Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR
-
0:02 - 0:06The most astounding place I've ever been
is the Mosquitia Rain Forest in Honduras. -
0:07 - 0:10I've done archaeological fieldwork
all over the world, -
0:10 - 0:13so I thought I knew what to expect
venturing into the jungle, -
0:13 - 0:14but I was wrong.
-
0:15 - 0:17For the first time
in my life, I might add. -
0:18 - 0:19(Laughter)
-
0:20 - 0:22First of all, it's freezing.
-
0:22 - 0:26It's 90 degrees, but you're
soaking wet from the humidity, -
0:26 - 0:30and the canopy of trees is so thick
that sunlight never reaches the surface. -
0:30 - 0:32You can't get dry.
-
0:32 - 0:35Immediately, I knew that
I hadn't brought enough clothing. -
0:37 - 0:41That first night, I kept feeling things
moving underneath my hammock, -
0:41 - 0:46unknown creatures brushing and poking
against the thin nylon fabric. -
0:46 - 0:49And I could barely sleep
through all the noise. -
0:49 - 0:51The jungle is loud. It's shockingly loud.
-
0:51 - 0:54It's like being downtown
in a bustling city. -
0:55 - 0:56As the night wore on,
-
0:56 - 1:00I became increasingly frustrated
with my sleeplessness, -
1:00 - 1:02knowing I had a full day ahead.
-
1:02 - 1:05When I finally got up at dawn,
-
1:05 - 1:07my sense of unseen things
was all too real. -
1:08 - 1:10There were hoofprints, paw prints,
-
1:10 - 1:13linear snake tracks everywhere.
-
1:13 - 1:16And what's even more shocking,
-
1:16 - 1:18we saw those same animals in the daylight,
-
1:18 - 1:20and they were completely unafraid of us.
-
1:21 - 1:23They had no experience with people.
-
1:23 - 1:26They had no reason to be afraid.
-
1:27 - 1:31As I walked toward the undocumented city,
my reason for being there, -
1:31 - 1:34I realized that this was the only place
that I had ever been -
1:34 - 1:37where I didn't see
a single shred of plastic. -
1:37 - 1:39That's how remote it was.
-
1:40 - 1:42Perhaps it's surprising to learn
-
1:42 - 1:47that there are still places on our planet
that are so untouched by people, -
1:47 - 1:48but it's true.
-
1:49 - 1:53There are still hundreds of places
where people haven't stepped for centuries -
1:53 - 1:55or maybe forever.
-
1:57 - 2:00It's an awesome time
to be an archaeologist. -
2:00 - 2:03We have the tools and the technology
-
2:03 - 2:06to understand our planet
like never before. -
2:06 - 2:08And yet, we're running out of time.
-
2:09 - 2:15The climate crisis threatens to destroy
our ecological and cultural patrimony. -
2:16 - 2:18I feel an urgency to my work
-
2:18 - 2:20that I didn't feel 20 years ago.
-
2:21 - 2:24How can we document everything
before it's too late? -
2:25 - 2:28I was trained as
a traditional archaeologist -
2:28 - 2:31using methodologies that
have been around since the '50s. -
2:32 - 2:35That all changed in July of 2009
-
2:35 - 2:37in Michoacán, Mexico.
-
2:37 - 2:39I was studying the ancient
Purépecha Empire, -
2:39 - 2:42which is a lesser known
but equally important contemporary -
2:42 - 2:44of the Aztec.
-
2:44 - 2:48Two weeks earlier, my team
had documented an unknown settlement, -
2:48 - 2:54so we were painstakingly mapping,
building foundations by hand -- -
2:54 - 2:56hundreds of them.
-
2:56 - 3:00Basic archaeological protocol
is to find the edge of a settlement -
3:00 - 3:02so you know what you're dealing with,
-
3:02 - 3:05and my graduate students
convinced me to do just that. -
3:06 - 3:10So I grabbed a couple of CLIF Bars,
some water, a walkie, -
3:10 - 3:12and I set out alone on foot,
-
3:12 - 3:16expecting to encounter "the edge"
in just a few minutes. -
3:16 - 3:18A few minutes passed.
