Abstract

Urban Planning and Cultural Preservation
Track: Urban and Regional Planning
Authors: Rick Karl

Urban development is an unavoidable part of modern-day life. Cultural resources are finite, non-renewable, and often impede development. In Arizona there exist over 50 agencies maintaining incomplete and incompatible cultural resource information. To simultaneously assist with urban development and an increasing need for expanded infrastructures while still preserving Arizona's cultural heritage, a system was needed to quickly, efficiently, and accurately identify cultural resources within a given area.
ArcGIS provided a means of consolidating records into a single geospatial database. ArcServer allowed it to be web accessible and also provided the framework for developing tools to meet user needs.
AZSITE is currently used by State and local governments and providing data for agency's in-house systems. The final result is that all Agencies are using the same data; everybody is playing on the same field, and cultural resources are being saved without slowing urban development.