Hello folks,
A very long-standing problem which I am revisiting... The UK is
unusual in that it very regularly changes the way the country is
administratively organised. This affects both boundaries, and names.
Thus a term like Argyll can refer to very different areas depending
on the date it was applied.
I am aware of several approaches to this:
-vice-counties (popular in biology)
-current political boundaries (these are what appear on current maps
after all - but for how long?)
-the last lot of political boundaries
-historical counties (eg RCAHMS county surveys)
-Parishes (out of date - but at least they don't change much)
others?
I suspect a lot of people just improvise, or never get over having a
mix of the above.
Is there a consensus as to what might be the best approach to this
currently? Or any experiences of retrospective modification of
data? The issue of how to distinguish editorial enhancements from
original given data is a different matter, although also very
important.
Any comments appreciated...
John
Dr. J.W. Faithfull
Curator in Geology
Hunterian Museum
University of Glasgow
UK
G12 8QQ
email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: 0141 330 4213
Fax: 0141 330 8001
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