-
3:18 - 3:20And then an hour.
-
3:20 - 3:22Finally, I reached
the other side of the malpais. -
3:22 - 3:27Oh, there were ancient
building foundations all the way across. -
3:27 - 3:29It's a city?
-
3:29 - 3:30Oh, shit.
-
3:30 - 3:31(Laughter)
-
3:31 - 3:32It's a city.
-
3:34 - 3:37Turns out that this
seemingly small settlement -
3:37 - 3:40was actually an ancient urban megalopolis,
-
3:40 - 3:4326 square kilometers in size,
-
3:43 - 3:47with as many building foundations
as modern-day Manhattan, -
3:47 - 3:50an archaeological settlement so large
-
3:50 - 3:53that it would take me
decades to survey fully, -
3:53 - 3:55the entire rest of my career,
-
3:56 - 4:01which was exactly how I didn't want
to spend the entire rest of my career -- -
4:01 - 4:03(Laughter)
-
4:03 - 4:05sweating, exhausted,
-
4:05 - 4:08placating stressed-out
graduate students -- -
4:09 - 4:10(Laughter)
-
4:10 - 4:13tossing scraps of PB and J sandwiches
-
4:13 - 4:14to feral dogs,
-
4:14 - 4:16which is pointless, by the way,
-
4:16 - 4:19because Mexican dogs
really don't like peanut butter. -
4:19 - 4:21(Laughter)
-
4:22 - 4:25Just the thought of it bored me to tears.
-
4:26 - 4:28So I returned home to Colorado,
-
4:28 - 4:30and I poked my head
through a colleague's door. -
4:30 - 4:33"Dude, there's gotta be a better way."
-
4:34 - 4:37He asked if I had heard
of this new technology called LiDAR -- -
4:37 - 4:39Light Detection And Ranging.
-
4:39 - 4:40I looked it up.
-
4:40 - 4:43LiDAR involves shooting
a dense grid of laser pulses -
4:43 - 4:46from an airplane to the ground's surface.
-
4:46 - 4:49What you end up with
is a high-resolution scan -
4:49 - 4:51of the earth's surface
and everything on it. -
4:52 - 4:53It's not an image,
-
4:53 - 4:57but instead it's a dense,
three-dimensional plot of points. -
4:57 - 5:00We had enough money in the scan,
-
5:00 - 5:01so we did just that.
-
5:01 - 5:03The company went to Mexico,
-
5:03 - 5:04they flew the LiDAR
-
5:04 - 5:06and they sent back the data.
-
5:07 - 5:11Over the next several months, I learned
to practice digital deforestation, -
5:11 - 5:14filtering away trees, brush
and other vegetation -
5:14 - 5:18to reveal the ancient
cultural landscape below. -
5:18 - 5:21When I looked at my first visualization,
-
5:21 - 5:22I began to cry,
-
5:23 - 5:25which I know comes
as quite a shock to you, -
5:25 - 5:27given how manly I must seem.
-
5:27 - 5:29(Laughter)
-
5:30 - 5:32In just 45 minutes of flying,
-
5:32 - 5:35the LiDAR had collected
the same amount of data -
5:35 - 5:38as what would have taken decades by hand:
-
5:38 - 5:40every house foundation,
-
5:40 - 5:42building, road and pyramid,
-
5:42 - 5:44incredible detail,
-
5:44 - 5:48representing the lives
of thousands of people -
5:48 - 5:51who lived and loved and died
in these spaces. -
5:51 - 5:55And what's more, the quality of the data
-
5:55 - 5:58wasn't comparable to traditional
archaeological research. -
5:58 - 6:00It was much, much better.
-
6:01 - 6:05I knew that this technology would change
the entire field of archaeology -
6:05 - 6:07in the coming years,
-
6:07 - 6:08and it did.
-
6:10 - 6:13Our work came to the attention
of a group of filmmakers -
6:13 - 6:16who were searching for a legendary
lost city in Honduras. -
6:17 - 6:18They failed in their quest,
-
6:18 - 6:22but they instead documented
an unknown culture, -
6:22 - 6:26now buried under a pristine
wilderness rain forest, -
6:26 - 6:28using LiDAR.
