-projected percentage of destruction on some randomly selected buildings.
In Hans’ London map, the Tower of London, the City Hall, the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, the Olympic Stadium, King’s Cross station, and Tate Modern were razed, while Camden, Islington, Dalston and Hampstead were decimated.

The Reprojected Destruction Map of Aleppo in London 

Future developments

In the future Hans Hack plans to continue using satellite imagery for data visualisation projects, while he is also getting interested in the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“What is important to me is to use technology to sensitise people on issues that I believe are relevant to understand today’s world” (Hans Hack)

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Q: You have a background in Heritage Conservation. How did you become interested in data visualisation and maps?

H: As I was studying heritage conservation, I realised that presenting data on maps is a quite powerful way to communicate on research findings to the general public. Hence, I decided to learn about programming and data visualisation. Since then, I worked for museums, foundations, newspapers, NGO’S, graphic design studios, and artists. My works can be found on the web, on newspapers, at exhibitions and conferences, (like the map that I am creating for the Space4Culture conference that will be held in Matera in October 2018).

Q: Arts and technology are often seen as antithetical. Can you give us some examples of how you combine them to create your maps?

H: My main tools are Javascript, databases, open source GIS resources and image editing programs. I combine these to visualise or analyse data and to present them in creative ways. Sometimes I create my maps on request, like the map I did for the Berliner Morgenpost, showing Trump’s planned wall between Mexico and the US, as if it were in Europe, i.e. a long red line crossing the continent from the North to the Black Seas. Other times, I imagine my projects following my inspiration only. What is important to me is to use technology to sensitise people on issues that I believe are relevant to understand today’s world.

Trump’s planned wall between Mexico and the US in 2016, as if it were in Europe, for Berliner Morgenpost.

Q: Maps can rely on many data sources. In several of your projects you use images taken from Google Maps as a first layer, while in others you rely on aerial images. Can you give us some examples of use of satellite imagery to perform your work?

H: The Alpen project is quite a fun one. Here, I took satellite images of cities that are mainly flat, as Berlin, London, Hamburg, and Brussels, and then modified them in order to exaggerate their heights. In these 3D city maps, all elevation data has been hugely increased in scale to give the users a perception of how their cities would look like if their heights were hills or mountains. For example, in London, the gentle heights of Hampstead Heath and Greenwich Park become massive peaks, while the River Thames flows though a valley surrounded by hills.

An exaggerated view of London heights. Visit the interactive map to see more cities.

Q: Data visualisaton is not only beautiful, but can also be a remarkable communication tool. You clearly showed it in some of your socially-engaged projects. Can you tell us about one that relied on satellite images to communicate about a socially-relevant theme?

H: In March 2017, I reprojected Aleppo’s destruction onto Berlin and London. The project is called Reprojected Destruction and got quite a lot of visibility. I got inspired by a satellite-based map published by the Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). The map is based on satellite images of Aleppo taken from November 2010 to September 2016 and illustrates the percentage of buildings damaged in the city since the start of the Syrian war, more than 40%, for a total of 33.521 structures. Despite the figures are shocking, it was hard for someone like me, who has never visited Aleppo, to conceive the scale of the destruction that had affected the city.

I took some of the data made available on this map and reprojected them onto figure-ground maps of Berlin and London. As a geographical reference point, I superposed the Citadel of Aleppo on that of the Museum Island in Berlin and of the Tower of London. I then indicated the reprojected destruction by marking in red some randomly selected buildings. To make it more representative, I also mapped the distribution of the reprojected destruction with respect to Aleppo’s administrative borders as provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In the London map, the Tower of London, the City Hall, the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, the Olympic Stadium, King’s Cross station and Tate Modern have been razed, while Camden, Islington, Dalston and Hampstead are decimated.

The overall aim of the interactive map is to help western cybernauts to imagine the extent of the destruction affecting Aleppo in an environment they are familiar with.

Visit the interactive map to see Aleppo’s reprojected destruction on London and Berlin.

Q: What are the main challenges for you to use satellite imagery?

H: The main obstacle for me is to find reliable and free-of-charge data sources. I would love to get in touch with the space community to better understand what satellite-based data is out there and how to access it. I believe that other data visualisers and artists would also be interested.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

H: To continue experimenting with data visualisation on maps, for sure, but also to start working with machine learning Also I would like to explore more the possibilities to work with satellite images and explore the tools and the data that is out there.  I am constantly looking for new ideas to challenge the perception we have of our environments and to recontextualise the reality we live in.

Find Hans Hack’s portfolio at hanshack.com 

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