Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Acknowledgements
- 1 INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL ISSUES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL GIS
- 2 FIRST PRINCIPLES
- 3 PUTTING GIS TO WORK IN ARCHAEOLOGY
- 4 THE GEODATABASE
- 5 SPATIAL DATA ACQUISITION
- 6 BUILDING SURFACE MODELS
- 7 EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS
- 8 SPATIAL ANALYSIS
- 9 MAP ALGEBRA, SURFACE DERIVATIVES AND SPATIAL PROCESSES
- 10 REGIONS: TERRITORIES, CATCHMENTS AND VIEWSHEDS
- 11 ROUTES: NETWORKS, COST PATHS AND HYDROLOGY
- 12 MAPS AND DIGITAL CARTOGRAPHY
- 13 MAINTAINING SPATIAL DATA
- Glossary
- References
- Index
13 - MAINTAINING SPATIAL DATA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Acknowledgements
- 1 INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL ISSUES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL GIS
- 2 FIRST PRINCIPLES
- 3 PUTTING GIS TO WORK IN ARCHAEOLOGY
- 4 THE GEODATABASE
- 5 SPATIAL DATA ACQUISITION
- 6 BUILDING SURFACE MODELS
- 7 EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS
- 8 SPATIAL ANALYSIS
- 9 MAP ALGEBRA, SURFACE DERIVATIVES AND SPATIAL PROCESSES
- 10 REGIONS: TERRITORIES, CATCHMENTS AND VIEWSHEDS
- 11 ROUTES: NETWORKS, COST PATHS AND HYDROLOGY
- 12 MAPS AND DIGITAL CARTOGRAPHY
- 13 MAINTAINING SPATIAL DATA
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The most valuable (non-human) resource that any organisation possesses is its data. Hardware and software are easily replaceable but the loss of data can be catastrophic for an organisation. Information loss, whether full or partial, is easily avoided through the routine taking of backups and the storage of data off-site. As there is plenty of readily available information on how best to implement a backup and data-recovery procedure, we do not consider it in any detail in this book. What is less obvious, particularly to those new to GIS and digital data, is the similarly important task of data maintenance. Consider, for example, the following three scenarios:
An employee in a cultural resource management (CRM) unit is assigned the task of updating site locations from newly acquired GPS data. How should the fact that a few site locations have been updated be documented and where and how should the old data be stored?
An aerial photograph of a portion of landscape has been rectified and georeferenced, and is ready to be used to delineate features of archaeological significance. How and where should information about the degree of error in the georeferencing be documented? Where and how should the errors for the newly digitised archaeological features be documented?
A research student is collecting data on soil types for Eastern Europe from several different national agencies that each have different scales and recording systems. How is this student able to search and compare and ultimately integrate datasets in a manner that ensures the data will be appropriate for his/her needs?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology , pp. 280 - 288Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006