Inventing Europe/Tensions of Europe Sofia 2010 Conference

Jordi Martí-Henneberg, Luís Espinha da Silveira, Daniel Alves & Josep Puig

Towards a geographical, historical and socio-

demographic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula (1850-2010)

Introduction

• Built an Iberian HGIS:– New tool for analysis– Collecting data about administrative division, infrastructures, economic

indicators, population, and so on, when official censures are available (1850-2000)

• Iberian Peninsula (IP):– Well-delimited geography– Testing methodological solutions applicable to other areas in Europe– Analyzing phenomena regardless of national borders– Identifying patterns of spatial distribution and historical evolution in which

interaction with geographic realities plays an important role

• Challenges:– European Standards for spatial information– Project beyond national boundaries– Data (historical data, different sources…)– Dissimilar administrative procedures and cartography

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Methodology - Using the INSPIRE directive and metadata policy

• Following European Directives for compatibility and sharing data

• Convert old metadata to new metadata

• New data already following INSPIRE Implementing Rules

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Old Metadata

The INSPIRE Implementing Rules on Metadata Program

CatMDEdit MIG Editor

Metadata compliant INSPIRE

Metadata Management

Portugal

SpainIberian

Peninsula

XML

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Methodology - Cartography

• Problems:– Different Data Origin

– Different Coordinate System

– Different Administrative Units

• Solutions:– Overlay data (clean slivers and

gaps)

– European Terrestrial Reference System (1989)

– Iberian Projection

– Higher proportional relationship between administrative units

Districts (pt) & CCAA (es)

Municipalities (pt & es)

Districts (pt) & Provinces (es)

Parishes (pt) & Municipalities (es)

Methodology - Database

• Problem: GIS software shows some limitations in handling time or historical information– Data for one location varies

over time– Locations or geographic

representations may also change

– Difficulty in processing unreferenced data, or whose location is vague

• Solution: construction of a database (PostgreSQL) outside the GIS software– Flexible in handling new

data– Register hierarchical

relationships between spatial elements

– Register changes occurred on the spatial elements, and on the corresponding associated data

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Methodology - WebGIS

• Objective:– A website where all

information can be made available in distinct geographic scales and administrative divisions through time

– Integration of GIS data with the database

• Solution:– Open source software: Linux

and Apache (web server technologies); CartoWeb: (webGIS interface) & UMN MapServer (conversion of shapefiles)

– Secure about data and flexible about visualization

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Methodology - WebGIS

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Web end user

Information

Access Database

Quantitative andqualitative data

Configurationfiles

PostgreSQL

Multimediafiles

UMN MapServerCartoweb

Apache

Server

Multimedia

ImagesPDFs

Word filesVideos

…

Cartography

GIS software

Shapefiles

Shapefiles

Iberian Peninsula - Population density in the 20th century

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Thank You!

Inventing Europe/Tensions of Europe Sofia 2010 Conference

You can see it live here:

http://atlas.fcsh.unl.pt/

(in Portuguese, in English and soon in Spanish, of course)