Different visualizations and used data sources of the mountain battlefield on the Soča/Isonzo front line

ABSTRACT

The Soča/Isonzo front line was about 90 km long battlefield area along the Soča (ital. Isonzo) river valley and the surrounding mountain tops and ridges, running from the Julian Alps (Slovenia) in the north to the Gulf of Trieste in the south. Using available historical data, sketches, rare photographs and written documents, supplemented with contemporary aerial photographs, orthophotos and airborne lidar data, we interpreted the exact position of fire trenches, supply tracks, barracks, cable lifts and other objects for selected areas. A variety of visualizations and presentations, such as changes of the front line during some battles, space-time cubes, augmented reality visualisations, and animated flyovers, were prepared from various computational environment and background image datasets.

RÉSUMÉ

La Ligne de front Soča/Isonzo mesurait environ 90km de long dans la zone du champ de bataille comprise le long de la vallée de la Soča (appelée Isonzo en Italie) et entourée de sommets et de crêtes allant des Alpes Juliennes (en Slovénie) au nord jusqu’au golf de Trieste au sud. En utilisant des données historiques disponibles, des croquis, de rare photographies et écrits, additionné à des photographies aériennes, des orthophotographies et des données lidar aériennes actuelles, nous interprétons la position exacte de tranchées, pistes, casernes, téléphériques et autres objets. Nous présentons de multiples visualisations et représentations telles que les changements de lignes de front pendant certaines batailles, des cubes spatio-temporels, des visualisations en réalité augmentée et des survols animés. Ces représentations ont été préparées à partir de multiples environnements informatiques et des jeux de données images en fond d’écran.

KEYWORDS:

• Soča/Isonzo battlefield
• source data
• visualizations

Acknowledgment

Presented results are also part of the research project ‘For Freedom of the Homeland, War in the Julian Alps 1915–1917’, supported by the Slovenian Research Agency and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia, and using the historical data provided by Mr. Željko Cimprič, custodian of the Kobariški Muzej.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dušan Petrovič is the Assistant professor for cartography at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Head of chair for Cartography, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. In the beginning of professional career, he had been working at the Geodetic institute of Slovenia as a Head of Cartographic department, where he was involved in establishment of Slovenian topographical-cartographic system. He is the chair of the Cartographic section of Surveying Association of Slovenia and the chair of ICA Commission on Mountain Cartography. His main research fields are map production, topographic cartography, data capturing for topographical data, map use, navigation with maps, national topographic maps and datasets, and three-dimensional (3D) topographic visualization. He was a guest professor at University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Civil Engineering (BIH) and Technical University of Graz (AUT).

Klemen Kozmus Trajkovski is an assistant with Ph.D. at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering. He conducts practical work for cartographic courses at the faculty. His main research interests are topographic visualizations, animations and simulations, UAS surveys and photogrammetric positioning.

Žiga Kokalj is an assistant professor and a research fellow. He is head of the Department of Remote Sensing at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and at the Centre of Excellence for Space Sciences and Technologies. He has general research interest in application of optical imagery and airborne laser scanning, spatial analysis, and modelling of natural processes especially in the context of the protection of natural and cultural heritage.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency as the part of research core funding No. P2-0227 and No. P6-0079, as well as research projects No. J6-7085 and No. J7-8273.