Recording, monitoring and managing the conservation of historic sites: a new application for BGS·SIGMA
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Historic Environment Scotland (HES), a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government charged with safeguarding the nation’s historic environment, is directly responsible for 335 sites of national significance, most of which are built from stone. Similar to other heritage organisations, HES needs a system that can store and present conservation and maintenance information for historic sites; ideally, the same system could be used to plan effective programmes of maintenance and repair. To meet this need, the British Geological Survey (BGS) has worked with HES to develop an integrated digital site assessment system that provides a refined survey process for stone-built (and other) historic sites. Based on the BGS System for Integrated Geoscience Mapping (BGS▪SIGMA)—an integrated workflow underpinned by a geo-spatial platform for data capture and interpretation—the system is built on top of ESRI’s ArcGIS software, and underpinned by a relational database. Users can populate custom-built data entry forms to record maintenance issues and repair specifications for architectural elements ranging from individual blocks of stone to entire building elevations. Photographs, sketches, and digital documents can be linked to architectural elements to enhance the usability of the data. Predetermined data fields and supporting dictionaries constrain the input parameters to ensure a high degree of consistency and facilitate data extraction and querying. Presenting the data within a GIS provides a versatile planning tool for scheduling works, specifying materials, identifying skills needed for repairs, and allocating resources. The overall condition of a site can be monitored accurately over time by repeating the survey at regular intervals (e.g. every 5 years). Other datasets can be linked to the database and other geospatially referenced datasets can be superimposed in GIS, adding considerably to the scope and utility of the system. The system can be applied to any geospatially referenced object in a wide range of situations thus providing many potential applications in conservation, archaeology and related fields.Keywords:
Historic site
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Using digital technology for cultural heritage documentation is a global trend in the 21 st century. Many important techniques are currently under development, including 3D digital imaging, reverse engineering, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) etc. However, no system for overall management or data integration is yet available. Therefore, we urgently need such a system to efficiently manage and interpret data for the preservation of cultural heritages. This paper presents a digitizing process developed in Taiwan by the authors. To govern and manage cultural property, three phases of property conservation, registration, restoration and management, has been set up along a timeline. In accordance with the laws of cultural property, a structural system has been built for project management, including data classification and data interpretation with self-documenting characteristics. Through repository information and metadata, a system catalogue (also called data dictionary) (Figure 1) was created. The primary objective of the study is to create an integrated technology for an efficient management of databases. Several benefits could be obtained from this structural standard: (1) cultural heritage management documentation can be centralized to minimize the possibility of data re-entry resulting inconsistency, and also to facilitate simultaneous updating of data; (2) since multiple data can be simultaneously retrieved and saved in real time, the incidence of errors can be reduced; (3) this system could be easily tailored to meet the administrative requirements for the standardization of documentation exchanged between cultural properties institutions and various county and city governments.
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During the early 1900’s the British Geological Survey developed and implemented a digital mapping
system utilising GIS technology. This system enables the generation of a variety of products from a
geological database containing spatial and relational data. Output includes high quality map
products and digital datasets derived from the database. The latter can be incorporated into other
digital systems for use in geological manipulation, such as the surface modelling. This allows the
data collectors to visualise their data in different formats and to combine geology with other types
of information, to create new datasets and facilitates the visualisation of varied and diverse data
within a single system.
During the past 4 years, the methodologies developed for the Digital Map Production System
(DMPS) have been applied to several geoscience projects. These projects include i) the adaption of
the BGS system for geoscientific programmes in other organisations and ii) the development of PC
GIS for low cost, user friendly manipulation of geoscientific data.
Where high quality map production and efficient management of large datasets have been required,
the GIS/database design has been modified and system analogues to the DMPS built for the UK and
overseas applications. The basic design has been customised to fit the requirements of other
organisations, creating geosciences dataset management systems to suit the specific data and
investigation needs.
Transfer of geological data into PC‐based GIS has enabled geoscientists, with minimal GIS expertise,
to view and manipulate their own data. This gives those with the greatest knowledge of that data
the power to analyse it in digital system. The relative low cost of PC systems has allowed methods
and procedures developed for the BGS DMPS to be customized, more widely used and applied to
requirements for digital data management in developing countries.
