The “Country of cities” web-GIS: development experience and approaches used in creating a history-oriented geoportal

Abstract

Providing convenient access to spatial information for multiple users is a big challenge. To solve this problem, researchers present the results of their research on thematic geoportals—geographic information systems (GIS) located on the Web. The main functionality of such web-GIS, in addition to directly displaying interactive spatial information, is the possibility of making custom searches, measuring lengths and areas, and providing access to related multimedia materials. Archaeological geoportals, unlike other thematic GIS, require special approaches to the implementation, as there is a necessity to provide convenient access not only to spatial information, but also a gallery of multimedia materials, as well as detailed descriptions. This paper describes the approach to the development of cartographic web-resource “Country of Cities” which provides access to the results of interdisciplinary research of Volga Bulgarian settlements. for user-friendly access to both cartographic and descriptive materials, it was decided to divide the geoinformation and analytical component into two separate but interconnected portals within one web resource. Web-GIS is based on the leaflet library and provides interactive access, besides the information about each ancient settlement itself, to the series of analytical maps—risk map of the development of exogenous processes, risk map of the destruction of ancient settlements, their present state, and many others. The main graphic and descriptive materials are presented on the web portal, where a special page was created for each ancient settlement with a descriptive block, a gallery with images of the settlement from an unmanned aerial vehicle, thematic and historical maps, as well as an interactive three-dimensional textured model of the corresponding archaeological site.