Presentation by Emmanuel Kreike, 2022-2023 Paris IAS Fellow, as part of the Groupe de recherche en histoire environnementale (Grhen) / EHESS-CRH.

Archival aerial photographs are an underused but potentially game-changing and unique source to study 20^th century environmental and climate change. Archival gray-scale aerial imagery became ubiquitous in the 1930s and 1940s, while comparable high resolution satellite imagery only became available at the close of the 20th century. When combined with digital, GIS, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning technology, aerial imagery offers unparalleled quantifiable visual and spatial data, detailing in real time the revolutionary changes brought about by the post-WWII Great Acceleration that defined the Anthropocene. The paper highlights the potential and the challenges of deploying archival photographs to investigate climate change, using a case study from northcentral Namibia to analyze images from 1943 and 1972 that have been developed as a training sample for AI/Deep Learning.

More information : https://enseignements.ehess.fr/2022-2023/ue/58

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