THE “MARCHESATO DI SALUZZO” PROJECT: AN OPENSOURCE BASED WEB/GIS
FOR HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL RESEARCH, CONSERVATION AND
VALORIZATION
E. Agosto ( ^, A. Cosenza^, F. Rinaudo (+)
n Dipartimento di Georisorse e Territorio, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
email: eros.agosto@polito.it. antonio.cosenza@polito.it. fu1vio.rinaudo@polito.it
KEY WORDS: GIS, Internet/Web, Cultural Heritage, OpenSource, Multidiscipline, Archeology, History, Valorization
ABSTRACT:
The creation of a management and analysis instrument of a territorial object, in order to valorize its historical, cultural and artistic
properties, makes it necessary to read the land itself, considering many points of view. A general investigation must be carried out,
that involves different scientific and humanistic fields, and which brings this different knowledge together in one tool: a Geographic
Information System (GIS).
The World Wide Web is proving to be a useful way of sharing this kind of spatial data.
The first and undeniable advantage of using Internet tecnology to publish GIS data consists in the simplicity and economy of the
implementation.
Users who access GIS resources, shared using a Web server and published on a specific Web site, no longer need particular
hardware configurations or software knowledge: it is sufficient to connect to the WWW, and use a traditional Web browser, possibly
with some extensions (for example: plug-in, usually delivered together with server software).
However, to make this solution competitive with a traditional one, (directly using GIS sotware compatible with data structure), when
a GIS is published on-line the user should be able to:
• extract information and descriptive data from the database related to the graphical base
• visualize cartographic data in the correct scale
• correlate graphical features to alfanumeric ones
• use standard HTML tools, being sure of a full integration with hypertextual documents.
This paper deals with the setting up of a complex Web/GIS that is completely based on Open Source tecnology. The aim of the work
is to show how these tecnologies can be exploited to create low-cost products, that can be customized according to the users’
requirements.
Althought the reduction in cost of the commercial products has led to a remarkable increase in the spread of this sofware, the Open
Source Web GIS is a valid alternative, if one also considers the chance of undestanding the algorithms that have been implemented.
The case under study refers to the realization of a spatial infrastructure of historical and artistic data concerning the “Marchesato di
Saluzzo” (CN), an area situated in the north-west of Italy, which in the Middle Ages was under the rule of Marchesi di Saluzzo.
1. PUBLISHING GIS ON INTERNET
When dealing with the problem of preserving and valorizing the
cultural heritage of the land, it is very important to collect a
great variety of information, in order to construct a data base.
Public administrators can use it to support the decisions they
have to make and to give a proper direction to their policies. It
is evident that this work has to involve different levels of
competence. As a matter of fact, the land must be read taking
into account its many aspects and dynamics, such as the mutual
influence with the human activities. The experts in history,
archeology, geology, botany, architecture, engineering, cultural
anthropology and art, have to carry out their own researches
and analyses. After such a great effort has been made, the next
step is to integrate all these data in one efficient tool, so that not
a single piece of information is spoilt. If one of these tools is
developed, it is possible to carry out interdisciplinary analyses
instead of having a partial view of a specific problem.
Considering the aim of the project, that is the promotion of a
particular land, it is clear that this amount of information has
got a common substract: the land itself. In other words, all the
information has to have more or less evident georeferenced
aspects. This leads us to organize all the information into what
we call a GIS. At this point, the tool we wanted to create is
ready. The administrators have another arrow for their bow, and
the researchers have a powerful means for their own
speculation. But the question is: “Have we done our best in
order to meet our starting goal?”. The tool we have designed is
only usable on the computer where it was made. So next step
consists in making possible to people to access this hardly-built
tool if they need to, without forcing them to physically go
where the tool is. We have to bring the tool to people, not vice
versa. In this way, the project is able to score another point
towards our goal. If we can bring the information to people, we
put administrators and researchers in the condition of doing
their own work, and moreover, we can transfer a great deal of
information to common person as well. We can raise their
awareness and improve how historical, cultural and artistic
properties of a land are felt. It is possible to make the land more
