OGC standards and spatial database in gathering information from historical sources

Abstract

Converting analogue data into digital ones usually is not possible in the case of medieval manuscripts. In turn traditional methods used so far are time-consuming and usually result in the publication containing only effects without the source materials as a foundation.As part of the work carried out at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, tools were developed to improve the work on historical manuscripts (not only maps), using GIS technologies and operating in accordance with OGC standards.Importantly, the role of GIS tools, spatial databases and appropriate standards is not limited to the location of settlements on the map. Their use goes beyond the typical use cases, because they are also used to handle non-geographic data, i.e. the content of manuscripts.As a result, works are progressing faster, are less costly, and it is easier to achieve the synergy effect between projects using repeatedly the same base data, or enriching them adding subsequent information layers. The same tools are also used to publish the results of the work. In connection with the appropriate ontology built for this purpose, as a result we obtain homogeneous and at the same time comprehensive tools for recording, analyzing and publishing changes in settlement occurring in time and space, over hundreds of years of history covering the territories of former and present Poland.

Received: 10.01.2019 Accepted: 25.11.2019 Published: 12.12.2019