Historical GIS: Technologies, Methodologies, and Scholarship (Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography, Series Number 39)

This book provides an excellent introduction and overview of Historical GIS. It is very well laid out, providing an overall introduction to the capabilities of GIS in its traditional context before moving on to case studies of how historical users have utilized Historical GIS.I appreciate how the book demonstrates both the advantages as well as the drawbacks of using GIS technology in the context of historical research. It cleared up several misperceptions I had about GIS in general, which probably could have been done with any number of other GIS books out there, but as a historian, I appreciated the book being catered to my audience as opposed to a general reader.The book is of similar quality as a college textbook, and appears to be used as such. While the authors do not assume the reader has a working knowledge of GIS, they do assume a basic understanding of the goals of GIS and how it might have potential in the field of historical research.I highly recommend it to anyone in the field. Half-title......Page 3 Series-title......Page 4 Title......Page 7 Copyright......Page 8 Contents......Page 9 Figures......Page 10 Tables......Page 13 Acknowledgements......Page 14 1.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 15 1.2 DEFINITIONS: GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS......Page 16 1.3 GIS AND THE THREE COMPONENTS OF DATA......Page 21 1.4 THE BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF GIS......Page 23 1.5 A BRIEF HISTORY OF GIS......Page 26 1.6 GIS IN GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH......Page 27 1.7 GIS IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH......Page 29 1.8 CONCLUSIONS......Page 32 2.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 35 2.2.1 Vector data......Page 37 2.2.2 Raster data......Page 41 2.2.3 Comparing raster and vector data......Page 43 2.3 CREATING DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS......Page 44 2.4 SPATIAL DATA AND ATTRIBUTE DATA COMBINED......Page 47 2.5 BRINGING IT TOGETHER WITH LAYERS......Page 50 2.6 CONCLUSIONS......Page 53 3.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 55 3.2 CAPTURING DATA FROM SECONDARY SOURCES......Page 57 3.3 BRINGING CAPTURED DATA INTO THE REAL WORLD......Page 61 3.4 PRIMARY DATA CAPTURE......Page 65 3.5 LINKING ATTRIBUTE DATA TO SPATIAL DATA......Page 68 3.6 ENSURING DATA ARE USABLE: METADATA, DOCUMENTATION, PRESERVATION AND DISSEMINATION......Page 71 3.7 CONCLUSIONS......Page 75 4.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 77 4.2 EXPLORING DATA THROUGH QUERYING......Page 78 4.3 CENTROIDS, THIESSEN POLYGONS AND DISSOLVING: TOOLS FOR MANIPULATING A LAYER OF DATA......Page 82 4.4 OVERLAY, BUFFERING AND MAP ALGEBRA: INTEGRATING DATA THROUGH LOCATION......Page 85 4.5 DATA QUALITY IN HISTORICAL GIS......Page 96 4.6 CONCLUSIONS......Page 101 5.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 103 5.2 GIS AND MAPPING: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES......Page 104 5.3 CREATING GOOD MAPS: CARTOGRAPHY AND GIS......Page 108 5.4 HISTORICAL ATLASES MADE USING GIS: A GOOD USE OF GIS?......Page 114 5.5 DISTORTING MAPS: THE USE OF CARTOGRAMS......Page 119 5.6 MOVING IMAGERY: ANIMATIONS AND VIRTUAL WORLDS......Page 122 5.7 ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION AND GIS......Page 126 5.8 CONCLUSIONS: MAPS AND STORIES......Page 131 6.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 133 6.2 SPACE AND TIME IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY......Page 134 6.3 TIME IN GIS DATABASES......Page 138 6.4.1 National historical GISs......Page 143 6.4.2 Changes to stand-alone features......Page 149 6.4.3 An example of exploring change over space and time......Page 150 6.5 STANDARDISING DATA OVER TIME: THE ROLE OF AREAL INTERPOLATION......Page 152 6.6 CONCLUSIONS......Page 157 7.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 159 7.2 BASIC HISTORICAL GIS ON THE INTERNET......Page 161 7.3 USING LOCATION AS METADATA......Page 163 7.4 GIS AND PLACE-NAME GAZETTEERS......Page 167 7.5 CONCLUSIONS......Page 171 8.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 175 8.2 WHAT IS SPATIAL ANALYSIS?......Page 176 8.3 WHY ARE SPATIAL DATA DIFFICULT TO ANALYSE?......Page 177 8.4 ANALYSING SPATIAL DATA......Page 180 8.4.1 Point pattern analysis......Page 181 8.4.2 Spatial analysis of point and polygon data with attributes......Page 184 8.4.3 Spatial analysis and networks......Page 189 8.4.4 Spatial analysis and raster data......Page 191 8.5 CONCLUSIONS: QUANTITATIVE SPATIAL ANALYSIS, GIS AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY......Page 194 9.1 INTRODUCTION......Page 197 9.2 APPROACHES TO TURNING SPATIAL DATA INTO GEOGRAPHICAL UNDERSTANDING......Page 198 9.3.1 National historical GISs......Page 200 9.3.2 Other quantitative approaches to historical GIS......Page 203 9.4 GIS AND QUALITATIVE HISTORY......Page 209 9.5 CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS A FUTURE FOR