-
6:29 - 6:31I agreed to help interpret their data,
-
6:31 - 6:35which is how I found myself deep
in that Mosquitia jungle, -
6:35 - 6:38plastic-free and filled
with curious animals. -
6:39 - 6:42Our goal was to verify
that the archaeological features -
6:42 - 6:44we identified in our LiDAR
-
6:44 - 6:46were actually there on the ground,
-
6:46 - 6:47and they were.
-
6:49 - 6:54Eleven months later, I returned
with a crack team of archaeologists -
6:54 - 6:56sponsored by the
National Geographic Society -
6:56 - 6:58and the Honduran government.
-
6:58 - 7:02In a month, we excavated over 400 objects
-
7:02 - 7:05from what we now call
the City of the Jaguar. -
7:06 - 7:11We felt a moral and ethical responsibility
to protect this site as it was, -
7:11 - 7:13but in the short time that we were there,
-
7:13 - 7:15things inevitably changed.
-
7:15 - 7:20The tiny gravel bar where we first
landed our helicopter was gone. -
7:21 - 7:23The brush had been cleared away
and the trees removed -
7:23 - 7:27to create a large landing zone
for several helicopters at once. -
7:28 - 7:29Without it,
-
7:29 - 7:31after just one rainy season,
-
7:31 - 7:35the ancient canals that we
had seen in our LiDAR scan -
7:35 - 7:36were damaged or destroyed.
-
7:37 - 7:41And the Eden I described
soon had a large clearing, -
7:41 - 7:42central camp,
-
7:42 - 7:43lights
-
7:43 - 7:45and an outdoor chapel.
-
7:45 - 7:50In other words, despite our best efforts
to protect the site as it was, -
7:50 - 7:52things changed.
-
7:52 - 7:57Our initial LiDAR scan
of this City of the Jaguar -
7:57 - 8:02is the only record of this place
as it existed just a few years ago. -
8:04 - 8:05And broadly speaking,
-
8:05 - 8:07this is a problem for archaeologists.
-
8:08 - 8:11We can't study an area
without changing it somehow, -
8:11 - 8:14and regardless, the earth is changing.
-
8:14 - 8:16Archaeological sites are destroyed.
-
8:17 - 8:19History is lost.
-
8:20 - 8:22Just this year, we watched in horror
-
8:22 - 8:25as the Notre Dame Cathedral
went up in flames. -
8:25 - 8:27The iconic spire collapsed,
-
8:27 - 8:29and the roof was all but destroyed.
-
8:30 - 8:34Miraculously, the art historian
Andrew Tallon and colleagues -
8:34 - 8:37scanned the cathedral in 2010 using LiDAR.
-
8:38 - 8:42At the time, their goal was to understand
how the building was constructed. -
8:43 - 8:47Now, their LiDAR scan is the most
comprehensive record of the cathedral, -
8:47 - 8:50and it'll prove invaluable
in the reconstruction. -
8:51 - 8:53They couldn't have anticipated the fire
-
8:53 - 8:56or how their scan would be used,
-
8:56 - 8:57but we're lucky to have it.
-
8:58 - 9:01We take for granted that our cultural
and ecological patrimony -
9:01 - 9:02will be around forever.
-
9:03 - 9:04It won't.
-
9:05 - 9:08Organizations like SCI-Arc
and Virtual Wonders -
9:08 - 9:10are doing incredible work
-
9:10 - 9:13to record the world's historic monuments,
-
9:14 - 9:17but nothing similar exists
for the earth's landscapes. -
9:18 - 9:20We've lost 50 percent of our rain forests.
-
9:21 - 9:23We lose 18 million acres
of forest every year. -
9:24 - 9:29And rising sea levels will make cities,
countries and continents -
9:29 - 9:31completely unrecognizable.
-
9:32 - 9:35Unless we have a record of these places,
-
9:35 - 9:37no one in the future
will know they existed. -
9:38 - 9:40If the earth is the Titanic,
-
9:40 - 9:42we've struck the iceberg,
-
9:42 - 9:44everyone's on deck
-
9:44 - 9:46and the orchestra is playing.
