Project: NL-KAART (Netherlands)


(A) Background, personnel and funding

Q. Name of project

NLKAART

Q. Name of project IN ENGLISH

NLMAP

Q. Principal researcher(s)

O. Boonstra

Q. Who can/should be contacted now, and how?

Name:

Dr. O.W.A. Boonstra

Postal Address:

Department of History, Catholic University of Nijmegen, Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HJ Nijmegen

E-mail Address:

O.Boonstra@let.kun.nl

Web site:

http://www.kun.nl/ahc

Q. When did research begin?

1984

Q. Is the project still in existence? If it has ended, when did it end? If it still exists, when is it expected to end?

The project has been concluded

Q. What institution(s) was the project based in?

At the department of history of the Catholic University of Nijmegen (KUN)

Q. How many people were/are employed, and for how long? Were these people recruited specially for the project, or were they already employed by the institution(s)?

During the years 1984-1998 the project employed two part-time staff in Nijmegen (O. Boonstra and B. Bloemberg), all funded by the KUN. During the last two years the project employed three part-time staff in Nijmegen (O. Boonstra, C. Coert and L. Schreven) working directly on the historical GIS, funded by the Catholic University and the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

Q. How much did the project cost?

Aproximately fl. 250.000,- = Eur. 115.000,- = USD. 105.000

Q. Who paid for the project?

The KUN has funded the largest part, NWO paid the rest.

Q. If the project is still underway, has all necessary funding to complete the project been raised?

The project was concluded

Q. How easy has it been to raise the money?

It was, overall, fairly easy. Work was started by O. Boonstra in his spare time. When he got a job at the KUN, things really started moving, together with B. Bloemberg he developed the first NLKAART program based in SAS/Graph. Both of them worked at the KUN and this was one of their (part-time) projects.

Q. Other than raising the money, what are the biggest problems your project has faced?

Some of the changes in municipality boundaries had to be improvised because we lacked proper records of the changes.

Q. Have there been any pleasant surprises in the course of the project?

There was a relatively big interest in the project, we provided something other researchers needed. Also mapping the boundary changes was fairly easy.

Q. How likely is it that further funding might be raised within your country for a collaborative European project?

There really are no indications on this, but application could be submitted at the NWO or the International Institute of Social History (IISG).


(B) Project Goals

Q. What geographical area is covered by the project? What is the MODERN legal status of this area? (i.e. is it a nation state, a province of a nation state, etc). If the area currently lacks a legal definition, when was it defined and by whom?

The present geographical area know as the Netherlands

Q. Does the project aim to: (a) Reconstruct boundaries at a single date; (b) Reconstruct boundaries at a series of dates; (c) Construct a continuous record of changing boundaries over a period?

From the start of the GIS project in 1984, we have always aimed to create a continuous record of changing boundaries (1811-1990)

Q. What is the earliest date covered by the project?

01-01-1811

Q. What is the latest date covered by the project?

31-12-1990

Q. What systems of units are included?

The system covers:

Q. What is the project's final product?

A collection of maps covering the Dutch municipalities and their borders, 1811-1990. In the near future it will be available for everyone, for free, via the internet.

Q. What other publications has your project produced? In particular, please give details of any publications on methodology, and any publications in other languages?

O.W.A. Boonstra, ‘NLKAART. A dynamic map of the Netherlands, 1830-1990’, in: J. Smets (ed.), Histoire et Informatique V (Montpellier 1990) 315-324

O.W.A. Boonstra, ‘Mapping the Netherlands, 1830-1994. The use of NLKAART’, in: M. Goerke (ed.), Coordinates for Historical Maps (Göttingen 1994) 156-161


(C) Sources

Q. What base map is/was used to record the information? When was it created, and by whom? Is it published or in an archive?

An electronic map of the Dutch municipalities in 1980 was used as the base map. Published by the Dutch statistical bureau (CBS).

Q. What scale was this base map on?

The accuracy of the electronic map was 10 metres.

Q. If the base map was not already in digital form and your project created a digital version, how was this done?

The map was digital

Q. If your project constructed a record of boundary CHANGES, what sources of information were used? How was this information gathered?

Record from the CBS and E. Beekink and P. van Cruyningen, Demografische databank Nederlandse gemeenten, 1811-1850 (Den Haag 1995) which contained a list of municipal boundary changes from 1811 onwards.

