Application and Perspective of GIS in Research on Historical Geography and Cultural Geography

It is becoming current trend to use GIS for research on historical geography and cultural geography.By integrated analysis of theses and literatures,this paper summarizes progress of using GIS in historical geography,cultural geography,archaeology and cultural resource management,spatial social science,and introduces some main practices of developing historical cultural GIS in Chinese Mainland,Taiwan and Hongkong.The author thinks that though some problems exist in the course of using GIS,it holds enormous potential to apply GIS for research on historical geography and cultural geography.Therefore,scholars of historical geography and cultural geography should recognize function of GIS,develop GIS software for these disciplines together with spatial information technology specialists,build cooperative research platform from different disciplines and areas,and make using GIS for study of history and culture becoming a part of plan of digital city.