Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
four
Applying Historical GIS beyond
the Academy: Four Use Cases
for the Great Britain HGIS
Humphrey R. Southall
Many historical GIS projects are the work of individual
scholars, carried out in their own research time without external fund-
ing. Most of the projects that do receive external funding are relatively
small scale, employing a single research assistant to work alongside the
principal investigator. However, a small minority of HGIS research proj-
ects are among the most expensive projects of any kind in the arts and
humanities. They are also more expensive than most nonhistorical aca-
demic projects using GIS technology. his is because the later can use
the vast bodies of georeferenced data describing the modern world that
are available from national mapping agencies and through remote sens-
ing. Conversely, even where historical maps are available, the historical
researcher needs to scan, georeference, and probably vectorize them;
and often spatial data need to be constructed from textual information
containing geographical names, not coordinates.
As a result, it is hard if not impossible to fund a major national HGIS,
one that identifies every town and village and covers a century or more
of change, with the kind of funding available for academic historical
research. Total funding for the Great Britain HGIS now totals over $3.5
million, but obtaining this funding required us to demonstrate that the
results would benefit an audience beyond academic history. This chap-
ter describes how we have worked with four other groups to meet their
needs: health researchers, archivists, government environmental agen-
cies, and companies selling advice to the property sector.
Four caveats are needed. First, the main focus is on the reasons for
the collaboration, with details of the actual research provided mainly via
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