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In this paper we present an integrated system developed in order to record, construct, pre-process, manage,
visualize and visually navigate 3D models reality based of large archeological and architectural sites for
eHeritage GIS systems. The framework integrates structured geometrical and documentary information
resulting from multiple sources with the aim to enhance the knowledge of those sites within the frame of its
historical evolution and its institutional management in a 3D GIS/DB. The developed applications were
designed for different types of users, with a largely scalable interface, able to support different output
devices and to work at different levels of iconicity. The system allows a full comprehension of the buildings
in their own context, permitting to discover unknown relationships, to evaluate their architectural occupancy
and to quickly access a complex system of information. The framework has been tested in two different
systems - designed and developed to satisfy both internal (cataloguing, documentation, preservation,
management of archaeological heritage) and external (communication through the web portal) purposes:
the first, in Pompeii, developed in order to have a web-based system that uses Open Source software and
complies with national and international standards; the second one, a prototype designed to make available
on the Google Earth platform the complete Palladian corpus documentation implemented by the CISAAP.
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Abstract. As a single coherent model, the proposed Virtual Historic Dublin City will improve the current approaches for planning, conserving, presenting and interpreting cultural heritage buildings and their environments. The combination of digital recording, modelling and data management systems enable the interaction with complex, interlinked three-dimensional structures containing rich and diverse underlying data. End users can encompass architectural and engineering conservation, education and research, in addition to public engagement and cultural tourism. In this paper a digital design framework is presented, based on state of the art current approaches for recording, modelling and presenting Virtual Historic Dublin. The modelling sites and structures is based on remotely sensed survey data which is processed and modelled in Historic BIM or GIS allowing the addition of semantic attributes. Archiving and storage of both models and knowledge and information attributes requires open systems and server data base capable of handling vector and point cloud information in addition to other digital data. The dissemination and interaction with the models and attached knowledge attributions is based on combining game engine platforms, Historic BIM, Historic GIS and access to compatible storage and data base.
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This scoping study outlines PropBase. This is not another corporate database but more an integrated means of accessing, synthesising and extracting data related to rock and soil properties, including anthropogenic soils that are held in existing, corporately managed, databases. It will also provide high-level metadata and contact information for relevant data that are held in BGS in non-corporate databases or analogue forms. PropBase will provide seamless access to rock and soil property data in a user friendly, intuitive, way as well as the means of providing summaries of the data. It is likely to be part of or, at least, linked to, the Internet Data Access (IDA), Geoscience Data Index (GDI), and Digital Geoscience Spatial Model (DGSM), data portal systems and will underpin, and enable extension of, existing enquiries services.
There are two main aspects to PropBase. Firstly, there are the database-related activities. For data in digital databases to be usable by PropBase they must have attributes that enable them to be both located spatially and related directly to rock types. To achieve this ‘PropBase compliance’, data will need to be attributed with XYZ co-ordinates and LexRock codes.
Secondly, there is the development of a ‘PropBase Data Portal’, which will provide easy access to ‘PropBase compliant’ datasets wherever they may reside. The DGSM Portal, which provides access to the results of 3D geological modelling activities and their related data, and the Groundwater Portal, developed at BGS Wallingford, are good examples of such data portals already developed by the BGS. Given the clear potential benefits to PropBase, it is proposed that the Geochemical Properties Interface (GPI) be developed and extended, initially for a limited range of rock properties, starting with porosity. The advantage of this portal is that, if required by the user, it already has the capability to provide statistical summaries of the data that it extracts.
PropBase will be a relatively modestly funded project and may, therefore, not have the resources to undertake significant enhancement of existing databases or to digitise analogue datasets. It must, however, be able to ensure that all relevant new data acquisitions are ‘PropBase compliant’ and to support development of the ‘PropBase Data Portal’. A suggested outline programme for PropBase is provided.
