Using reference data and spatial data services in projects concerning popularisation of Poland’s national heritage

Abstract

The National Heritage Board of Poland is currently the place where some of the most interesting IT projects concerning dissemination of information on historic monuments of Poland are created. This is the first such innovative approach in Europe aiming at comprehensive integration of multi-media data and spatial data services in terms of national heritage. These projects are a result of the process of carrying out two strategic objectives incorporated in the NHBP statute:
• gathering and disseminating knowledge about heritage, as well as shaping social awareness of the value and preservation of cultural heritage;
• creating and developing a geospatial database of historical monuments, and disseminating knowledge about historic monuments.
The Minister of Culture and National Heritage functions as the leading body in terms of the subject of spatial data about the “protected areas” (Chapter 1 of Appendix 9 to the Act on the Spatial Information Infrastructure of 4 March 2010, the section on immovable monuments). On the basis of Art. 96 par. 1 of the Act on the Protection of Monuments and the Guardianship of Monuments, the Minister entrusted the Director of the National Heritage Board of Poland with the public task of developing a spatial information infrastructure. The creation of the geospatial database of historical monuments was designated as a statutory duty of the Board. Additionally, on the basis of the decision of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, since 2010, the NHBP also functions as the Centre of Competence in the area of digitalisation of historical monuments and museum collections with relation to the provisions of the “Programme for the digitalisation of cultural property and gathering, storing, and sharing of digital objects in Poland 2009-2020”. The task of the NHBP Centre of Competence is to set up and promote standards in terms of digitalisation of historical monuments and museum collections.
As a result of the two above-mentioned strategic objectives, a multidimensional and comprehensive IT project is developed and implemented in the following areas of activity.
The first one concentrates on obtaining information gathered in the source documentation (administrative decisions) by scanning the documentation and making the content available to external recipients. This part presents an innovative approach to the process of scanning by the active use of reference data gathered in the PZGiK (the National Geodetic and Cartographic Resource). This data is used in the process of rough geocoding of the source documentation, and as a result, significantly speeding up the process of obtaining information about the precise location of historical objects;
The second one concentrates on describing the use of GIS tools to:
• manage the reference data in the process of obtaining geospatial data on historical monuments;
• support the user in the process of obtaining data and data validation in the model of the field concerning the register of historical monuments;
• use the spatial data services to assess quality of the information obtained (by including specialists on the protection of historical monuments dispersed in the Local Divisions and Subdivisions of the NHBP in the process of verification).