A special GIS application – military historical reconstruction

Abstract

GIS is increasingly becoming popular in many humane disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology. In our research we use it to support military historical reconstruction. We deal with the Attila-line, which was a defence line around Budapest in the secnd World War. Up to now the researchers could find only short descriptions and sketches about this defence line. Our goal was a detailed and reliable reconstruction, which contains environmental, object, and event parts. To get through with this task we had to collect and manage a lot of variable-quality archive data. This information comes from different sources: libraries, archives, archive maps and aerial photographs, field measurements, and personal reminiscences. We can manage this information in a standard system with GIS. The investigation consists of three main parts: the reconstruction of the contemporary environment, the reconstruction of the defence objects, and the reconstruction of the military events. This database can be used as a reference syste m to support further research and to identify new parts of the defence line. Using the attributes we can make queries and various reviews. The database is usable as a digital data archive, too. Our next research goal is to follow the search of the Attila-line and other defence lines and to present them to wider scientific and public audiences.