In 2006 the Institute for Cultural Memory - CIMEC launched the MapServer for the National Cultural Heritage allowing the inclusion of several thematic maps, by using specific GIS tools.

The major advantage resides in the easy way in which thematic maps (for instance: the spatial distribution of archaeological sites in Romania) are carried out through the Internet and by means of a simple Internet browser, the MapServer developed by CIMEC being compatible with all the existing Internet browsers.

The main features include: zoom-in, zoom-out, pan, interrogation, selection by locality, county, historical regions and economic development regions, and print.

Software

Mapserver is an open source platform for publishing spatial data and interactive mapping applications to the web, freely available for download online.

Originally developed in the mid-1990 at the University of Minnesota (USA), initially in cooperation with NASA, MapServer is not a full-featured GIS system, nor does it aspire to be.

MapServer allows you create maps that can direct users to content and provides spatial context where needed.

Cartography

The MapServer of CIMEC http://map.cimec.ro uses as spatial information a GIS database for Romania at the scale 1:100,000 that comprises: all the towns and villages in Romania, the European, national, county and communal roads, the railways network, the river and stream networks, and lakes, including also lad use and digital elevation model.

We obtained it due to the kindness of the General Division for the Conservation of Nature, Biodiversity, Biosecurity, Soil and Subsoil in the Romanian Ministry of the Environment (in 2005).

We also included the digital elevation model obtained by processing the SRTM (NASA) set of data for Romania and GTOPO30 (U.S. Geological Survey) for territories outside Romania, and the land-use/land cover model by processing the CORINE Land Cover (European Environment Agency)

Content

Use

These databases can be consulted both by means of the digital map of Romania, activating the interrogation button, and by the advanced search form of the online databases interface, allowing multiple search criteria

. The tools developed for the current version of the MapServer, as well as the links between the MapServer and the databases allow the spatial queries of the archaeological sites, of the museums or churches, simply by using of the symbol on the digital map, and also the display on the detailed information about the cultural entity. Thus, a simple search into these databases, by using any advanced search criterion, enabled the display of the relevant item on the map

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Location Precision

Currently, the location of the sites is carried out by the centre of the locality on whose territory they are found according to the SIRUTA administrative division code. One reason is to protect vulnerable sites, monuments or buildings from robbery. The second one is that we have few detailed maps of towns and villages or precise geographical location for sites.

In order to surpass this inconvenient, CIMEC began to develop a programme for the exact identification and location of sites, in cooperation with local museums and using the GPS system, on the Mostistea Valley, Calarasi County (2004 - 2008), and the aerial survey of Southern Romania (2007 - 2015), both with support of European Projects European Landscapes: Past, Present and Future and ArchaeoLandscapes Europe.

We also received contributions form institutions and archaeologists in the country. The field data collected for the county archaeological inventories, on public money, starting with 2005, are another potential source of enriching the National Archaeological Record database.

The later development of the MapServer will enable viewing on the digital map of Romania the topographical plans and the archaeological sites and the archaeological excavation plans etc. (only by password) and will also aim at integrating all the databases developed and maintained by CIMEC.

The spatial database will be further developed by adding satellite imagery, colour, and black and white air-photos

Project team