nlGis: A use case in linked historic geodata

Abstract

While existing Linked Datasets provide detailed representations of Cultural Heritage objects, the locations where the objects originate from is often not accurately represented. Countries, municipalities, and excavation sites are commonly represented by geospatial points, and the fact that countries and municipalities change their geometry over time is not reflected in the data. We present nlGis, a collection of existing geo-historic datasets that are now published as Linked Open Data. The datasets in nlGis contain detailed geographic information about historic regions, with an emphasis on the Netherlands. We describe the creation of this Linked Geodataset and how it can be used to enrich Cultural Heritage data. We also distill several 'lessons learned' that can guide future attempts at publishing detailed Linked Geodata in the Cultural Heritage domain.