-
9:46 - 9:51The climate crisis threatens to destroy
our cultural and ecological patrimony -
9:51 - 9:52within decades.
-
9:53 - 9:55But sitting on our hands and doing nothing
-
9:55 - 9:57is not an option.
-
9:58 - 10:01Shouldn't we save everything
we can on the lifeboats? -
10:01 - 10:07(Applause)
-
10:10 - 10:13Looking at my scans
from Honduras and Mexico, -
10:13 - 10:17it's clear that we need
to scan, scan, scan -
10:17 - 10:19now as much as possible,
-
10:19 - 10:20while we still can.
-
10:21 - 10:24That's what inspired the Earth Archive,
-
10:24 - 10:26an unprecedented scientific effort
-
10:26 - 10:29to LiDAR-scan the entire planet,
-
10:29 - 10:31starting with areas
that are most threatened. -
10:32 - 10:34Its purpose is threefold.
-
10:35 - 10:40Number one: create a baseline record
of the earth as it exists today -
10:40 - 10:43to more effectively mitigate
the climate crisis. -
10:44 - 10:47To measure change, you need
two sets of data: -
10:47 - 10:49a before and an after.
-
10:49 - 10:54Right now, we don't have
a high-resolution before data set -
10:54 - 10:55for much of the planet,
-
10:56 - 10:57so we can't measure change,
-
10:57 - 11:00and we can't evaluate
which of our current efforts -
11:00 - 11:02to combat the climate crisis
-
11:02 - 11:04are making a positive impact.
-
11:06 - 11:10Number two: create a virtual planet
-
11:11 - 11:15so that any number of scientists
can study our earth today. -
11:15 - 11:19Archaeologists like me
can look for undocumented settlements. -
11:20 - 11:22Ecologists can study tree size,
-
11:22 - 11:24forest composition and age.
-
11:25 - 11:27Geologists can study hydrology,
-
11:27 - 11:29faults, disturbance.
-
11:30 - 11:31The possibilities are endless.
-
11:32 - 11:36Number three: preserve
a record of the planet -
11:36 - 11:38for our grandchildren's grandchildren,
-
11:38 - 11:44so they can reconstruct and study
lost cultural patrimony in the future. -
11:45 - 11:48As science and technology advance,
-
11:48 - 11:51they'll apply new tools, algorithms,
-
11:51 - 11:55even AI to LiDAR scans done today,
-
11:55 - 11:58and ask questions that we
can't currently conceive of. -
12:00 - 12:01Like Notre Dame,
-
12:01 - 12:05we can't imagine how these
records will be used. -
12:06 - 12:09But we know that they'll
be critically important. -
12:10 - 12:14The Earth Archive is the ultimate gift
to future generations, -
12:15 - 12:17because the truth be told,
-
12:18 - 12:20I won't live long enough
to see its full impact, -
12:21 - 12:22and neither will you.
-
12:24 - 12:26That's exactly why it's worth doing.
-
12:27 - 12:31The Earth Archive is a bet
on the future of humanity. -
12:31 - 12:33It's a bet that together,
-
12:33 - 12:35collectively,
-
12:35 - 12:38as people and as scientists,
-
12:38 - 12:41that we'll face the climate crisis
-
12:41 - 12:43and that we'll choose
to do the right thing, -
12:44 - 12:46not just for us today
-
12:47 - 12:50but to honor those who came before us
-
12:50 - 12:54and to pay it forward
to future generations -
12:54 - 12:57who will carry on our legacy.
-
12:57 - 12:59Thank you.
-
12:59 - 13:01(Applause)
- Title:
- Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR
- Speaker:
- Chris Fisher
- Description:
-
We have archives of films, newspapers, even seeds -- what if we could make one for the entire surface of the earth? Drawing on his experience mapping an ancient city in the Honduran jungle, archaeologist Chris Fisher makes the case for scanning the whole planet with LiDAR -- a technology that uses lasers shot from an airplane to map the ground -- in order to preserve our cultural and ecological heritage.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:15
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR | ||
Erin Gregory approved English subtitles for Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR | ||
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR | ||
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Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for Let's scan the whole planet with LiDAR |