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Creating a Cultural Coverage
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Coding the Village Inventory

A number of different methodologies were used in this project:

Literature review — the critical discourse on GIS that has developed over the last decade formed the theoretical framwork for creating a system that more accurately represents qualitative data. This research is presented in the section Analyzing GIS.

Data collection — Although there is general agreement that cultural resources include scenic and historic features, each state has different ways of collecting cultural data. Finding specific studies in Rhode Island involved a number of state and local agencies including the Department of Environmental Management, the Department of Transportation, the Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, and the South Kingstown Planning Department. The Comprehensive Community Plan includes both a general list of potential cultural sites and specific studies conducted primarily by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. Because the Plan was written in 1992, more data is currently available. Given the time constraints of this project, an exhaustive inventory of existing surveys was not undertaken. Rather, the the most significant cultural studies available at the state and local level were compiled. A complete description of each report is presented in Data Sources.

GIS development — A full description of the process of developing a cultural coverage using ESRI's ArcView is presented in Creating a Cultural Coverage. Data specifications are available in Cultural Resource Inventory Metadata.

Participatory design — Early on it was decided that the cultural inventory should be useful to both professional planners and residents. A series of meetings was held with the South Kingstown Planning Department and the South Kingstown Land Trust while several meetings of the Planning Board were observed to develop a design for the Inventory. A discussion of the design of each parcel page is developed in Web Design.

This project started with the Inventory and Analysis of Village and Rural Qualities, a report written by more than 140 volunteers. In order to develop a cultural coverage in GIS, much of the data had to be coded. Since the report was driven by local volunteers and because GIS technology has traditionally been employed by experts, it was logical for the coding system to follow a participatory model. Interviews were conducted with several group leaders and participants to be understand the goals and process of the Inventory. This is presented in Coding the Village Inventory.