Canadian Historical GIS Partnership Development: Taking Steps for Historical Mapping in Canada Byron Moldofsky Manager, GIS and Cartography Office Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto (St. George) byron@geog.utoronto.ca Project Manager, Canadian Historical GIS Partnership Development Project Canadian Cartographic Association June 1, 2017
A Canadian Historical GIS Partnership? Why? INFRASTRUCTURE, COMMUNITY, COLLABORATION Especially for Historians, Librarians, Students, Community groups, Private researchers without access to or a lot of expertise in GIS Work to establish research infrastructure Work to enable research collaboration Work to enable research communication (between researchers and with the public) Work to share Canadian HGIS resources (avoid duplication / re-digitizing the wheel )
USE AS EXAMPLES SOME OF THE OTHER NATIONAL HGIS AGENCIES OR PROJECTS
SHARE DATA DISCOVERY TOOLS POSSIBLY TYING IN EXISTING SYSTEMS (ALSO META-DATA, STANDARDS )
SHARE DATA FROM PREVIOUS PROJECTS ESPECIALLY ORPHAN DATA ALSO COLLABORATE IN DATA CREATION
SHARE EXPERIENCES VISUALIZING HISTORICAL GIS DATA - EXISTING TOOLS AND NEED FOR NEW
SSHRC Partnership Development Grant Proposal (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) Submitted November 2014 Canadian Historical Geographic Information Systems Partnership Development grant so only modest funding, for building the partnership and pilot projects Partners and Collaborators from across the country and across disciplines Results of competition announced Aug 2015 2-yr Time frame to September 2017 Year 1: Research White papers, including Geoportal and Geovisualization Year 2: Create pilot websites to test results of research and obtain feedback from community
EVALUATION OF SELECTED TECHNOLOGIES THROUGH THREE METHODS: c) Needs assessment survey made available online for HGIS web-mapping users, designers and developers or interested in doing it in future
CANADIAN HISTORICAL GIS DATA PORTAL PILOT PROJECT WEBSITE Priority 1: Canadian Historical GIS data discovery, preservation, enhancement and dissemination
PILOT PROJECT WEBSITES Priority 2: Facilitate Canadian Historical GIS data visualization and mapping Comparative examples of webmapping approaches Examples of existing historical web-mapping projects, use the same data and pursue the same goals but testing out contrasting technologies eg: Historical Atlas of Canada Online Learning Project Map of population Density by CD, Time-Series data, Growth of population Using (for eg.): ArcGIS Online Mapbox CartoDB Leaflet Results: Others? Report on process, experience and issues Mount projects as examples online and (where coding involved) on github depository Analyse opportunity for web-based tools for collaboration, sharing experience/expertise Outline direction for development in future project proposals
PILOT PROJECT WEBSITES Priority 2: Facilitate Canadian Historical GIS data visualization and mapping THREE EXAMPLE PROJECTS SELECTED Testing specific capabilities of technology (See Working Paper on Geovisualization: http://geohist.ca/2016/07/highlights-of-mid-term-conference/ ) 1. Historical Atlas of Canada Online Learning Project Series of maps summarizing population growth from 1851-1961 by Census Division Representation goals: Test different methods of quantitative data representation (choropleth, graduated symbols, dot distribution); Customized legends Interaction goals: Test display of time-series data, using time-slider interface 2. Lost Rivers of Toronto Project Walking tours of Toronto highlighting streams and rivers buried by urban expansion Representation Goals: Test methods to create geographically-based narrative of historical events or points of interest Interaction goals: Test display of episodic data, using point and click interface 3. Montréal l avenir du passé Mapped databases of 18 th century Montréal based on census, city directory, Fire Ins. Plans Representation goals: Test mapping multiple layers of urban historical data of various kinds Interaction goals: Pose questions based on data and perform analysis to explore hypotheses
PILOT PROJECT WEBSITES 1. Historical Atlas of Canada Online Learning Project Series of maps summarizing population growth from 1851-1961 by Census Division Representation goals: Test different methods of quantitative data representation (choropleth, graduated symbols, dot distribution) ; Customized legends Interaction goals: Test display of time-series data, using time-slider interface Original method: ArcIMS. Test technologies: ArcGIS Online, Mapbox
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Historical Atlas of Canada Maps of population by CD ArcGIS Online Mapbox NOTE: Timelines, Legends
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Historical Atlas of Canada Maps of population by CD ArcGIS Online Mapbox NOTE: Timelines, Legends
Mapbox version Pilot project website
PILOT PROJECT WEBSITES 2. Lost Rivers of Toronto Project Walking tours of Toronto highlighting streams and rivers buried by urban expansion Representation Goals: Test methods to create geographically-based narrative of historical events or points of interest Interaction goals: Test display of episodic data, using point and click interface Original method: Google Maps/Earth API. Test technologies: ArcGIS Online, Leaflet Ashbridge's Bay Watershed Tour
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Lost Rivers of Toronto Walking tours of Toronto highlighting streams and rivers buried by urban expansion ArcGIS Online Leaflet
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Lost Rivers of Toronto Walking tours of Toronto highlighting streams and rivers buried by urban expansion ArcGIS Online Leaflet
Leaflet version HISTORICAL GIS VISUALIZATION/WEB-MAPPING PILOT WEBSITES
PILOT PROJECT WEBSITES 3. Montréal l avenir du passé Mapped databases of 18 th century Montréal based on census, city directory, Fire Ins. Plans Representation goals: Test mapping multiple layers of urban historical data of various kinds Interaction goals: Pose questions based on data and perform analysis to explore hypotheses Original method: ArcExplorer; QGIS. Test technologies: ArcGIS Online, CartoDB (now Carto)
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Montréal, avenir du passé Mapped databases of 18 th century Montréal based on census, city directory, Fire Ins. Plans ArcGIS Online Carto ArcGIS Online Webmap, Basic App
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Montréal, avenir du passé Mapped databases of 18 th century Montréal based on census, city directory, Fire Ins. Plans ArcGIS Online Carto ArcGIS Online Analysis Tools
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Montréal, avenir du passé Mapped databases of 18 th century Montréal based on census, city directory, Fire Ins. Plans Carto Carto Selection and aggregation
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Montréal, avenir du passé Mapped databases of 18 th century Montréal based on census, city directory, Fire Ins. Plans Carto Carto Extraction of Work vs Home Analysis: Connect with Lines
PILOT WEBSITES Example: Montréal, avenir du passé Mapped databases of 18 th century Montréal based on census, city directory, Fire Ins. Plans Carto Carto Widgets Auto style data based on attribute values for data exploration Carto version pilot website
PILOT PROJECT WEBSITES Priority 2: Facilitate Canadian Historical GIS data visualization and mapping Comparative examples of web-mapping approaches Examples of existing historical web-mapping projects, using the same data and pursue the same goals but testing out contrasting technologies Results: Report on process, experience and issues Mount projects as examples online and (where coding involved) on github depository Analyse opportunity for web-based tools for collaboration, sharing experience/expertise Outline direction for development in future project proposals
More at: www.geohist.ca byron@geog.utoronto.ca