University of Southampton OCS (beta), CAA 2012

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The visualization of the archaeological information through web servers: from data records on the ground to web publication by means of Web Map Services (WMS)
Jose-Julio Zancajo-Jimeno, Teresa Mostaza-Perez, Mercedes Farjas-Abadia

Last modified: 2011-12-22

Abstract


The purpose of this study is to show the processes of data record and their Spatial Database structuration, for the integrated management of the information associated with an Archaeological Site, and their visualization using web servers, by means of developments based on free software in order to minimize costs.
In order to structure the information of an archaeological site properly, it needs to be taken into account that there are two types of information:
Firstly, purely archaeological information, related to the information provided by the site -structures, pottery, coins.
Secondly, spatial information, this including the spatial absolute position of the Archaeological Site, the relative position of the elements discovered inside, as well as the dimensions and geometries of the Archaeological Site itself and the objects discovered.
Regarding spatial information, new measurement systems have been created over the last few years. They provide new approaches to the surveying works and complement the spatial documentation processes of the Sites.
The developed system will allow the integration of the new information generated by these systems, as well as the visualization of new products, whether spatial or not.
Moreover, it will allow the integration of georeferenced information about the Archaeological Site together with other cartographic documents, such as Orthophotos, so as to get a complete spatial visualization.
Finally, and into the framework established by the European Directive INSPIRE, by using the so-called Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI), the visualization will be carried out through web browsers, which provide access to spatial information as provided by map servers, such as a Web Map Service (WMS).
The access to information of Archaeological Site provides visualization of the information at different scales. The user will start this visualization on a smaller detail scale that allowed frame the site in the territory (1:50,000 to 1:25,000), reaching to detail scales that will allow the visualization of high-resolution details (1:500 to 1:100 ), passing by intermediate scales for the general location of objects in the Field (1:10,000 to 1:2,000).
This will allow the visualization of all elements of Archaeological Site on an appropriate scale, to facilitate the visualization the non-expert users. So, it is possible to know the general geometry of the Archaeological Site or the objects visualization found during the process of excavation (pottery, coins ...), including 3D interactive visualizations.
The objective is to use software map servers Open Source (MapServer, GeoServer), and by XML programming, to generate a web visualization environment, friendly and easy, based on OGC standards.

Keywords


Spatial Database; Visualization; SDI