28 Apr 2005

China Historical GIS, Version 3 - Apr 2005
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, US
Supplied note: "CHGIS China Historical Geographic Information System. New Release of Version 3 Datasets (April 2005)
We are pleased to announce the release of the China Historical GIS - Version 3, providing a fully documented database of historical administrative units in China.
The new datasets may be accessed directly on our website using a search engine for specific placenames, or the individual GIS layers may be downloaded free of charge for academic use.
Contents of the new release include: a) Time Series datasets (from 222 BCE to 1911 CE) for the region covered by modern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Hunan. b) Datasets for the Qing Dynasty as of circa 1820. c) Datasets as of circa 1911 for the region covered by Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Gansu, and all but the northern reaches of Shanxi and Zhili. d) 1990 CITAS data (Provinces, Prefectures, and Counties) joined with basic census statistics. e) Frontier Regions datasets (circa 1875 - 1900) covering areas in Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Mongolia, as digitized from Russian historical maps. f) Topographic background images, processed from remote sensing Digital Elevation Models. g) Digital Scans of Southwest China Maps by Joseph Rock.
The complete contents of the datasets listed above are available for free download by registering your name, institution and email address at [the URL below] A CD-ROM will be published in Summer 2005 and will be available for $7.50 from Cheng & Tsui Company (www.cheng-tsui.com).
Placenames may also be looked up using our simple online search engine, which requires no registration or special software. Currently online you will find the CHGIS Placename Index, Japan Placename Index, Tan Historical Atlas of China Index, and an East Asian Geographic Feature Type Index.
The next projected release of CHGIS data is expected to be in 2006. It is expected to complete the coverage of 1911 county boundaries to include the Southwest and Northeast and to complete the extension of the historical time series (222 BCE to 1911 CE) to cover the same area.
Editors: Peter K. Bol [pkbol--at--fas.harvard.edu] and Jianxiong Ge. Executive Editors: Merrick Lex Berman [mberman--at--fas.harvard.edu] and Zhimin Man - mlb."
[The CHGIS project has been established in Dec 2000 under the aegis of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and Harvard University. The CHGIS develops a standardized coding system to identify historical administrative units and settlements for different periods in Chinese History. It provides a GIS platform for spatial analysis, temporal statistical modeling, and representation of selected historical units as digital maps. The project, which builds on the work of the late Robert M. Hartwell, intends to make the multi-lingual base GIS available to the scholarly community at no charge through download sites throughout the world. - ed.]
URL http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/
Internet Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/
Link reported by: Merrick Lex Berman (mberman--at--fas.harvard.edu), via chgis--at--fas.harvard.edu
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study/Documents
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* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 300