Halifax professor using 3D modelling to recreate N.S. historic sites

A Saint Mary’s University professor is using visualization technology and old maps to recreate and study historical Nova Scotia landscapes.

Jonathan Fowler, who’s also an archeologist, recently recreated Fort Anne — a star-shaped fort French explorers built in Annapolis Royal in the early 1700s.

To recreate the now national historic site, Fowler used LiDAR or light detection and ranging. It’s a technology that uses millions of lasers to measure specific ranges.

For example, an aircraft may use LiDAR, send the lasers down to Earth and measure the time it takes for the light to reflect back to the aircraft.

By using LiDAR, Fowler created a terrain model that shows the topography of the area near Fort Anne as it exists today without any buildings or vegetation.

Then, he combined the terrain model with historical maps — a technique that’s becoming increasingly popular among archaeologists.

“I took some old mapping from the 1700s. In fact, one of the maps goes right back to 1706, an old French military map,” he told NEWS 95.7’s The Rick Howe Show. “And because you can tell the software where that map should be pinned on the landscape because certain intersections of streets haven’t moved or certainly the fort has been there the whole time, so you can pin the map to the LiDAR.

“Just like you might be throwing a sheet over a bed and the sheet takes the contours of the bed and the pillows, that map will take on the contours of the LiDAR. Then you can integrate data sets and it really does feel like you’re time travelling.”

After using the digitized 1706 map he received from France’s National Archives, Fowler repeated the process with a 1753 map he received from the United States’ Library of Congress.

The second map showed what the site looked like while it was under British rule.

In 1605, French explorers built a fur trading post on the Annapolis River in an area they named Acadia. Nearly a century later in 1702, France began building what is now known as Fort Anne.

The area was subject to numerous raids, sieges and invasions — and various forces had control of the fort over the years.

In 1710, the British took control of the fort and it became the capital of the British colony of Nova Scotia until Halifax was founded in 1749.

Despite suffering several attacks, Fort Anne was never lost. In fact, the 18th-century fort is well-preserved meaning it’s a good test site for LiDAR.

Fowler’s model of Fort Anne and the surrounding area shows the original layout of the buildings within the fort and outside its walls.

He said most of the fort’s buildings no longer exist but some still stand today. Those still standing are among the oldest buildings in Canada.

But Fowler isn’t just limited to recreating Fort Anne. He also has 3D maps of other sites such as historic Halifax, the Fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton and Grand Pré near Wolfville.

“When you do this, you can often find archeological sites and features that you can’t see even if you’re on the ground,” he said. “And that’s because LiDAR data captures very, very small variations in relief. So, very small increases or decreases in the height of the land.

“In a digital environment, you can shine a digital light — almost like a flashlight — across the landscape at different angles and heights, and you can really pull out a lot of detail.”

Interpretation of Fowler’s 3D model of Fort Anne is currently underway, and Fowler said it could reveal previously unknown facts about Fort Anne and the surrounding landscape.