Cultural Heritage Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI)

The creation and use of digital spatial data within cultural heritage studies has increased over the past decade. The commissioning of high quality LiDAR, photogrammetric and geophysical datasets has brought about a better understanding of how human activity has shaped our landscape. However, the ability to realize the full potential of this cultural heritage data through re-use and sharing with external organizations and the wider research community is limited by technological, semantic and organizational barriers. Capturing and processing primary spatial data is expensive and any failure to fully exploit the investment in such cultural heritage data could result in reluctance to commission future projects.

The development of open standards and technologies has enabled the creation of spatial data infrastructures (SDI) that allow users to discover, evaluate and use spatial data sets, and incorporate them into their own research. Much of the effort to date has been to harmonize environmental and security related spatial data. Cultural heritage information experts should adopt and adapt many of the standards established within the wider research community. This paper explores the requirements and research necessary for the development of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) for the sharing and re-use of cultural heritage data, allowing for the efficient understanding and management of our shared cultural heritage.