Track: GIS Management and Implementation
GIS Preserved History and Heritage for Generations to Come: An Experience from the Geographic Names Project of the State of Qatar
Abdul Salam MohammedQassim Mohammed Ali Al Ghanim
Geographic names of the State of Qatar are not preserved in any form and are residing only in the memories of elderly people of the country. Hence the objective of the project was to create and maintain a Qatar national geographic names electronic archive for the generations to come. The archive preserves around 3,500 names with precise geographic locations along with supporting multimedia data to prove the authenticity of the names. The archive, named Al Murshid (The Guide in English), is built using ArcInfo on DEC-UNIX and MapObjects, and Visual Basic on Windows 95 platforms. The participation of elderly citizens, local government authorities, and experts from academic and research institutions made this project an example of societal GIS. Approximately two years of extensive fieldwork, across the wide variety of geographic features in the arid zone using GIS and GPS tools is the key factor in the project. The paper demonstrates how these tools were useful in such exercises in preserving the heritage of the country.
Abdul Salam Mohammed
The Centre for GIS
PO Box 22088
Doha,
QATAR
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail: abdulsalam@gisqatar.org.qa