Towards a Methodological Framework for Investigating the Hidden History of Woodland Covers

This chapter provides a short review of the major disciplines and approach that the authors propose to cover for the studies of historical ecology of forests. It mentions works that have already been carried out with such approaches in France. The chapter also presents a methodological framework that could unravel the “secrets” of European forests vegetation history over the Holocene period. LiDAR is a remote sensing technique providing highly accurate 3D models of physical bodies with mobile laser beams. Archaeologists have used this technique since the early 2000s. This data offers an unprecedented opportunity to the detection, studying and characterization of past land-use in current forests. An increasing number of tools and datasets now available including data mining, increasingly accurate dating for paleoecological data and accessible statistical tools could help achieve the matching of spatial and chronological scales of the different scientific fields.