GIS-Based Tools for the Management and Dissemination of Heritage Information in Historical Towns. The Case of Santiago De Compostela (Spain)

Historical towns are among the most complex cases of heritage data management. As it may be the case in any other type of heritage site, knowing the spatial distribution of heritage elements is reason enough to support the development of GIS-based tools for information management. But, besides that, two factors add up to further encourage the adoption of GIS-based technologies in those contexts. Firstly, historical towns are especially complex heritage sites, where a wide variety of interrelated material elements coexist (buildings, open spaces, buried features,…), quite often in close relationship with a significant body of documents describing them. Secondly, they are places subject to an intense daily activity and pressure that force to take frequent informed decisions on what to do with heritage elements, decisions that must be based on an accurate and updated knowledge of the evidence available. In this paper we will present the case of the SIP-Sistema de Informacion Patrimonial (Heritage Information...