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Taiwan Cultural and Ecological Maps: A Digital Museum Project
(Poster Session)

Jinn-Guey Lay, Welley Wang, Chun-Lan Chang
National Taiwan University
Taiwan

Since 400 years ago, early explorers in Taiwan had recorded the cultural and ecological phenomena of this island using maps and paper documents. These historical data provide valuable information for the study of historical evolution of Taiwan from various aspects. Unfortunately, these data were scattered in various places and mostly inaccessible to people with interest. With the support from the National Science Council of Taiwan, this project is aimed to build a digital museum dedicated for the storage and dissemination of cultural and ecological data in Taiwan. The research team is composed of specialists from several departments in National Taiwan University, including: information science, geography, history, anthropology and biology. Map is powerful in representing spatial features, thus we choose map as the major medium for presentation in this digital museum. ArcView software is adopted as common tool for the digitization and compilation of all maps secured by the research team. Data in coordinates format were projected into maps using the same software. Four major exhibition areas have been constructed with underneath supportive databases. We further incorporated the Web GIS function using ArcIMS software, which provides even more flexibility for mapping and spatial query. The endeavor of the first year has set up the framework of the digital museum while future enrichment of contents relies on the availability further supports from various sources. It is anticipated that this digital museum will help arouse the awareness of cultural and ecological evolution among local Taiwanese people.