National audience The Franche-Comté region is one of the most afforested areas at national level, with an afforestation rate of 46 %, in a European area where forest cover accounts for more than 40 % of the total area. Forest areas are therefore an important issue in terms of energy and economic resources, heritage value and people’s well-being. It is in this context that the project for the Historical Construction of Forestry Spaces (CHEF) aims to produce a better knowledge of the current forest areas, with a long-term perspective, from protohistory to the 20th century. This study, which offers sufficient backsliding, allows sustainable management issues to be addressed. To carry out this work, the Chailluz Forest in Besançon has been chosen as a pilot area for several reasons. First of all, this peri-urban municipal forest area is characterised by its multifunctionality. It has an economic function through its forestry production, an ecological function because it includes a Naturelle Area of Environmental Interest (ZNIEFF) and a social function because it is used as an educational, leisure and sporting area. Chailluz is also an interesting case of study because of his length of service: since 1180-1190, bisontins have been in dispute with the archbishop in order to obtain user rights there (Fohlen dir. 1964). New conflicts in 1232 where wood was mentioned under the name ‘Chaillou’ over a clearing right and then in 1258 during a ripening right, where wood was then referred to as ‘Chalor’, show that the archbishop is the sole owner. However, as early as 1290, the bisontins legislated in the Chailluz forest, where they now have rights. The forest is then explicitly mentioned in a regulation on felling in 1309. Paradoxically, apart from the St Gengoul chapel, military structures around the Blanche Dame, a few lavogns for abreuting livestock and some isolated discoveries reported on the archaeological map, until 2009 Chailluz’s archaeological heritage remained unknown and largely underestimated. It was thanks to the acquisition of aerial laser altimetric data (LiDAR) that the massif proved to be very rich in habitat, agropastoral, street and economic production structures. These discoveries made it possible to reconsider the Chailluz forest as a dynamic area whose use and role within bisontin may have varied considerably, as with other old forests such as the Hague Mountains in Lorraine or Châtillonnais in Bourgogne (Georges-Leroy et al. 2012, Goguey et al. 2014). Thus, it was necessary to consider the extent of the forest in the past and possibly to identify the oldest area. A second level of questions was aimed at understanding the speed and modalities of deforestation/reforestation depending on the activities (agropastoral, charting, extraction, etc.) whose existence is proven by the preserved remains and which are sometimes attested more or less directly by the texts. Finally, a third level of questions aims to better understand the forest as it stands by trying to assess the influence of old domestic, extractive and productive, agropastoral and forestry practices on today’s afforestation structure and vegetation. In this article, we will focus on presenting the contribution of LiDAR technology to this type of problem and how it can be integrated into an interdisciplinary and multi-scale approach.