A Technique to Reconstruct Nizhniy Novgorod Land Survey Plan and Borders in 1784 Based on Special Geodetic Software

Abstract

A present-day task of historical GIS is to geotag ancient maps within еру modern coordinate system. These maps are sure to have many inaccuracies. In this regard, there is a need to develop algorithms accounting for these inaccuracies and allowing one to position sources with the smallest deformations and drawbacks. This task is also relevant for Russian plans of the General Survey. Their peculiarity is that they have accurate geodetic characteristics of plots. The research subject is a set of Nizhny Novgorod plans of the late 18th сentury which were the basis for a technique used to reconstruct the city borders and land survey plans. The research methodology is based on the historicism principal, systematicity and objectivity. The authors emphasize the role of statistical methods and apply specifically historical (historical and typological as well as historical and genetic) methods, the geodetic method to process and equalize transit traverse, modeling and cartometry. The research novelty is determined by the algorithm of city borders and historical land survey plans reconstruction, technological solutions for studying the object by means of geodetic programs, new data on land management and cartographic materials based on land management results in the specific region of Russia. The main conclusions are the positioned borders of Nizhny Novgorod in the conditional coordinate system. It was found that transit traverses of plots studied had significant angle linear errors. For settlement plots they are 3°29' and 1/31 and for pasture plots they are 2°49' and 1/80. For Blagoveshchenskiy Monastery they are 0°37’and 1/139. A raster land survey plan of Nizhny Novgorod has been made. It can be further used for geotagging and creating historical GIS.