Moreover, it enables to assess the craters distribution and to reveal a gradient between the first lines and the rear of the front. It makes possible to quantify the part of disrupted surface over the whole battlefield and to estimate the volumes of displaced soils thanks to the three dimensions of the DTM. The produced map is a tool for measuring erosion caused by artillery. This step allows both to map and calculate their geometry (ii) Secondly, an analysis of these morphometric values is conducted using multivariate statistics in order to separate the craters and the other reliefs. The methodology used is twofold: (i) Firstly, it consists in extracting the hollow reliefs from the DTM by means of a semi-automatic algorithm. This research proposes to establish from the DTM a precise mapping of the craters recovering the 10,000 hectares of the battlefield, in order to better estimate the damages caused by guns during the conflict.
The digital terrain model (DTM) of decimeter level accuracy acquired in 2013 by an airborne LiDAR mission makes possible to observe and quantify them. On the right bank of the Meuse River, today covered by the Verdun forest, the craters inherited from the war have been conserved under the forest mantle.
In Verdun, where nearly 60 million of shells were fired during the year of the battle (1916), the bombardments exposed the ground and sculpted a lunar landscape on a territory of approximately 175 km². Under the effect of artillery, the First World War greatly modified the landscapes along the Western Front.
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