DigVentures is helping the Living Levels Landscape Partnership to create an interactive online map of the area’s history, archaeology and heritage.
The Living Levels GIS is an amazing tool that allows you to explore the rich history of the Gwent Levels online. It provides in-depth access to historical and digital maps of the levels, giving you the opportunity to delve in to nearly 200 years of changing landscape.
But there’s more to the levels than mapping the landscape. There’s the people, their stories and the places in which they lived – all with their own rich and diverse history. Curated by local volunteers, the Living Levels GIS aims to tie the stories and people together with the history of the landscape that both shaped and was shaped by its inhabitants.
The Living Levels GIS will provide a place where the stories and images, archival material and archaeology of the Gwent Levels can all come together and be available at the click of a button. Explore an area of the map and you will be able to see images of historic buildings, listen to stories from local residents and even have a closer look at archaeological discoveries.
Often overlooked, the Gwent Levels has thousands of years of history to rediscover and now is the time to share it with the world.
What is GIS?
GIS stands for ‘geographic information system’. In the most basic terms, GIS is a way to digitally store, manipulate and demonstrate data allowing you to analyse and clearly understand spatial relationships in a way that ordinary maps don’t allow.
In archaeology, we often use GIS to show where our trenches are in relation to the rest of the world by plotting them on a map. We also use GIS to map out our archaeological sites or indicate the specific location of certain finds or features.
The Living Levels GIS works by layering several different maps on top of one another. You can then look at the maps individually, or reduce the opacity of the overlying maps to see more than one at a time. This will help you get an idea of how things have changed over time, like how a river has been redirected or how field boundaries have shifted.
How do I get involved?
In order for this map to come to life, it needs the power of volunteers. DigVentures, along with the Living Levels Partnership, are providing training workshops where volunteers will learn the skills they need to help make the Living Levels GIS an invaluable resource illustrating the amazing history of the Gwent Levels.
Send us an email at hello@digventures.com to find out more!
