Introduction
The process of overlaying an old map of Northfield over a current map of Northfield aided my overall understanding of the creation of spatial DH projects, particularly Mapping Inequality, which I had even explored in a previous post. My primary new understanding of these DH projects was a newfound concept of exactly the labor it requires to create projects such as Mapping Inequality, let alone the upkeep DH endeavors require after the initial publication.
Process and Analysis
My map can be accessed in multiple manners, both a live version that can be edited by anyone through Allmaps Editor, a GeoJSON link, or a stagnant, non-revisable version in Allmaps Viewer. Something I appreciate about viewing the map in Allmaps Viewer is the fact that I can adjust the opacity of the older map, which helped me in seeing how accurately referenced my georectified map was.
The possibilities of a georectified map span many different sectors, whether it be city planning or history of a place. By creating these overlays, it could be possible to view the evolution of a city in a digestible manner, and truly see which parts stayed the same versus the parts that changed. Next steps would likely be highlighting parts of the map that are particularly pertinent to the DH project at hand (like how zoning was highlighted in Mapping Inequality). For example, if we were to visualize the evolution of the Carleton campus, perhaps in each new iteration of the map of Northfield, we could highlight new construction, as well as demolition.
Though useful, and interesting to explore, georeferencing is not without problems. Georeferencing is dependent on maps that were already created, which may vary in accuracy, or misconstrue historical events (i.e.: maps that feature Europe as larger than other continents, clearly inaccurate). In this case, perhaps georeferencing is not an accurate way of depicting historical events (unless, of course, the aim of the DH project is displaying biases in inaccurate maps).
Another example of an area where this method is not appropriate is in cases where the map is more artistic, rather than along a flat plane (not grid-like). Though these maps are interesting, they are not necessarily good candidates for this type of work.
Conclusion
Though georeferencing absolutely is both fun and useful as a tool in creating DH projects, it is imperative that the creator selects the maps carefully, and makes sure that the selected maps make sense in the context of the project. Overall, I really enjoyed exploring this tool, and definitely foresee using it again in the future.
