Deep Time: Collective Intelligence and the search for our past

考古学，作为一种过程和资源，是所有景观变化活动的基础。考古学为地方增添价值和个性，塑造独特性和“USP”，吸引投资，增加便利设施，并直接影响公民的认同感、福祉和未来。在接下来的几年里，净零议程将需要对土地进行广泛的改造；再加上气候变化已经引发的破坏性环境过程，将严重影响英国脆弱的文化遗产。英国许多地方的历史环境基线知识并不完整，或者几十年来都没有得到改善，在我们竞相应对植树造林、泥炭地开垦、海岸侵蚀和洪水等快速转型之际，遗产专业人士面临着关键时刻和知识缺口。目前，20 世纪的技术正在应对这一 21 世纪的挑战：决定我们自然环境特征的规划和缓解决策依赖于地方当局 (LA) 历史环境记录 (HER) 的质量。我们的项目提供了一种方法，可以立即提高 HER 数据的可靠性和完整性，让公民参与知识创造的核心，并通过提供大数据来精确定位具有高度考古意义的区域，为地方当局提供宝贵的支持。该项目将与国家信托基金合作交付，使他们的团队能够测试试点研究区域（沿海、高地和牧场），并为上市公司、土地所有者和地方当局设计一个市场就绪的解决方案，该解决方案的成本远远超过当前规定的一小部分。该项目将使用集体智慧（CI）模型，培训人们快速评估卫星图像，帮助改进和丰富基线 HER 数据。这些信息的可用性将对各种形式的景观改造的去风险、管理和成本效益规划产生巨大影响，将是遗产专业人员管理历史环境能力的技术驱动的阶跃变化。该平台利用集体智慧，培训志愿者从航空图像和历史测绘中识别考古学。在虚拟学习环境和嵌入式地图平台中，公民科学家将学习技能，同时筛选现有的 HER 信息、丰富数据、添加关键元数据和位置信息，并突出显示需要进一步调查的地点。该过程将识别更大范围内的未知地点，直接输入支撑每个地点的 HER，并提供深远的公共利益。

Archaeology, both as a process and resource, is fundamental to all activities of landscape change. Archaeology adds value and personality to places, shaping distinctiveness and 'USP', attracting investment, increasing amenities, and impacting directly on the sense of identity, wellbeing, and future of its citizens. In the immediate years to come, the Net Zero agenda will require extensive transformation of land; this, combined with the destructive environmental processes already triggered by climate change, will seriously impact the UK's vulnerable cultural heritage.Baseline knowledge of the historic environment for many places in the UK is incomplete, or has not been improved for decades, presenting a critical moment and gaps in knowledge for heritage professionals as we race to respond to rapid transformation such as reforestation, peatland reclamation, coastal erosion and flooding. This 21st century challenge is currently met with 20th century technology: planning and mitigation decisions which determine the character of our physical environment rely on the quality of a Local Authority's (LA) Historic Environment Record (HER). Our project delivers a method to instantly improve the reliability and completeness of HER data, involving citizens at the heart of knowledge creation, and providing invaluable support to Local Authorities by providing Big Data pinpointing areas of high archaeological significance.The project will be delivered in partnership with the National Trust, enabling their team to test pilot study areas (coastal, upland and pasture) and devise a market-ready solution for public companies, landowners and local authorities that far exceeds current provision at a fraction of the cost.Using a Collective Intelligence (CI) model, the project will train people to rapidly assess satellite imagery, helping to improve and enrich baseline HER data. The availability of this information will have a tremendous impact on the de-risking, management and cost-effective planning of landscape transformation in all its forms, will be a tech-enabled step-change in the ability of heritage professionals to manage the historic environment.The platform harnesses Collective Intelligence, training volunteers to identify archaeology from aerial images and historic mapping. Housed within a virtual learning environment and embedded mapping platform, citizen scientists will learn skills whilst screening existing HER information, enriching data, adding key metadata and location information, and highlighting sites that require further investigation. The process will identify unknown sites across far bigger landscapes, feeding directly into the HER that underpins each location, and providing deep public benefit.