This project is research-driven and concerned with the construction of databases. Academia Sinica’s strength in geographic information-related digital archiving has developed for over 20 years, and this undertaking brings it to fruition with (among other achievements) over 600,000 maps of mainland China and Taiwan and over 1,000,000 aerial photographs. In addition to this big database, this project builds ad hoc search systems based on the metadata extracted from the materials in order to integrate GIS resources that used to be dispersed in different institutions. Among the results are the Federated Search System for the Digital Archive of Maps and the Integrated Query System of Taiwan Aerial Photos.

In 2020, we intend to build on the current digital archives of maps and remote sensing images by incorporating new digital contents. This will include photographs taken by the R.O.C. Air Force, maps owned by Factory 401 of the Armaments Bureau of the Ministry of Defense, whose digitization is halfway complete, and a variety of nautical charts and data held by the Naval Meteorological and Oceanographic Office, R.O.C. It is estimated that the aforementioned projects will digitize 5,000 books and 40,000 aerial photographs.

3,000 items of metadata will be obtained through exchange schemes with other institutions. A selection of 10,000 maps and remote sensing images will gain added value, such as geo-referencing, for further application. Selected topographical maps of Mainland China and Taiwan will be compiled in a candidate list and released on a new service with 500 online maps. The project also seeks to improve the services of the Federated Search System for the Digital Archive of Maps, the Integrated Query System of Taiwan Aerial Photos, A Century of Taiwan Maps, and Online Map Recalibration Services by building effective interconnections among these systems through API and web services. Data licensing, academic conferences, exhibitions, workshops, and keynote speeches are the means whereby we promote and pass on these efforts for the benefit of academic research, education and cultural business.

Existing archives and technologies will be applied to advance so-called “Spatial Humanities” in tandem with our attempt to practice crowdsourcing, in order to flesh out a valued-added mapping system allowing multidimensional narratives in terms of time and space. The spatial-temporal coordinate structure of information will function as a powerful “cyberinfrastructure” to productively spatialize and visualize research in aspects of Taiwan history and culture. In hopes of improving local cultural studies, community development, and environmental protection, the Online Story Maps Services will enable users to expand layers of GIS information in time and freely employ modes of spatial narrative to map out their stories.