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Historical city centres are called to be witnesses of the past while supporting modern life. The competing needs for conservation and transformation involved in their development introduce a complex and multidisciplinary problem, which can be handled only by using proper tools. In this framework, the definition of shared digital archives able to collect and organize heterogenous data is believed to be the first step for the creation of an effective knowledge base, capable of activating analyses and supporting decision-making processes. The study presented here starts from the discussion of the requirements that an information system on historical centres should meet, and proposes a workflow based on the interoperability between GIS (Geographic Information System) and BIM (Building Information Modeling) aimed at the realization of a spatial relational database founded on CityGML. The OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standard was chosen in view of its capacity of representing the objects with their geometrical, topological and semantic properties, by specifying their relationships in a hierarchical environment. With the idea of introducing a repeatable model, the whole process starts from easily retrievable data on the city and makes use of standard data models, classification systems, programming languages and, as much as possible, of open software and contents. In order to test and validate the process the case study of the historical centre of Pavia (Italy) is presented as an experiment at the urban scale, while a single historical building complex is modelled for the assessment of the compliance to higher Levels of Detail. The workflow used to manage and display the information employs Visual Programming Language (VPL) and follows a four stages process: the retrieval of the input data, the informative modelling (GIS or BIM), the conversion in CityGML and the inclusion in the relational database. As a result, a three-dimensional spatial relational database in a standard data model is defined, capable of harmonizing, storing and organizing building information on historical city centres.
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In the framework of Land Planning and Management activities, a database including a large variety of datasets of heterogeneous typology and acquisition is fundamental in order to allow for diversified queries and efficient selection of data. Local municipalities (and unions or consortia of municipalities) in Regione Lombardia are encouraged to create their own geographical information systems (GIS) for territorial data management and to incorporate in the database the results of the nowadays on-going photogrammetric surveys which will produce the updated cartography of the region in the form of a database with geo-referenced and topologically structured data (the Italian definition is Database Topografico, and the acronym is DBT). Usually, the towns’ technical departments have cartographic data available in digital format, which means that at least a part of their digital information archives are geographically referenced. However, this does not imply that all the data are already organized as a DB. In general, when newly surveyed data have to be integrated with already existing digital archives containing spatial and thematic information, the challenge is twofold: (a) to structure the existing data archives according to the rules of relational DB design (in the case that it is not already so), in order to obtain a model which univocally organizes and describes the information content of the GIS (thus allowing also for data interoperability); (b) to incorporate the new updated cartographic data (DBT) in the “old” database, without compromising the newly created structure. Both aspects can be studied and solved in the frame of conceptual modeling, which represents the basis for structuring large sets of data enabling to manage a variety of applications for a wide spread of potential users. In this paper, a conceptual model is presented for a relational database for a GIS application to be the main tool supporting everyday work of a Consortium of Local Municipalities in Regione Lombardia. Solutions are presented for both problems described above. After logical modeling, the system was implemented and tested at a prototype level, showing that several data sets (many of them with spatial reference) could be structured in a unique database, producing analysis and elaborations both in an automatic and efficient way.
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Abstract. The integration between BIM (Building Information Modeling) and GIS (Geographic Information System) is currently a highly debated research topic. However, the effective integration of the two workflows in a unique information system is still an open research field, especially when dealing with Cultural Heritage (CH).The paper describes an ongoing research on the development of a web information system able to integrate BIM and GIS data, with particular focus on the analysis of the historicized city and its main buildings over time. Three main aspects, in particular, are considered more relevant: (i) conceptual data organization to integrate GIS and BIM in a single environment; (ii) integration of data belonging to different historical periods for analyses over time (4D); (iii) integration into the system of datasets already structured in pre-existing HGIS and HBIM.Most (if not all) of the attributes must be linked with both 2D and 3D entities. The system should be queryable and with the possibility to edit the information regardless of the actual focus of the current user, either if he is more BIM or GIS oriented. This is one of the main requirement for the system not to be just a simple viewer of BIM and GIS data in a unique software environment. The system can manage, from a spatial point of view, different scales of detail, allowing the connection between data from the architectural scale to the territorial one and, from a temporal point of view, data belonging to different periods. All these features have been designed to meet, in particular, the requirements of CH and realize a Historical BIM-GIS system. Besides, the web architecture allows sharing information even between actors with different digital skills, without the need for specific software installed, and ensures portability and access from mobile devices.
