An in-depth look at the application of GIS for industrial heritage documentation

Abstract

The use of geospatial technologies to identify and document architectural heritage, with the associated benefits for managing information, is already relatively widespread. However, there has been little discussion about the difficulties, decision-making process and problems encountered when using GIS to digitize data, identify and document this heritage. This study sets out to propose a conceptual work to explore the relationship between immovable industrial heritage documentation and GIS application on the basis of case studies, in particular: the identification and documentation of the industrial heritage in the Eurocity of Guadiana and the olive mills in Écija. After discussing the workflow developed, the difficulties and problems encountered, and how these determine the structure of the GIS model, the decision-making process and the results, this paper concludes that further progress is still necessary to acquire a more pragmatic vision of the use of GIS in the field of industrial archaeology.