Abstract
Abstract. The development of the Qatar National Historic Environment Record (QNHER) by the Qatar Museums Authority and the University of Birmingham in 2008 was based on a customised, bilingual Access database and ArcGIS. While both platforms are stable and well supported, neither was designed for the documentation and retrieval of cultural heritage data. As a result it was decided to develop a custom application using Open Source code. The core module of this application is now completed and is orientated towards the storage and retrieval of geospatial heritage data for the curation of heritage assets. Based on MIDAS Heritage data standards and regionally relevant thesauri, it is a truly bilingual system. Significant attention has been paid to the user interface, which is userfriendly and intuitive. Based on a suite of web services and accessed through a web browser, the system makes full use of internet resources such as Google Maps and Bing Maps. The application avoids long term vendor ''tie-ins'' and as a fully integrated data management system, is now an important tool for both cultural resource managers and heritage researchers in Qatar.
Highlights
When we record cultural heritage, a significant amount of effort is often invested in individual sites, buildings or objects, capturing in great detail their character, form and condition
It is no exaggeration to say that the QNHER 2.0 is a milestone in cultural resource management software development
Thesauri, data standards and importantly, the work-flow established during the development of the first version of the QNHER provided an ideal platform for the steady stream of everyday steps, tasks and interactions around which QNHER 2.0 could be designed and beta-tested
Summary
When we record cultural heritage, a significant amount of effort is often invested in individual sites, buildings or objects, capturing in great detail their character, form and condition While such highly detailed records are invaluable, in reality the collection of data is an initial stage of management, maintenance and conservation. A prerequisite to safeguarding heritage assets in each country is a system that informs managers about the entirety of the cultural heritage resource, from regionally important ephemeral archaeological sites (including those known to have been destroyed), to internationally important world heritage sites Such a system should not be mired in detail, but should be an intuitive index that aids discovery, management, research and education. Since becoming „live‟ in 2009 this has been an invaluable resource for cultural heritage research, management and mitigation (Beardmore et al 2010) and currently holds almost 6,000 cultural heritage records
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