Toponyms and Feature Classifications for the China Historical GIS

PNC - ECAI, Hong Kong, Jan 2001

Merrick Lex Berman

Distributed Digital Gazeteers

Geographic Names Service

Query elements

Feature Name: Feature Type:

Qianping Xian

Pinglang Changguansi

Yunnan Fu

Robert Hartwells “China History Project GIS”

Ambiguous Placenames

Ming Counties

total: 1626 recs

2 places: 186

3 places: 81

4 places: 12

6 places: 6

7 places: 7

total shared: 292

unique names

ambiguous names

Coding to distinguish unique places

CHGIS Historical Administrative Codes

Dynastic Period Prefix (Qeq = Qing, Early Qing)Circuit-Regime Level (AB)Province Level (11)Super-Prefecture Level (AB)Prefecture Level (22)Sub-Prefecture Level (ab)District Level (zy)County Level (33)Sub-county Suffix ( [44,55] )

Example: Qeq,,11,,22,,zy,33[44]

Tables in RDBMS

Administrative Feature Table

Historical Administrative Code Table

Variant Name Table

Feature Classification Table

AFT

HACT

VNT

AHTAdministrative Hierarchy Table

FCT

Variant Name Table

field data type description

Multiple Administrative Hierarchies

Tlt,,51,,22,,,Tnz,,11,,,,,

Administrative Hierarchy Table

field data type description

Feature Classification

Names: Types:

Qianping Xian

Pinglang Changguansi

Yunnan Fu

Mingyongqia binghe

Xiao Ganlanba gangkou

Yunnanyi Cun

Tiger Line Files - Feature Identifiers

Feature Direction Prefix (N Adams Ave)

Feature Name (Walnut Street)

Feature Type (Sunset Blvd)

Feature Direction Suffix (Carlisle St NE)

CHGIS Feature Classifications

Feature Name Descriptive Prefix Nan Guanfang hutong

Feature Name Xincheng Xian

Feature Name Descriptive Suffix Xinjiekou wai dajie

Feature Type Baiyun feijichang

Feature Classifications Input: Online

query existing data

submit new data

return query results

accept new data

China Historical GIS Project

website: fas.harvard.edu/~chgis

tables: fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/design/tables