Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections.
A great deal of information is contained within archival maps-ranging from historic political boundaries, to mineral resources, to the locations of cultural landmarks. There are many ongoing efforts to preserve and digitize historic maps so that the information contained within them can be stored an...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260039 |
| _version_ | 1818715542634102784 |
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| author | Karim Bahgat Dan Runfola |
| author_facet | Karim Bahgat Dan Runfola |
| author_sort | Karim Bahgat |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A great deal of information is contained within archival maps-ranging from historic political boundaries, to mineral resources, to the locations of cultural landmarks. There are many ongoing efforts to preserve and digitize historic maps so that the information contained within them can be stored and analyzed efficiently. A major barrier to such map digitizing efforts is that the geographic location of each map is typically unknown and must be determined through an often slow and manual process known as georeferencing. To mitigate the time costs associated with the georeferencing process, this paper introduces a fully automated method based on map toponym (place name) labels. It is the first study to demonstrate these methods across a wide range of both simulated and real-world maps. We find that toponym-based georeferencing is sufficiently accurate to be used for data extraction purposes in nearly half of all cases. We make our implementation available to the wider research community through fully open-source replication code, as well as an online georeferencing tool, and highlight areas of improvement for future research. It is hoped that the practical implications of this research will allow for larger and more efficient processing and digitizing of map information for researchers, institutions, and the general public. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T19:05:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-94a8de3d67fa476cae07c16ba0a0eca0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T19:05:01Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-94a8de3d67fa476cae07c16ba0a0eca02022-12-21T21:36:01ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-011611e026003910.1371/journal.pone.0260039Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections.Karim BahgatDan RunfolaA great deal of information is contained within archival maps-ranging from historic political boundaries, to mineral resources, to the locations of cultural landmarks. There are many ongoing efforts to preserve and digitize historic maps so that the information contained within them can be stored and analyzed efficiently. A major barrier to such map digitizing efforts is that the geographic location of each map is typically unknown and must be determined through an often slow and manual process known as georeferencing. To mitigate the time costs associated with the georeferencing process, this paper introduces a fully automated method based on map toponym (place name) labels. It is the first study to demonstrate these methods across a wide range of both simulated and real-world maps. We find that toponym-based georeferencing is sufficiently accurate to be used for data extraction purposes in nearly half of all cases. We make our implementation available to the wider research community through fully open-source replication code, as well as an online georeferencing tool, and highlight areas of improvement for future research. It is hoped that the practical implications of this research will allow for larger and more efficient processing and digitizing of map information for researchers, institutions, and the general public.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260039 |
| spellingShingle | Karim Bahgat Dan Runfola Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections. PLoS ONE |
| title | Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections. |
| title_full | Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections. |
| title_fullStr | Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections. |
| title_short | Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections. |
| title_sort | toponym assisted map georeferencing evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260039 |
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