WEBGIS AND GEODATABASE: A DATA SHARING AND IMPLEMENTATION SYSTEM
GIS (Geographic Information System) is an information system that allows the acquisition, storing, analysis, visualization, restitution, sharing, and presentation of information deriving from geographical data. GIS systems, as a tool for storing and organizing information, are powerful tools of data analysis (spatial, statistical, predictive), widely used in archaeological research.
It is a system that contains a set of information management tools that allow to work on a mapping representation. Specifically, geodatabases are data management platforms containing hierarchically organized layers. It is possible to enter, store and retrieve large quantities of instance- based or net-based data to develop a given research project.
The type of data processed by the GIS system in archaeology are: intra-site and inter-site. The first refers to GIS applications dedicated to the cataloguing and processing of excavation data. The second, inter-site data type, is related to a specific area, to analyze the settlement dynamics of the territory and its transformations over time. GIS system manages graphic data (raster or vector) and alphanumeric data, that are constituted by databases in which alphanumeric data are organized in tabular format. The geodatabase consists of observations of spatial data defined by points, lines, or areas. With the same interface, it is possible to make targeted and sector-specific research.
The GIS is intended to be a tool that simplifies the work by providing an overall view of the interventions censused in the study area and a continuous update of the information. The archaeologist can make the first screening on the area of interest, verifying the quantity and quality of the available data.
It is not just a simple tool of data storage, it allows to process, transform and visualize spatial data from the real world for specific purposes: we can reconstruct, by levels and thematic maps, the various phases of archaeological research, from those carried out on the ground to those that passthrough the analysis of the documentation (from historical sources or from recent acquisition).
The archaeological informative level shows all the available information for the known buried archaeology, for the archaeological monuments, for the archaeological traces that come from aerial photointerpretation, etc. Through the geodatabase you can access both the typological and chronological aspects of the censused findings, obtaining ad hoc thematic frameworks that meet the researcher’s needs. The goal is therefore to provide a flexible and implementable tool, a system that can become a collector for all those archaeological records that can arise from the use of WebGIS.
The structure and the complexity of the geospatial database depend on the data that must be used for predictive analysis, excavation documentation, or 3D visualization. These aspects are connected both to the heterogeneous nature of data (vector or raster) and to the complexity of the situation under study.
With simple and intuitive navigation, the user can view the information layers inside the database and make a query to the database.
Using the drop-down menu which shows the existing records, it is possible to define specifically the search fields, for instance:
- ID – allows to search for a single intervention of which the identification number is known;
- The location – allows to search for the interventions made at a precise location;
- The address – allows to search for one or more interventions made at a street or town square;
- The typology – allows to select interventions according to the type of investigation (settlement, necropolis, fortifications, villa, funerary equipment, materials found, etc.);
- The year – allows to search for the execution period of a single intervention;
- The chronology – allows the execution of multiple searches, identifying all the interventions in which findings are related to a determined historical period, from the prehistory to the contemporary age.
The advanced search uses a search mask that allows making more specific queries: a similar type of data system allows quickly detect the types of contexts, of burials, of kits and materials found, etc. Consequently, through advances in research, the details of the published levels and the accuracy of analysis tools will increase.