Unveiling the lost city: Satellite-based detection of underwater ruins in Dwarka

Abstract

The search for underwater archaeological sites poses a serious challenge because of the limitations of conventional exploration methods such as sonar sounding and underwater excavations. This research uses remote sensing to investigate the potential remains of ancient Dwarka, an historical and mythological site believed to be underwater in the Arabian Sea. Utilizing the computation power of Google Earth Engine (GEE), we process Sentinel-2 satellite imagery in order to detect underwater anomalies via the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). Employing a threshold-based masking approach, we are able to separate high-NDWI regions that could be indicative of submerged structures from natural seabed variability. Our method integrates cloud-based geospatial analysis with interactive visualisation tools like geemap and Folium, allowing dynamic exploration of underwater morphology. This technique offers a scalable, low-cost, and non-destructive means of alternative marine archaeology that allows rapid appraisal of possible archaeological sites. The findings of this study contribute to the growing discipline of satellite-based underwater heritage discovery, demonstrating the revolutionary capability of Earth Observation (EO) technology in unearthing lost civilizations. Future work will focus on developing more advanced spectral analysis methods and using multi-source data sets to enhance the precision of underwater structure identification.