CIPA 2005 XX International Symposium, 26 September — 01 October, 2005, Torino, Italy 
AN OPEN SOURCE SYSTEM FOR P.I.C.A. 
A PROJECT FOR DIFFUSION AND VALORIZATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE 
E. Agosto***, D. Demarchi'**’, G. Digangi'***’, G. Ponza'**’ 
* ’ DI TAG, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy - eros.agosto@polito.it 
(**)I.S.1 .Line Sri - Via Torino 73, 12037 Saluzzo (CN) - d.demarchi@isiline.it. g.ponza@isiline.it 
(***)C e ST Marcovaldo, Università di Torino - cest@marcovaldo.it 
KEYWORDS : GIS, Internet/Web, Information System, Mapping, Patrimony 
ABSTRACT 
The presented work is the result of an integration of different informatics and cartographic instruments in a project named P.I.C.A. 
(Cultural Informatics Portal of the Western Alps - Interreg III A Alcotra) - a CeST-Marcovaldo project, in collaboration with Turin 
University and the Politecnico di Torino, which has begun in year 2000 - concerning the diffusion and valorization of the cultural 
heritage. Computer technologies were used to obtain a complete tool for browsing and researching multidisciplinary data, ranging 
from historic monuments and geological morphologies to anthropological studies. All these types of data are closely connected to the 
territory and had previously been structured in a GIS; the project itself was integrated in a transalpine scenario, to stimulate the 
sharing of data between transalpine researchers and institutions, and to link them to their presence on a common territory. The main 
technical goal was the design and setting up of a WebGIS site that, starting from thematic maps, allows the user to access the data of 
interest in an easy and efficient way. With these intentions, and considering the need of obtaining an open product that can be used 
not only by researchers but also by an heterogenic public, OpenSource technologies were considered to be the best solution to reach 
the different goals of the project. The cartographic data were stored in a Postgres-PostGIS DataBase Server: in this way, both 
geometric and alphanumeric information were stored in a unique tool. Data were mapped on the Web and an application that was 
based on University of Minnesota MapServer was developed. The Website was implemented on Apache Server, and a high level of 
integration was obtained between the data and geographic information. For search engine purposes, a tool named SDX was chosen. 
This is an OpenSource XML based application specifically developed for the management of documents. In P.I.C.A. the data of 
interest can be accessed by the user using these tools, through a search of thematic maps that mix chronological and topographic 
information, or through a more classical search engine based on keywords. 
1.BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT 
The project is the continuation of a research project called “77?e 
Marchesato di Saluzzo: an integrated study of the territory", 
funded by M.U.R.S.T. (Ministry of University, Scientific 
Research and Technology), and which had the goal of creating 
an instrument not only for historical and archaeological 
research, but also for the conservation and the valorization of 
the Po Valley 1 landscape and property. This instrument was 
built to be used by researchers, local administrators who have to 
preserve the local cultural heritage, and by ordinary citizens 
who wish to use the land for tourism. In the last five years a 
great deal of data coming from different fields, such as 
archeology, geology, botany, and cultural anthropology, have 
been collected by experts in different and specific fields, and 
organized in a database. This great research effort required tools 
that could improve the understanding of the data and deepen the 
investigation potentiality of such a quantity of data. The 
preparation of a stand alone GIS made it possible to put 
together, to compare and to interpret archived data, material 
data and data from aerial photography interpretation. It is in fact 
belived that interdisciplinary is necessary to understand land 
transformations and the role humans play in this. In the 
activities performed before P.I.C.A. project was started, the 
researchers worked on many cultural aspects and the 
management of data was based on specific applications, 
developed for dedicated workstations and with offline usage. 
The extension of the system to new Internet technologies, with 
1 The Po Valley is one of the main valleys in Marchesato di 
Saluzzo, an area in the south of the Piedmont region, in the 
north-west of Italy. In the Middle Ages it underwent a period of 
prosperity, before becoming part of the property of the Savoy 
royal family. 
the developing of a dedicated Web site with the well known 
facilities obtained by a shared and networked repository of data, 
was a natural step. After the WebGis tests that were performed 
in 2003 it was finally decided to extend the application to a 
more solid architecture and more complete functionalities (in 
this Proceedings, see G. Di Gangi, C.M. Lebole, D. Demarchi, 
L. Nejrotti: P.I.C.A. - Portale Informatico Culturale delle Alpi 
occidentali: a multidisciplinary and integrated project for 
cultural heritage). The goal of the project was not only to share 
data, but also to exploit the powerful opportunities of Internet 
network to reach a larger number of users, that can be not only 
experts or researchers, but also people interested in cultural 
information for tourist purposes. With these premises, the site 
specifications were first focused on thinking an easy to use 
system that could make the user access detailed or less precise, 
but more general and addressed to cultural diffusion. For these 
reasons it was chosen to implement a platform that could satisfy 
both needs, and allow the user to deepen the quantity and 
quality of the information depending on the navigation choices 
in the Web site. One of the main specifications was that the user 
could access cultural information starting from a dynamic map 
on which entities of interest in different discipline fields were 
indicated, and where the discipline and the dates on which to 
work could be chosen. For this reason it was primary need to 
publish the GIS on the Internet. Basing the project conception 
on these requests, the OpenSource tools have been selected as to 
be the best solutions to achieve project goals. In fact with these 
technologies is possible to build complete and flexible 
solutions, using the continuous update of software packets and 
applications and being sure about the tools efficiency. 
Moreover, in a shared project as P.I.C.A., an open realization is 
an opportunity to improve functionalities and site contents 
thank to open cooperation with other partners. 
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