Date: February 9, 2009
Paul Dolinsky is Director of the National Park Service's Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) Program. His presentation is titled "Historic Landscape Preservation Through Geographic Information Systems (GIS)". Dolinsky discusses the Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) and its role in the documentation of cultural landscapes through measured and interpretive drawings, written histories, and large-format black and white and color photographs. The Cultural Resources Geographic Information Systems (CR-GIS) facility enhances this documentation with modern GIS and GPS technology that facilitates the location and analysis of lanscape features. This exciting technology is being applied to documentation of historic mission trails in Arizona, where types of landscape features include the trails and roads themselves, water control systems, the mission and mission-related structures, and witness plants. Documentation of cultural landscapes with both traditional and modern methods promotes 21st-century preservation of these significant resources by facilitating maintenance, interpretation and public awareness.
Podcasts of Dolinsky's lecture and related presentations by his colleagues are available from iTunes University:
Historic Landscape Preservation through GIS (Paul Dolinsky; 35 min.)
Using GIS to Map History (John Knoerl; 28 min.)
Google Earth: Telling the Story of Your Data (Matt Stutts; 27 min.)
Mapping History with GIS (David Lowe; 17 min.)
