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* The primary objective of the Imag(in)ing London project is to build a multi-layered historical geographic information system (HGIS) for exploring social, economic and morphological dimensions of urban development. Through participation in the creation and utilization of the project, students learn very practical and highly marketable skills in GIS. The HGIS is already serving as the backbone for numerous undergraduate student projects and graduate student theses in a wide range of subjects (from Urban History to Public Health). Initial seed funding for the Imag(in)ing London project was generously provided by the University of Western Ontario Academic Development Fund. Recent projects have been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Our institutional collaborators include the Serge Sauer Map Library (UWO), the JJ Talman Regional Collection (UWO), and the City of London Planning Department. * A few of our recent historical GIS projects are described below. Contact Dr. Gilliland if you would like to learn more about how you might work with us.
FIRE AND URBAN MORPHOGENESIS The built environment of a city is extremely durable and long lasting; however, a single stray spark can radically alter the urban landscape. For his MA thesis research, Mat Novak used sophisticated HGIS techniques to explore the impacts of fires on the built form and social fabric of London, Ontario (1915-1929).
THE IMPACT OF FLOODS ON THE URBAN FABRIC Founded at the forks of the Thames River, London, Ontario is a quintessential river city. Over the last century or so, the city has experienced a number of devastating floods. Gilliland and Novak are using HGIS to explore various dimensions of these floods, particularly the influence of the Great Floods of 1883 and 1937 on urban form and land use patterns in the city.
See our recent paper in Environmental History (Gilliland and Novak 2006) and the figures in colour. * Our 'home base' is the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory, or HEAL for short. The HEAL is a state-of-the-art computer lab dedicated to quantitative and qualitative research on the dynamics of social and physical landscapes from the scale of entire cities down to the level of individual buildings (or open spaces) and their inhabitants. The HEAL is located in the Social Science Centre, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Our databases (more info to come)
___________________________________________________ Design by Jason Gilliland © 2007 Contact: jgillila@uwo.ca, 519 661-2111 ext. 81239
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