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Towards a Comprehensive World Heritage GIS (Poster Session)

Brian Zottoli
University of Michigan
UNESCO GIS Consultant
United States

In the past, the application of GIS for cultural resource management in the Asia Pacific region has generally focused on the implementation of GIS for specific sites. However, the experience of existing site-specific GIS points to a need for further refinement by setting common standards and protocols. Lack of inter-operability precludes the sharing of data at a national level (for example, incorporating data from different sites into regional and/or national inventories), and at an international level (for example, sharing data from different sites to facilitate thematic or regional topics such as studies of the Angkor and Cham empires).

The UNESCO Office of the Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific is assisting management agencies in Viet Nam, Thailand and Lao PDR with pilot projects to integrate site-specific GIS within a regional framework. Guidelines are being developed to describe heritage value, authenticity, condition and risk factors, ensuring that the heritage GIS data sets meet cultural resource management best practices and are inter-operable. This regional GIS strategy has two components: overarching activities such as the development of standards for technical and content metadata, together with on-site technical support to build the infrastructure for agencies with culture resource management responsibilities to sustain and make good use of these systems.

In addition to ensuring that technical barriers to data exchange have been eased by the widespread use of metadata, it is also considered to be extremely important that site management agencies and their respective national governments clearly define rights regarding access to digital GIS data. To ensure access to data by the appropriate end users, we propose a three-tiered classification scheme for heritage data:

o Level 1- General data that can be accessed by the general public ­ at the minimum, a set of coordinates, description of the resource/structure and a photograph

o Level 2 - More detailed survey data describing the heritage resources and their condition ­ which can made available to the relevant local, national or international agencies.

o Level 3 - Heritage data that is used internally by the national heritage management agency and UNESCO. Wider access to heritage data and the resulting increased knowledge of the location and value of heritage resources will lead to more 'heritage-friendly' infrastructure for planning and development, and thus contribute to greater survival of the resources.