Hi Nick,
At the Gloucestershire SMR we contact the larger units who we
know use GIS for the trench outlines (events) and any feature shp files (monument).
We extract features by date and type, for example Roman ditches and assign them
a monument number. We may assign a smaller group of ditches another number if
for instance they are part of an enclosure. I have managed to get data from
Wessex Archaeology dating back to 1999!
Most data sets we get are varied as they are produced for the archaeological
units requirements but they seem to be useable with out too much hassle,
getting trench locations for large evaluations is very useful, they are more
accurate than digitising on the GIS and a lot quicker as you only need to copy
and paste. Especially as many are now using GPS and Totalstations on a regular
basis.
The Units I have contacted regarding GIS are happy to do so, we
also make them aware that we can supply SMR data as shp files and so they get
data and we get data back , so a win win situation.
As for data standards I guess the ADS Guides to good practice
would be a good starting point. We also get dwg and dxf files from units using
CAD
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/goodguides/gis/
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/goodguides/cad/
I haven’t had any problems with the data supplied by
units, the only problems arise when we get data from mapinfo in TAB format
opposed to shp files (we use ArcGIS).
Regarding Big Events, we keep our SMR polygons hollow with a
simple outline and so other features are not masked, things like SSSI’s
and Conservation Areas do have a filled interior but are arranged below the SMR
data, we don’t use HBSMR.
Hope that helps
On a different subject entirely, today is my last day as SMR
assistant, I have been here (Gloucestershire) for a year and having come from
the commercial digging side of things its nice to see the other side of the
coin! I am off to do a PhD in Spatial Analysis of 3 Late Neolithic Settlements
in North Holland and I will be based at the University of Groningen, Holland
for 4 years! Its been a pleasure working in the SMR/HER environment and I hope
I have made some useful comments over the course of the year, I wish you all
the best for the future.
Gary
From: Issues
related to Historic Environment Records [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Nick Boldrini
Sent: 20 October 2009 09:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Data Exchange
Hi HERO's
one of many things I
am pondering is data exchange.
By this I mean
exchanging digital data of event, monument finds etc data with different
groups.
I have had some
experience of this, we have received some data from Contractors, quite a bit
from some Community Archaeology Projects, and shared data with Neighbouring
LA's.
The data has varied
from GIS layers which we don't need to incorporate into the HER fully (eg
neighbouring LA data) to GIS and databases we would want to bring in fully.
There are lots of
issue relating to bringing the data into the HER (Copyright, actually importing
the data and related data standard issues, etc).
However, when talking
to people about this I am regularly asked if there are any set standards to use
when they create the data.
Obviously I mention
MIDAS and INSCRIPTION and their eyes glaze over...
I am also aware that
there are various initiatives looking at these issues eg I think it was
suggested OASIS to look at getting GIS coverage of events from contractors at
HER Forum in Sheffield (or was it HBSMR UG?), and also ASPIRE is available
(though this seems to have stalled).
The point of all
this is one of the things I am trying to come up with is a quick, short
and Plain English introduction to what information an HER would require
from people as a minimum, to make the records useful, and easy to
integrate.
Has anyone looked at
this or produced anything like it for their HER?
I would also be
interested to hear any experience of data swapping and things to avoid/worked
well when getting data from contractors local societies etc.
thanks
best wishes
Nick Boldrini
Historic Environment Record Officer
Direct Dial (01609) 532331
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