Geographically referenced information is widely being applied to fields such as medicine, public health, and environmental studies using the latest GIS tools. One such application involving Chinese political history is being applied at Harvard.
Professor Peter Bol of Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations uses geospatial imaging with his students to examine how modern and historic administrative boundaries in China relate to physical barriers like mountains, valleys, and rivers over time. The research requires downloading various datasets related to China from the Harvard Geospatial Library and other sources and then mapping the data using ArcGIS software.
Here are some illustrative examples provided by Professor Bol:
Map of the Qing empire in 1820, showing provincial boundaries and prefectural capitals. Overlayed on a digital elevation model (based on remote sensing data from 1990). Source for 1820 data CHGIS China Historical GIS), downloadable through HGL.
The next map, from the same source, shows the north China plain in 1820 – provincial and prefectural boundaries are both shown. Comparing the red lines from 1820 with the green DEM, we can also see here how much the coastline has changed since 1820.
Looking at the southern part of the same area in detail, with the addition of layers for county capitals and major populated places. Here the river system has been enhanced to show the relationship between settlement patterns and rivers, to show the West-East path of the Yellow River at the point where it intersects with the Grand Canal (SE-NW) in and flows into the sea in 1820.
This is the same map, now without the DEM.
The following represents the prosperous southeast coastal area, showing population distribution by prefectural population totals with the size of the yellow dot. Green circles show prefectural seats, black triangles are county seats.
This could be represented with a color ramp instead, as below.
For additional information on GIS initiatives at Harvard and beyond, visit the Center for Geographic Analysis.
