DEVELOPMENT OF AN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SPATIO-TEMPORAL RESEARCH IN EARLY MODERN FLANDERS AND BRABANT
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1de Maeyer, P.; 2de Coene, K.; 3de Wit, B.; 4Kruk, R.; 5Ooms, K.; 6Van Den Berghe, M.; 7Vrielinck, S.; 8Wiedemann, T.; 8Winter, A.; 10Devos, I.
1GHENT UNIVERSITY Email: philippe.demaeyer@ugent.be
2GHENT UNIVERSITY Email: karen.decoene@ugent.be
3GHENT UNIVERSITY Email: bart.dewit@ugent.be
4INSTITUT GEOGRAPHIQUE NATIONAL (BELGIQUE) Email: rink.kruk@ngi.be
5GHENT UNIVERSITY Email: kristien.ooms@ugent.be
6GHENT UNIVERSITY Email: mivdnber.vandenberghe@ugent.be
7GHENT UNIVERSITY Email: sven.vrielinck@ugent.be
8GHENT UNIVERSITY Email: torsten.wiedemann@ugent.be
8VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL Email: anne.winter@vub.ac.be
10GHENT UNIVERSITY Email: isabelle.devos@ugent.be
Abstract
Belgium has a rich cartographic heritage going back to the beginning of the Renaissance. One of the most important products of Belgian cartographic history, is the so-called Carte de cabinet of count Joseph de Ferraris (1770-1778). This manuscript map of the Austrian Netherlands and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège covers more or less the actual territory of Belgium on a scale of about 1:11.520. This map - together with more recent maps of the 19th century - are at present available as (georeferenced or not) land covering cartographic heritage. As part of the project STREAM a spatio-temporal research infrastructure for Flanders and Brabant (Belgium) in the early modern period is currently being developed by historians, geographers and IT specialists, in order to provide them with the required tools for spatio-temporal or spatial analysis in well-defined past time periods. It is obvious that - for spatio-temporal analysis - there is a need for data to be available in an object-oriented GIS vector. The approach used can best be described as a retrogressive method. The content of the historical map is compared to the vector data of the actual topographic map on 1:10.000 of Belgium produced by the national mapping agency (Institut Géographique National IGN-B). This map offers the advantage of being positionally accurate, whereas the geometric reliability of the older maps is questionable at best. By identifying similar features on different maps, an interpretation of the features in the past is completed. A specific editing platform was developed in order to be able to consult all these maps commonly in a practical manner and to possess a tool, which scientists (esp. historians) can use to focus on the interpretation in the first place (without having them to immerse themselves in the large opportunities of a GIS-platform). As such a first temporal transect is produced for the period corresponding to the Carte de Cabinet. The outlines of the parishes are vectorized together with the road and waterway network and other geographical features. A degree of positional reliability or vagueness can be assigned to the features on the old map, depending on the level of similarity. The development of this platform is the first step towards our spatio-temporal research structure. As we expect a continuous need to interpret the perceived objects, in a following step the actual map and the 18th-century Carte de Cabinet will be confronted with other cartographic documents (such as the present soil map or maps of the 19th century, including the early cadastral maps, but also older aerial pictures).
Keywords
GIS; cartographic heritage; Belgium