Why the Historic Environment needs a Spatial Data Infrastructure
The INSPIRE Directive (2007) mandates European Union countries to share environment-related datasets so that they can be easily accessed by other public organisations within their own and neighbouring countries to inform policies or activities that may impact on the environment. Key to delivering IN...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of York
2017-03-01
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| Series: | Internet Archaeology |
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| Online Access: | http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue43/7/index.html |
| _version_ | 1797331785705586688 |
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| author | Peter McKeague Anthony Corns Axel Posluschny |
| author_facet | Peter McKeague Anthony Corns Axel Posluschny |
| author_sort | Peter McKeague |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The INSPIRE Directive (2007) mandates European Union countries to share environment-related datasets so that they can be easily accessed by other public organisations within their own and neighbouring countries to inform policies or activities that may impact on the environment. Key to delivering INSPIRE is the establishment of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) providing frameworks for coordinating the policies, infrastructure and standards needed to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain and preserve spatial data through discovery, view and download services by 2020. Archaeological information is inherently spatial yet, despite the environmental focus of INSPIRE, guidance is limited and ambiguous for archaeological datasets and consequentially there is limited engagement from data curators. Although Protected Sites is an INSPIRE theme, does it cover only those formally designated through legislation or include sites managed through legal or other effective means?
INSPIRE publishes data to help inform environmental policies and if data is unpublished there is a risk it will simply be ignored. Complex modelling of environmental change through Ecosystem Services remotely consuming web services is already happening but the lack of published reference datasets from the historic environment compromises consideration of the resource in decision making processes.
Development of SDIs for heritage can bring wider benefits for the profession. Too often fieldwork extents and results are confined to paper publications or reside in project archives. Consequentially we lack a spatial record of fieldwork activities. Although cultural heritage data often has a strong spatial component, the full potential of the geographies created through discovery, recording and analysis is far from being realised. Harmonisation and publication of spatial data to consistent standards through an SDI is an essential pre-requisite for mainstreaming the use of heritage data in the 21st century to get cultural heritage to work for Europe. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T07:40:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-848a9d6f22b94fcdb10ab5b19aaec0e6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1363-5387 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T07:40:11Z |
| publishDate | 2017-03-01 |
| publisher | University of York |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Internet Archaeology |
| spelling | doaj.art-848a9d6f22b94fcdb10ab5b19aaec0e62024-02-02T17:31:19ZengUniversity of YorkInternet Archaeology1363-53872017-03-014310.11141/ia.43.7Why the Historic Environment needs a Spatial Data InfrastructurePeter McKeague0Anthony Corns 1Axel Posluschny2Historic Environment ScotlandDiscovery ProgrammeKeltenwelt am GlaubergThe INSPIRE Directive (2007) mandates European Union countries to share environment-related datasets so that they can be easily accessed by other public organisations within their own and neighbouring countries to inform policies or activities that may impact on the environment. Key to delivering INSPIRE is the establishment of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) providing frameworks for coordinating the policies, infrastructure and standards needed to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain and preserve spatial data through discovery, view and download services by 2020. Archaeological information is inherently spatial yet, despite the environmental focus of INSPIRE, guidance is limited and ambiguous for archaeological datasets and consequentially there is limited engagement from data curators. Although Protected Sites is an INSPIRE theme, does it cover only those formally designated through legislation or include sites managed through legal or other effective means? INSPIRE publishes data to help inform environmental policies and if data is unpublished there is a risk it will simply be ignored. Complex modelling of environmental change through Ecosystem Services remotely consuming web services is already happening but the lack of published reference datasets from the historic environment compromises consideration of the resource in decision making processes. Development of SDIs for heritage can bring wider benefits for the profession. Too often fieldwork extents and results are confined to paper publications or reside in project archives. Consequentially we lack a spatial record of fieldwork activities. Although cultural heritage data often has a strong spatial component, the full potential of the geographies created through discovery, recording and analysis is far from being realised. Harmonisation and publication of spatial data to consistent standards through an SDI is an essential pre-requisite for mainstreaming the use of heritage data in the 21st century to get cultural heritage to work for Europe.http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue43/7/index.htmlarchaeologyHistoric EnvironmentINSPIREspatial data infrastructuresdata standards |
| spellingShingle | Peter McKeague Anthony Corns Axel Posluschny Why the Historic Environment needs a Spatial Data Infrastructure Internet Archaeology archaeology Historic Environment INSPIRE spatial data infrastructures data standards |
| title | Why the Historic Environment needs a Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| title_full | Why the Historic Environment needs a Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| title_fullStr | Why the Historic Environment needs a Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| title_full_unstemmed | Why the Historic Environment needs a Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| title_short | Why the Historic Environment needs a Spatial Data Infrastructure |
| title_sort | why the historic environment needs a spatial data infrastructure |
| topic | archaeology Historic Environment INSPIRE spatial data infrastructures data standards |
| url | http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue43/7/index.html |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT petermckeague whythehistoricenvironmentneedsaspatialdatainfrastructure AT anthonycorns whythehistoricenvironmentneedsaspatialdatainfrastructure AT axelposluschny whythehistoricenvironmentneedsaspatialdatainfrastructure |