Historical maps are not only unique heritage objects but also containers of precious data on the evolution of the cultural and natural landscape. From the 16th century onwards, in present-day Belgium, handwritten local maps were produced in great numbers, followed by the famous Ferraris and printed Vandermaelen map series, as well as large numbers of large or medium scale cadastral maps. What is left of this unique heritage is dispersed over public and private collections, making users of digital historical maps struggle to use these maps to their full potential. Artemis is convinced that this wealth of detailed maps and map series has great potential to investigate landscapes, their evolution over time and their possible future(s) - a potential that could be used in varying fields of research such as Historical Geography, Ecology (biodiversity and water management) and Spatial Planning. Artemis aims to process, digitally enrich, make available and valorize well-defined corpora of both handwritten and printed maps before ca. 1880, using state of the art extraction techniques - as automated localization, toponym recognition and (landscape) feature extraction - with in finality, publication in a IIIF-enabled Linked Open Data Research Infrastructure, using Allmaps and Madoc. The project joins forces of both the University of Antwerp and Ghent University, backed up by the main Belgian map collection holders (ARA/KBR/NGI), focussing on the Scheldt River Valley which connects Antwerp to Ghent.
Artemis is a partnership of Ghent University (supervisor: prof.dr. Christophe Verbruggen) and Antwerp University (supervisor: prof. dr. Iason Jongepier). At Ghent University, this project brings together digital, historical, cartographic and geographical expertise. IMEC's IDLab (co-supervisor prof.dr. Steven Verstockt and dr. Kenzo Milleville) offers essential components in the field of automated map enrichment. GhentCDH facilitates digitally enabled research in the Arts and Humanities, with a focus on digital text analysis, image processing (with IDLab) and Linked Open Data. The Geography Department (Landscape Research Unit, co-supervisor prof.dr. Veerle Van Eetvelde) brings in interdisciplinary expertise in understanding landscapes from an ecological and spatiotemporal perspective using historical maps and GIScience tools. UGent's History Department brings in its expertise in the history of science and environmental history (prof.dr. Thijs Lambrecht). The UGent Quetelet Center for Quantitative Historical Research (prof. dr. Isabelle Devos) adds large-scale databases containing unique data about agriculture and spatial planning in Belgian history and ecological applications explored by environmental researchers. By combining research interests of environmental historians with the expertise of ecologists from ForNaLab (prof.dr. Lander Baeten), Artemis will uncover the landscape dynamics and ecological change.
UGent staf: Dr. Kenzo Milleville (Idlab, automated processing), Frederic Lamsens (IIIF developer) Vincent Ducatteeuw (data modelling), Rein Debrulle (IIIF, GIS and data parsing) and Fien Danniau (digital heritage and public history).
CLARIAH-VL services used in infrastructure pipeline Artemis project.
