State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Wuerttemberg

Department Member, Archaeology

Thesis Title: Fluvial dynamics and cultural landscape evolution in the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage basin, southern Peru

About

I am presently working at the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg, Germany where I am using airborne LIDAR data for a full spatial coverage archaeological prospection of the entire federal state Baden-Württemberg.  Part of that work is the development and implementation of novel visualisation techniques to facilitate the interpretation of high-resolution digital elevation models. Besides this, I have a wide range of research interests including paleoenvironmental investigations based on aeolian sediments and fog vegetation.

Research projects:

* LIDAR-based archaeological prospection of Baden-Württemberg, Germany (2009-2015; partially funded by the European Commission within the multinational project ArchaeoLandscapes Europe)
  - full spatial coverage archaeological prospection of the German federal state Baden-Württemberg based on airborne LIDAR data
  - development and implementation of novel DEM visualisation techniques
  - application of spatial statistics

* Late Quaternary aeolian dynamics and paleoenvironmental changes in the coastal desert of southern Peru (since 2007; own resources and cooperation)
  - reconstruction of paleoenvironmental conditions in the Peruvian coastal desert outside of the river oases
  - remote sensing of aeolian geomorphology and processes (dune migration, spatial distribution and characteristics of dust devil tracks)
  - paleoenvironmental reconstruction  based on stratified aeolian sediments
  - spatial distribution and paleoenvironmental significance of fog-dependent desert vegetation (Tillandsia)
  - paleonenvironmental significance of surface crusts derived from marine aerosols

* Late Holocene fluvial dynamics and cultural landscape evolution in the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage basin, southern Peru (2002-2007; funded by DFG; project director: Dr. J. Baade)
  - reconstruction of pre-hispanic irrigation agriculture in the Palpa valley oasis