During my visit to Kosrae, I had the pleasure of touring the Lelu ruins. They showed me this site because it is very high on KSAM’s list to survey, map, model, and ultimately preserve.
Lelu is actually a man-made island located at the entrance to Kosrae’s main harbor. Constructed some 1500 years ago Lelu represents a magnificent example of prehistoric, Polynesian engineering. The Lelu ruins consist of very high walls, canals and thoroughfares, and tombs of dead kings.
Kosrae is the greenest place I have ever seen. There are plants of every size and type all over. My photos may give you some idea of the kind of overgrowth that needs to be cleared as an early first step. My hosts told me that the site had been recently cleared! It seems that within about 30 days, life takes hold again and the site is all but hidden by the dense overgrowth.
Due to time constraints, we were unable to survey Lelu—it is a BIG place, and is far larger than I imagined. The government’s hope is to survey not only the ruins but the modern housing that surrounds the ruins on all sides. An accurate map is needed to create a GIS,which will aid the local government in its plans to make the Lelu ruins accessible to tourists, and profitable to the locals who live nearby.
An existing plat map (created with Land Desktop, and now correlated with Civil 3D 2008) that displays all of the cadastral data on the island will be combined with the 3D model I helped the students create. Now with the addition of 3D, the islanders will be able to monitor and report on drainage, erosion, and coral reef growth, not to mention the design of landfills, roads, docks, etc.
VIDEO – Here I talk a bit about the survey class that is about to start on Kosrae. Warning, I’m jet-lagged in this one!
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