The Geo-Archaeological Information Applications (GAIA) Lab

The combined impacts of population growth, rapid planned and unplanned development, looting and warfare in many parts of the world have placed tremendous pressure on cultural resources and on the government agencies responsible for managing them. Thousands of known historically significant places and archaeological sites are threatened by these forces; untold thousands more await discovery, preservation, and development. It is a daunting task that requires the application of modern methods of data management and retrieval. The task is aptly suited for solutions based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), database and Web-based  technology.  

The GAIA Lab, at the Archaeological Research Institute, in the School of Human Evolution & Culture Change at Arizona State University, specializes in developing and deploying integrated GIS standalone and web-based databases for managing cultural resources and other large-scale spatial datasets.  We use the latest web mapping methods, including Google Maps and Google Earth, powered by AJAX, PHP, KML, JavaScript and MySQL.

Our Mission

  1. To help empower national, state and local governments and educational institutions in the discovery, documentation and preservation of their archaeological and historic resources through development and deployment of integrated Cultural Resources information applications using GIS, geodatabase, and web technology.
  2. To develop GIS, database and web-based methods and techniques to better model and manage cultural resources.
  3. To provide educational opportunities for students in the School of Human Evolution & Culture Change at Arizona State University.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

GIS is a set of computer methods and techniques that focuses on the creation, management and manipulation of geodatabases.  A geodatabase is, simply put, a database that includes a spatial component that can be displayed on a map.  Virtually any object that can be located in geographic space can be the object of a geodatabase, whether it is based on a point (such as a highway marker or historic monument), line (such as a river, road, or railroad) or an area (such as a land parcel).  The power of GIS lies in its ability to bring attribute data about objects in the real world together with their location in a manner that lets managers and researchers access information in a timely manner, through map-based or attribute-based queries.  These data can be used to reinforce planning and modeling decisions, which, in the case of historic preservation and cultural resource management (CRM), allow important places to be identified, preserved, and developed for touristic purposes.

How Can Cultural Resource Managers Use GIS?

GIS has been developed since the late 1980s into a powerful suite of tools that requires specialist status to adequately manipulate.  Many managers and officers charged with the preservation of historic and cultural resources could make extensive use of GIS methods if they were experts in GIS techniques.  Unfortunately, most are not, and few have the time to spend developing that expertise.  They are too busy trying to preserve the resources.  Cultural resource managers and historic preservation specialists need a suite of GIS based tools that are easy to use, and specially tailored to their business practices.  They need a way to access data on known sites and monuments that brings everything together at the desktop in a way that supports rapid decision-making and planning.   But until now, truly integrated systems of archaeological and historic metadata have not been available.

Integrated Solutions based on Cutting-Edge Geodatabase Techniques

At the GAIA Lab, GIS based solutions are being developed and deployed to many parts of the world.  Our applications deliver archaeological site/historic property and project metadata, assisting ongoing efforts to locate, preserve, and develop cultural resources.  Our stand-alone applications use a database design implemented in MS SQL Server, with an MS Access front-end and embedded GIS mapping controls that deliver site and project information against a background of satellite images and topographic maps.  The systems link tabular data to an unlimited number of site photographs, to written reports, and to other, more detailed databases developed for specific sites, historic properties and artifact collections.  Users can query maps directly, drawing areas of potential impact on screen and retrieving sites and projects that fall within a specified distance of the queried region.  Attribute tables can be queried through any combination of fields.  Results of either map or attribute queries can be printed or exported to smaller Access-formatted databases for use by fieldworkers.

Our web-based solutions employ Google Earth©, Google Maps©, TimeMap©, HTML Image Mapping, MySQL, PHP, Javascript and MapServer© and Ajax technologies.  Several of our web applications have been adopted by Google, as part of their Earth API Demo Gallery, and have been featured on the Google Education Blog, including the USS Voyager Exoplanets site and the Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land.

The picture shown here is from the Virtual Museum section of the Digital Atlas website; it uses a Google Earth API© map control and Javascript to suspend a scanned, 3D model of a potsherd over its find spot in Jordan.  The sherd was scanned with a NextEngine 3D scanner, which creates a triangular mesh of the object in three dimensions and takes high-resolution photographs at the same time; the photographs are "skinned" onto the mesh, and the scan is converted to a Collada file format for display in the Earth API map control with Javascript.  The model can be manipulated in three dimensions by using the slider bars, or rotated in any dimension.  This example represents the latest in web-based mapping and 3D model manipulation.  To see it in action, press the "3D Sherd Model Rotation" button on the navigation bar.