Martina De Moor (University of Ghent, Belgium)

Career:

I graduated in 1997 in contemporary history after studies at the University of Ghent (Belgium) and Queen Mary and Westfield college (London). I studied environmental sciences (postgraduate) afterwards at the University of Antwerp, where I received my degree in 1999. In the meanwhile I worked as a scientific researcher at the Centre for Sustainable development (University of Gent) on chain analysis and chain management. In february 1999, I started my PhD research on common land in Flanders as a scientific researcher at the History Department of the University of Ghent. In combination with my PhD I teach historical cartography and GIS for history students and I'm involved in several projects on historical maps and boundaries on the Netherlands. At present I also take care of the follow-up of the Quantitative Database of Belgian Municipalities, a database on which was developed by S. Vrielinck and E. Vanhaute.

Selected Publications:

M. de Moor, "A Kleio-database on the Enquête sur le travail agricole (1920, Belgium)", in Comunicaciones Libres, Congreso internacional sobre sistemas de información histórica, 6, 7 y 8 de Noviembre de 1997, Palacio de Congresos de Europa, Vitoria-Gasteiz (Baskenland-Spanje), Juntas Generales de Alava, Imprenta de la Diputación Foral de Alava, 1997, pp. 233-245.

Martina De Moor current Research:

Common land in the sandy area of Interoir Flanders and the Antwerp Campine area. Their use, management and dissolution in historical perspective, 1700-1900.

I am currently working on my PhD in which common land forms the central theme. The research focusses on the use, management and disappearance of the commons. In this research I use GIS as an analysis instrument for the study of among other things the relation between the carrying capacity of common land and its actual use by the commoners.

Following-up of the Quantitative database of Belgian Municipalities (19th-20th centuries)

The Quantitative Databank brings together demographic, economic and social information collected on a municipal scale. Within the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Ghent, the Databank was started up in 1990 as an experimental project.

About 3 years ago the project was finalised. Apart from the publication of a 3 volume book, an extensive database of data and maps resulted in of the project. As the most important realisations should be mentioned: firstly the elaboration of the municipal worksheets by entering codes from the National Institute of Statistics and cartographic codes, boundary corrections, administrative units and name variants of municipalities; secondly, the entering of numerical data on territory, population, agriculture and industry, and thirdly the linkage to the database of historical maps of Belgian municipalities. Because it can be guaranteed that the information between the terminal dates of 1796 and 1970 is comparable , the minimal requirements for a diachronic databank have been met. The possibility to make statistical comparisons over a period of 170 years, unaffected by the many changes in the geographical units, is another example of the main achievements of the project.

At the beginning of the project PlanPerfect, Quattro Pro, Lotus, SPSS, Atlas Draw, Atlas graphics and Mapmaker were the main software programs we worked with. To make the data more accessible and user-friendly, we are working at present day with the GIS-program ARCVIEW which can deal with many tasks that previously had to be done seperately. The files are being systematically converted to and Arcview projects are being set up with the available data.

The project was offically finished in 1997. Since 1997 S. Vrielinck has been working on the publication of a 3 volume book on the territoral division of Belgium (1795-1963) which contains a administrative-geographic and statistical repertory af the municipalities and supracommunal entities of Belgium. The publication is expected for mid 2000.

I'm currently taking care of the follow-up and the management of the data the project has collected. At the moment I am making the database more accessible and user-friendly for other historians.

The development of a centre for historical cartography and GIS in Belgium

The need for decent historical maps in a digital -but nevertheless for historians easily accessible- format becomes more and more apparent. Though several maps are available in digitised format, historians do not always find their way to the data they need. The centre which is under development right now and will be locted at the university of Ghent aims at guiding historians (academics as well as non-academics) through the labyrinth of GIS and historical cartography. One tool to help out historians is the metadatabank on digitised cartographic and spatial data for the area of Belgium and surrounding areas which were formerly closely related to the Belgian territory (e.g. North of France). Furthermore the centre aims among other things at the digitalisation of maps dependent on the demand of historians.

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