Maritime Least Cost Path Analysis: Archaic Travel Routes in the Upper Great Lakes

Abstract

The use of the Cost Path tool in geospatial technologies has allowed for the creation of digital models that can predict past behaviors and movements. While often applied to terrestrial landscapes, these models have gained increasing popularity in modeling movement across maritime and composite landscapes. The methods used in this article, first laid out by Gustas and Supernant, allow for the creation of a model not reliant on known origin and destination points but rather utilize a matrix of points placed arbitrarily around the edge of the study area. This article applies the principles of maritime least cost path analysis to create a predictability model for travel in the upper Great Lakes during the Nipissing high paleolake level event. The result of this paper is a heat density map that can identify (1) high probability travel corridors and (2) coastal areas of high probability travel.