Former brickworks pit complex Aegidienmasch Hannover: Using historical data and today's technology to create planning bases for the future  

An old landfill in the city centre of Hanover led to the trace of a former brickyard from the 17th century. Historical documents show that a complex of clay pits was located here until the beginning of the 20th century. The former pit complex was larger than initially assumed and was gradually filled in. Since then, railway facilities have been assembled and dismantled here, roads built, bombs dropped, rubble stored, schools built and sports fields laid out.

Where does the boundary of this contaminated site run in the current terrain? What fill thicknesses are to be expected?

Based on a historical map from the end of the 19th century and a digital terrain model from 2019, the terrain surface around 1900 was reconstructed and compared to today's surface. Since neither the height accuracy of the surveys of that time nor the height reference systems used were known, it was not possible to determine a correction value to today's height grid. Alternatively, the historical elevation model was compared with the current digital terrain model at reference points. For this purpose, terrain points of the historical infrastructure were chosen whose elevations have remained largely unchanged until today.

The height difference model derived from this shows areas of fill and erosion as well as relative fill thicknesses. With the help of these two snapshots from two centuries, the core area of the fill could be well represented. This result was also confirmed by comparison with borehole profiles.  

In this way, M&P combines historical documents with today's technology and thus creates a meaningful basis for future planning. 

#Appropriation #Historicalexploration #Acurrentburden #Engineeringforabettertomorrow #mupgroup #terrain model #GIS