 Mapping history for the future.
The mission of the National Park Service Cultural Resources Geographic Information Systems (CRGIS) facility is to institutionalize the use of GIS, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and Remote Sensing technologies in historic preservation within the National Park system as well as with State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO) and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPO). Since its inception in 1989, CRGIS has conducted GPS surveys of hundreds of historic places including agrarian landscapes; Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican/American, and Civil War battlefields; Antebellum plantations; CCC roads; archeological sites; engineered landscapes; historic cemeteries; historic parkways; forts; and Hawaiian heiaus. We have assisted more than 20 National Park units, State Historic Preservation Offices, and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices in developing their GIS databases, and have provided custom GIS and GPS training to hundreds of Federal, state, and local officials across the country.
CRGIS has a wealth of experience dealing with complex preservation issues. We have undertaken a wide range of GIS analyses including viewshed mapping for National Register districts and battlefields, developing fragmentation analyses of battlefield landscapes, and identifying factors affecting the long-term preservation of earthworks. The Facility also has shown how GIS can be used in disaster situations, such as the
C & O Canal flooding in Maryland; drought damage at the Falcon Reservoir, in Texas; flooding in the Midwest; and, most recently, Hurricane Katrina damage in New Orleans. Additionally, our staff has produced map atlases for a variety of clients, including members of Congress, the NPS Tribal Liaison Office, the National Register of Historic Places, and State Historic Preservation Offices.
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| CRGIS took part in the resurvey and photographic documentation of historic structures at San Juan National Historic Site |
Recently, CRGIS has been tasked to be the lead program within the National Park Service to develop standards for the collection, management, and distribution of cultural resource spatial data. Our experience over the past 17 years is proving to be invaluable in developing these standards. The projects highlighted under our Guidelines and Samples are meant to be a representation of the kind of work CRGIS undertakes. They touch on a wide variety of applications and cultural resource management situations. |
