Abstract
This article presents a methodology for the creation and reconstruction of historical borders of chosen spatial units, especially political and judicial districts in Czechia for the specific years of population censuses within a GIS environment. Since an ethnic, language, demographic, social and cultural composition of a population is one of the main features of national and regional identity, the main objective of the article is to introduce new method for the creation of spatial-statistical databases which will make these historical data sources accessible to both experts and the public for general use. For this purpose, district borders from 1921, 1930, (1947), 1950, 1961, 1970, 1991, 2001 and 2011, which represent the years of the population censuses in Czechia, were digitized. Our method is based mainly on historical maps, which correspond with the censuses’ statistical datasets. The proposed methodology for the creation of GIS layers (digitalization, geo-referencing, vectorization, accuracy assessment, and spatial identification), their connection with censuses statistical data (creation of spatial codes), metadata creation, and web publication is described in this article along with examples of some of the difficulties encountered during the process. We also bring attention to several case studies of problematic areas where the reconstruction of borders was particularly complicated. Finally, spatial and statistical data in the format of ESRI shapefile and ESRI Geodatabase offer possibilities for a retrospective analyses of quantitative data to current researchers from a range of scientific disciplines. Files in both formats are publicly available at webpage www.historickygis.cz.
Highlights
One of the most important elements involved in the existence of a distinct national and regional identity has been development of demographic, social, and cultural composition of population
We focus on the digitalization of state, regional, and district borders existing on the territory of the Czechia during 1921–2011, as well as corresponding borders of municipal districts, cadastral units, and census tracts on the territory of Prague
The creation of specific geographic information systems (GIS) layers always requires a certain degree of individualism, it is necessary to maintain a unity of the system
Summary
One of the most important elements involved in the existence of a distinct national and regional identity has been development of demographic, social, and cultural composition of population. We pay particular attention to selection of appropriate map sources in available archives, elaboration of a suitable methodology of converting these data into GIS and their connecting with information obtained through population censuses, and the incorporation of census data into a database. All of these steps improve the accessibility of historical spatial data and enable the creation of historically themed specialised maps, as well as a prospective publication of the Historical Population Atlas of the Czech Lands. We include three case studies, for which the reconstruction of historical borders involved particular difficulties associated with significant changes of borders throughout the observed period
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