Assessment of water-induced soil erosion as a threat to cultural heritage sites: the case of Chania prefecture, Crete Island, Greece

Figures & data

Figure 1. (a) The location of Chania prefecture; (b) Distribution of the most significant known archeological sites of Chania prefecture.

Table 1. Summary of spatial datasets used in this study.

Datasets	Source	Spatial/temporal scale	Primary format
Rainfall measurements by stations	National Observatory of Athens (NOA)	Daily, 1981–2019	Vector (points)
	Decentralized Administration of Crete
Landsat-8 images	United States Geological Survey (USGS)	30 m	Raster (grid)
Soil types of “European Soil Database v2.0”	European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) of Joint Research Centre (JRC)	1:1,000,000	Vector (polygons)
Soil properties of “WISE30sec” database	International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC)	30 arc-second	Raster (grid)
SRTM DEM	United States Geological Survey (USGS)	30 m	Raster (grid)
Land use/cover (LUCAS) observations	Statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat)	2015	Vector (points)
Archaeological sites	Laboratory of Geophysical-Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeo-environment (GeoSat ReSeArch)	–	Vector (points)

Figure 2. Erosion-influencing factors analyzed in USPED model (a) K-factor (b) C-factor (c) P-factor (d) R-factor (e) LST-factor.

Figure 3. Spatial extent of soil loss and deposition rates for Chania prefecture.

Figure 4. Correlation of the soil loss and deposition classes with coverage area percentages for Chania prefecture.

Figure 5. Spatial extent of soil loss and deposition rates (a) For the location (b) For the vicinity (buffer zone area) of archaeological sites.

Figure 6. Correlation of the soil loss and deposition classes with archaeological site count and buffer zone area percentages.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, C.P., upon reasonable request.