Visualising urban geographies

In studies of towns and cities, and indeed throughout the humanities and social sciences, a significant volume of data is held as an address, or as an area, such as a registration district or ward. We even talk of post codes or zip codes when referring to differential levels of health provision or motor insurance. However, at all academic levels, from undergraduate projects to advanced postdoctoral research, the spatial dimension of historical analysis is often under-utilised by historians because the learning curve of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is fierce for nonspecialists. To have an accessible tool to map historical data for GIS novices would thus transform the research and teaching potential for many who are currently deterred by the steep investment of learning GIS. The partnership involved in this project is creating a dynamic website of open source applications, allowing new insights into the spatial character and historical development of the Scottish capital. Edinburgh will only be the exemplar for integrating historical mapping with historical data; the objective is to enable students, academics and the public to use new open source tools for related web-applications to reveal the spatial characteristics of other cities. This is a fundamentally different approach since 'Visualising Urban Geographies' brings hundreds of the NLS' historical maps within reach of users through a straightforward tool that can be customised to suit their own data. Thus, for example, a local history society's membership addresses for, say 1900 can be plotted on an NLS map of the period in a one-stop process that does not require expertise in GIS. The paper is split into three main sections that broadly cover the main objectives of the project: To create a set of geo-referenced historical maps of Edinburgh in the 19th century accessible for student learning purposes. To develop routines, using free and open source software, to allow the historical source material to be interrogated, layered, visualized, and analysed. To develop new graphical and statistical outputs (including dynamic maps, views, graphs, diagrams, reports) relating to the social and economic history of Edinburgh, and to further