HISTORICAL GIS......Page 213 References......Page 219 Index......Page 236 ISBN-13: 9780521855631 Half-title 3 Series-title 4 Title 7 Copyright 8 Contents 9 Figures 10 Tables 13 Acknowledgements 14 1 GIS and its role in historical research: an introduction 15 1.1 INTRODUCTION 15 1.2 DEFINITIONS: GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS 16 1.3 GIS AND THE THREE COMPONENTS OF DATA 21 1.4 THE BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF GIS 23 1.5 A BRIEF HISTORY OF GIS 26 1.6 GIS IN GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH 27 1.7 GIS IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH 29 1.8 CONCLUSIONS 32 2 GIS: a framework for representing the Earth’s surface 35 2.1 INTRODUCTION 35 2.2 REPRESENTING LOCATIONS USING SPATIAL DATA 37 2.2.1 Vector data 37 2.2.2 Raster data 41 2.2.3 Comparing raster and vector data 43 2.3 CREATING DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS 44 2.4 SPATIAL DATA AND ATTRIBUTE DATA COMBINED 47 2.5 BRINGING IT TOGETHER WITH LAYERS 50 2.6 CONCLUSIONS 53 3 Building historical GIS databases 55 3.1 INTRODUCTION 55 3.2 CAPTURING DATA FROM SECONDARY SOURCES 57 3.3 BRINGING CAPTURED DATA INTO THE REAL WORLD 61 3.4 PRIMARY DATA CAPTURE 65 3.5 LINKING ATTRIBUTE DATA TO SPATIAL DATA 68 3.6 ENSURING DATA ARE USABLE: METADATA, DOCUMENTATION, PRESERVATION AND DISSEMINATION 71 3.7 CONCLUSIONS 75 4 Basic approaches to handling data in a historical GIS 77 4.1 INTRODUCTION 77 4.2 EXPLORING DATA THROUGH QUERYING 78 4.3 CENTROIDS, THIESSEN POLYGONS AND DISSOLVING: TOOLS FOR MANIPULATING A LAYER OF DATA 82 4.4 OVERLAY, BUFFERING AND MAP ALGEBRA: INTEGRATING DATA THROUGH LOCATION 85 4.5 DATA QUALITY IN HISTORICAL GIS 96 4.6 CONCLUSIONS 101 5 Using GIS to visualise historical data 103 5.1 INTRODUCTION 103 5.2 GIS AND MAPPING: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES 104 5.3 CREATING GOOD MAPS: CARTOGRAPHY AND GIS 108 5.4 HISTORICAL ATLASES MADE USING GIS: A GOOD USE OF GIS? 114 5.5 DISTORTING MAPS: THE USE OF CARTOGRAMS 119 5.6 MOVING IMAGERY: ANIMATIONS AND VIRTUAL WORLDS 122 5.7 ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION AND GIS 126 5.8 CONCLUSIONS: MAPS AND STORIES 131 6 Time in historical GIS databases 133 6.1 INTRODUCTION 133 6.2 SPACE AND TIME IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY 134 6.3 TIME IN GIS DATABASES 138 6.4 APPROACHES TO HANDLING TIME IN HISTORICAL GIS DATABASES 143 6.4.1 National historical GISs 143 6.4.2 Changes to stand-alone features 149 6.4.3 An example of exploring change over space and time 150 6.5 STANDARDISING DATA OVER TIME: THE ROLE OF AREAL INTERPOLATION 152 6.6 CONCLUSIONS 157 7 Geographic Information Retrieval: historical geographical information on the internet and in digital libraries 159 7.1 INTRODUCTION 159 7.2 BASIC HISTORICAL GIS ON THE INTERNET 161 7.3 USING LOCATION AS METADATA 163 7.4 GIS AND PLACE-NAME GAZETTEERS 167 7.5 CONCLUSIONS 171 8 GIS and quantitative spatial analysis 175 8.1 INTRODUCTION 175 8.2 WHAT IS SPATIAL ANALYSIS? 176 8.3 WHY ARE SPATIAL DATA DIFFICULT TO ANALYSE? 177 8.4 ANALYSING SPATIAL DATA 180 8.4.1 Point pattern analysis 181 8.4.2 Spatial analysis of point and polygon data with attributes 184 8.4.3 Spatial analysis and networks 189 8.4.4 Spatial analysis and raster data 191 8.5 CONCLUSIONS: QUANTITATIVE SPATIAL ANALYSIS, GIS AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY 194 9 From techniques to knowledge: historical GIS in practice 197 9.1 INTRODUCTION 197 9.2 APPROACHES TO TURNING SPATIAL DATA INTO GEOGRAPHICAL UNDERSTANDING 198 9.3 GIS AND QUANTITATIVE HISTORY 200 9.3.1 National historical GISs 200 9.3.2 Other quantitative approaches to historical GIS 203 9.4 GIS AND QUALITATIVE HISTORY 209 9.5 CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS A FUTURE FOR HISTORICAL GIS 213 References 219 Index 236 Historical GIS is an emerging field that uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to research the geographies of the past. Ian Gregory and Paul Ell's study, first published in 2007, comprehensively defines this field, exploring all aspects of using GIS in historical research. A GIS is a form of database in which every item of data is linked to a spatial location. This technology offers unparalleled opportunities to add insight and rejuvenate historical research through the ability to identify and use the geographical characteristics of data. Historical GIS introduces the basic concepts and tools underpinning GIS technology, describing and critically assessing the visualisation, analytical and e-science methodologies that it enables and examining key scholarship where GIS has been used to enhance research debates. The result is a clear agenda charting how GIS will develop as one of the most important approaches to scholarship in historical geography. Using geographical information systems (GIS) to research the geographies of the past is a growing field. 'Historical GIS' introduces the basic concepts and tools underpinning this technology, describes and assesses the visualisation, analytical and e-science methodologies it enables and examines key research debates