remote sensing Review Google Earth as a Powerful Tool for Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Applications: A Review Lei Luo 1,2,3 , Xinyuan Wang 1,2,3,*, Huadong Guo 1,2, Rosa Lasaponara 2,3,4,*, Pilong Shi 1,3, Nabil Bachagha 1,2,3, Li Li 1,2,3, Ya Yao 1,2,3, Nicola Masini 3,5 , Fulong Chen 1,2,3, Wei Ji 6, Hui Cao 7, Chao Li 8 and Ningke Hu 9 1 Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100094, China;
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[email protected] (P.S.);
[email protected] (N.B.);
[email protected] (L.Li.);
[email protected] (Y.Y.); chenfl@radi.ac.cn (F.C.) 2 International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage (HIST) under the Auspices of UNESCO, Beijing 100094, China 3 Working Group of Natural and Cultural Heritage under the Digital Belt and Road Programme (DBAR-Heritage), CAS, Beijing 100094, China;
[email protected] 4 Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (IMAA), National Research Council (CNR), 85050 Tito Scalo (PZ), Italy 5 Institute of Archeological Heritage—Monuments and Sites (IBAM), CNR, 85050 Tito Scalo (PZ), Italy 6 Jiangsu Speed Electronics and Technology Co. Ltd., Nanjing 210042, China;
[email protected] 7 Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, CAS, Nanjing 210008, China;
[email protected] 8 Hangzhou Kingo Information and Technology Co. Ltd., Jinan 250013, China;
[email protected] 9 School of Geography and Tourism, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
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[email protected] (R.L.); Tel.: +86-010-8217-8197 (X.W.); +39-0971-427214 (R.L.); Fax: +86-010-8217-8195 (X.W.); +39-0971-427214 (R.L.) Received: 30 August 2018; Accepted: 26 September 2018; Published: 28 September 2018 Abstract: Google Earth (GE), a large Earth-observation data-based geographical information computer application, is an intuitive three-dimensional virtual globe.