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Geological mapping with pen and paper is proving inefficient in many respects in the digital age. With this in mind, the British Geological Survey (BGS) instigated the System for Integrated Geospatial MApping programme (SIGMA) to improve the mapping workflow by evaluating and implementing effective digital procedures for baseline data review, geological data acquisition, and geological mapping and modelling. The project has developed digital field data capture systems to collect information for output to a Geographical Information System (GIS) and digital geological maps. BGS first explored the concept of digital field data collection in the early 1990’s with the conclusion that the mobile computing hardware available at the time was not suitable.
An effective digital field data capture system will have a number of advantages over the conventional analogue recording systems. The first is to increase the efficiency of data collection and its subsequent manipulation, predominantly by reducing the time spent copying analogue field data to databases/GIS. The system design will ensure that all field geologists record the same range of structured data and also that mandatory or important information is not omitted. Drop-down menus and approved dictionaries are incorporated to standardise nomenclature. An additional advantage of a digital field system is that a GIS of baseline data (e.g. a series of historic topographic maps) can be uploaded onto the mobile PC, ensuring that new data are collected in the context of prior geological knowledge and with a wide range of other geographic and environmental datasets.
It should be noted that while we strive to guarantee corporate consistency and common standards by structuring our data collection, there must also be a degree of flexibility so that geologists are not unduly constrained. Moreover, when we replicate functions that are ideally suited to pencil and paper, such as drawing sketches, we must ensure that the digital solutions are fit for purpose and do not leave field geologists yearning for ‘the old days’.
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The efficient geological data management in Poland is necessary to support multilevel decision processes for government and local authorities in case of spatial planning, mineral resources and groundwater supply and the rational use of subsurface. Vast amount of geological information gathered in the digital archives and databases of Polish Geological Survey (PGS) is a basic resource for multi-scale national subsurface management. Data integration is the key factor to allow development of GIS and web tools for decision makers, however the main barrier for efficient geological information management is the heterogeneity of data in the resources of the Polish Geological Survey. Engineering-geological database is the first PGS thematic domain applied in the whole data integration plan. The solutions developed within this area will facilitate creation of procedures and standards for multilevel data management in PGS. Twenty years of experience in delivering digital engineering-geological mapping in 1:10 000 scale and archival geotechnical reports acquisition and digitisation allowed gathering of more than 300 thousands engineering-geological boreholes database as well as set of 10 thematic spatial layers (including foundation conditions map, depth to the first groundwater level, bedrock level, geohazards). Historically, the desktop approach was the source form of the geological-engineering data storage, resulting in multiple non-correlated interbase datasets. The need for creation of domain data model emerged and an object-oriented modelling (UML) scheme has been developed. The aim of the aforementioned development was to merge all datasets in one centralised Oracle server and prepare the unified spatial data structure for efficient web presentation and applications development. The presented approach will be the milestone toward creation of the Polish national standard for engineering-geological information management. The paper presents the approach and methodology of data unification, thematic vocabularies harmonisation, assumptions and results of data modelling as well as process of the integration of domain model with enterprise architecture implemented in PGS. Currently, there is no geological data standard in Poland. Lack of guidelines for borehole and spatial data management results in an increasing data dispersion as well as in growing barrier for multilevel data management and implementation of efficient decision support tools. Building the national geological data standard makes geotechnical information accessible to multiple institutions, universities, administration and research organisations and gather their data in the same, unified digital form according to the presented data model. Such approach is compliant with current digital trends and the idea of Spatial Data Infrastructure. Efficient geological data management is essential to support the sustainable development and the economic growth, as they allow implementation of geological information to assist the idea of Smart Cites, deliver information for Building Information Management (BIM) and support modern spatial planning. The engineering-geological domain data model presented in the paper is a scalable solution. Future implementation of developed procedures on other domains of PGS geological data is possible.
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