Aerial Archaeology in Ireland - The Heritage Council

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While the Archaeological Survey of Ireland routinely integrates the results of its own aerial survey work into the SMR and is
constantly seeking to integrate the results of other work, there is currently no requirement — nor is it an automatically recognised
good practice standard — that the results of other people’s work funded from public sources should be made available to the
SMR. This is not a simple issue because it raises basic questions of intellectual property rights, but these could be addressed
through suitable contractual obligations and grant conditions in respect of work funded by or undertaken for public bodies.
But the general increase in data, and any improvements in its accessibility, does not take account of the need for more interpretive
mapping and more sophisticated analysis of landscape change; this has hardly been touched on, except in the context of specific
research projects. As the quantity, technical sophistication and diversity, and rate of output in aerial imaging grows, so the scale
and unrealised potential of un-accessed data increases rapidly. At present, there is no means of monitoring these trends, as there
is in relation to excavations through the annual excavations index. 14
The increasing use and potential of digital methods of photography and remote sensing, of digitising existing records, developing
digital databases of holdings (as the NMS and OSi are doing), and of rectifying, enhancing and analysing digitised images
represent highly significant ways of improving data handling and provision of information about existing archives, which is an
essential precursor to maximising effective use of these extremely rich sources of data. As the sources of data become more
sophisticated, there is an increasing need for a more holistic approach to developing and maximising the benefits of these
approaches, ensuring that data handling becomes more efficient, and that archival standards (Bewley et al. 1998) are met.
Now that digital imagery has become the norm for most major surveys, there is also a growing need to ensure that the
archaeological importance of older archival photographs is not lost. In particular, there remains considerable potential for
further use of existing archives and collections (both public and private) to enhance the record. The next section examines
in more detail how aerial archaeological evidence has contributed to the Record and the ways in which it has been used for
research, conservation, and the wider appreciation of the historic environment.
14 http://www.excavations.ie/Pages/HomePage.php