CIPA 2003 XIX th International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalya, Turkey
evaluation stage, special zones and areas having similar
values, potentials or problems have been searched for. For
these zones, which are defined as “Special Project Areas”,
special conservation decisions have been developed in detail
according to their conditions.
A scheme of implementation and an organization model that
will handle the management of the site during the Urban
Conservation Studies is proposed as the final stage of the
project.
4. RESULTS OF THE ANTAKYA PROJECT:
A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT
Urban Conservation Project prepared for Zenginler Quarter in
Antakya, enables making a preliminary appraisal of
advantages and problems of the utilization of GIS.
Accordingly, taking the case of Antakya Project as the point
of departure, the major advantages of GIS when compared
with the conventional techniques can be listed as follows:
• Providing an extensive spatial database: GIS offer an
invaluable medium for urban conservation projects as
they are spatially referenced databases, which allow the
connection of attribute data with the related spatial data.
Hence, the spatial and attribute data concerning the
historic site can be stored and studied in a single
extensive environment. Consequently, the system enables
visualizing spatial distribution of the attribute data,
making queries over both attribute and spatial data, and
creating thematic maps either one-by-one or as
combination of multiple groups.
• Providing an integrated environment: GIS supply
integrated environment, in which different formats and
types of data produced or processed by different
softwares can be transferred into the system. That is,
although the drawing capabilities of GIS are not
advanced enough for the requirements of urban
conservation projects, they enable using spatial data
produced in CAD. Besides, processing of images through
other softwares and transferring into the system is
possible.
• Continuity between scales: All the spatial data is entered
into the system in 1/1 scale. Thereupon, GIS provide a
continuous environment. That is, a wide range of
different scales from 1/5000 including information about
the town, to 1/50 including information about the
architectural features of individual buildings could be
studied and visualized altogether during the Antakya
Project.
• Easy renewal and correction: Opportunity of easy
renewal and correction of data in GIS supplies a great
advantage for up-to-dating the information in the
analyses, evaluation and decision stages. Therefore,
additions, subtractions or changes of categories made in
the database are automatically presented in the maps
produced in GIS. Whereas, in conventional techniques
this updating process should be made one by one on each
map.
• Variety of display possibilities: GIS allow a variety in the
display of results such as maps, tables and charts. All
these increase the speed and richness of both the
production and the presentation of the study.
• Increase in speed and efficiency: This provides easier,
quicker and more efficient execution of analysis and
evaluation stages, when compared with the conventional
techniques. Besides, the query of various data during the
analysis and evaluation stages has increased the
efficiency of decision-making stage since various topics
could be argued together.
However, as far as it is experienced through the case of
Antakya, there are also some problems in using GIS as a tool
in urban conservation projects. Those problems can be listed
as follows:
• Insufficient drawing /editing capacity: The adaptation of
GIS is not enough yet for architectural studies since they
are developed for large-scale urban or regional studies.
Therefore, creating and editing spatial objects in the
essential detail of architectural drawings is not enough
sufficient in GIS. The drawing capacity of the program
stays limited and thus, the drawing capacity or support
with CAD programs should be improved.
• Problems of renewal and updating of data transferred
from other softwares: Even though GIS offers an
integrated environment in which data produced and
processed in other softwares can be used, the program
does not enable the renewal and updating of such data.
That is, when the spatial objects are drawn in CAD, like
it has been done in Antakya Project, and when a
correction or addition is needed to be done after
transferring the spatial data into GIS and adding their
attribute data, it is necessary to return to CAD, make the
corrections, re-transfer all the spatial data and re-enter the
related attribute data. This is a very long and time
consuming process, and it is contradictory with the
flexible environment that GIS offers.
• Long-lasting preparation phase: Especially because the
corrections of spatial data in the further stages of the
study is so hard as described above, it becomes necessary
to be very careful during the preparation phase and make
the decisions as to the spatial object class of each spatial
object prior to transferring them into GIS. This elongates
the preparation phase of the study.
5. EPILOGUE
Urban Conservation Projects necessitate coping with
complex issues concerning values, problems and potentials
related to natural, physical and socio-economic aspects of the
historic towns. In order to develop proper conservation
policy, the characteristics of the town must be evaluated well,
which may turn out to be a complex process. Since correct
information leads to correct conservation decisions, heritage
information management related to the historic town becomes
inevitably important in urban conservation process.
GIS allow establishing an extensive, flexible, continuous and
sustainable heritage information system. Therefore, what is
obtained with GIS is not only an urban conservation project.
The project is just one of the various outputs of the whole
extensive information system.
Existence of such a system is very beneficial for urban
conservation process. However, the success of the system
depends on accurate design of database and the structure of
the data processing, defining intelligent and adequate
questions during the queries, correct data entry and
systematic up dating. Otherwise, studies may result with an
unuseful mass of data. Besides, it is a fact that, even though
providing an extensive heritage information system and
consequencing urban conservation projects are essential
components of the urban conservation process, the success of
the process depends more on the ones who will realize the
decisions made within the legal and administrative
framework of the country. The most advanced technology