Q. What other maps besides the base map were used? When were they created, and by whom? What scale were they on? What boundaries did they show? How reliable are they?

We used a number of historical maps which contained municipal boundaries. All maps display a situation at a specific data: 1795, 1815, 1840, 1880, 1920, 1960, 1980, and after that anual maps provided by the CBS.

Q. Did your project make any use of DESCRIPTIONS of boundaries? Who created these? Where are they preserved? What problems did you have converting this information into lines on maps?

No. They were available, but as in the UK situation, they are very confused, and would be impossible to interpret reliably without local knowledge. We concluded that they would provide only limited enhancement of what we could create from more easily interpreted sources, and at vast cost.


(D) End Product

(D1) Traditionally published maps and atlases

Q. Please give full publication details (author(s), title, place of publication, date of publication).

We have no current plans to publish a conventional atlas of administrative boundaries.

(D2) Geographical Information Systems

Q. What software was used?

During the first period of NLKAART SAS/Graph was used. Later we switched to MapInfo, which is a commercial GIS package.

Q. If your GIS was specially written for you, or heavily tailored for your project, who was responsible for programming? How can they be contacted?

No

Q. What were your reasons for your choice of software? If you started again now, would you use the same software?

In the 1980s SAS/Graph was a logical choice, there wasn’t much more around to work with. In 1998 MapInfo was chosen to work with because of its user friendlyness and its wider use.

Q. Describe the data files making up the final system: Are they a standard GIS file format? If not, where can detailed documentation be found?

They are standard GIS format

Q. What map projection is used?

Standard Dutch projection

Q. Assess the overall accuracy of your digital mapping.

It is accurate to roughly 100 metres

Q. From your existing experience, what methodological recommendations do you have for a larger collaborative project?

Use an accurate base map, as recent as possible because municipalities tend to disappear.

(D3) Other end products

Q. If the end-product is neither a traditional publication or a GIS, please describe it?

-

... AND MORE GENERALLY:

Q. Whatever the resource your project has actually created, and in the light of your experience with the project, what form of output SHOULD a new project have?

A downloadable GIS or series of GISses


(E) Linked Gazetteers and other Meta-Data

Q. What place-names are built-in to your mapping? Is each point/area (node/polygon) labelled with a single name, or is there some system for linking to different versions of names?

Each area has its own, single name, these are all municipalities at one time or another in Dutch history (1811-1990). There are only a few instances of changing names. They are linked by the municipality code given to every municipality by the CBS.

Q. Does the history/linguistic geography of your area raise special problems with naming places?

No.

Q. Have you any plans to make the place-name information gathered by your project available in any other form?

No, this information is already available to others through CBS and earlier mentioned Beekink.

Q. What sources have you used to research place- and area-names for use in your system?

CBS and Beekink.

Q. Are there any quite separate projects concerned with the history of place names or of administrative hierarchies in your area? If so, please give details? Are they using computers? Are they aiming to make their results available on-line?

If there are, they are unknown to us.


(F) Preservation, Dissemination and Intellectual Property Issues

Q. Was the GIS/digital resource constructed for use by its creators ONLY, or was it intended for wider use?

For wider use.

Q. Are you willing to make it available for use by others?

Yes.

Q. Are you willing to make it available for free, or for distribution costs only? If not, what plans have you for commercial distribution?

Our system is freely available.

Q. Is the resource available NOW? If so, how and from where?

By contacting O. Boonstra, the resource can be obtained.

Q. Are there any limitations on access?

No.

Q. What file format or file formats is the resource available in?

MapInfo 4

Q. If the resource is available from the researcher/project that created it, what plans are there for distribution after the project ends/the researcher retires?

Distribution via the Internet. Maybe in the future it will be made available trough the Historic Databank of Dutch Municipalities (HDNG).

Q. What plans are there for updating the data files for use with more recent versions of software?

None yet.

Q. What plans are there for updating the data files to include the results of more recent historical research?

There is no data link. Maybe in cooporation with the HDNG

Q. Do you own all intellectual property rights in the resource created by your project? If not, what other rights exist, and who do they belong to? What limitations have they imposed?

They are owned by O. Boonstra and B. Bloemberg, later probably by the HDNG. There are no limitations

Q. How have Intellectual Property Rights issues limited your project?

No.


© Luuk Schreven (Nijmegen, May 2000)

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