The project of an Information System of the Erbil Citadel more

edited by Carlo G. CERETI, Roberta GIUNTA PRESERVATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE KURDISH REGION IN IRAQ Italian Cooperation Project in Iraqi Kurdistan (2009-2010) IsIAO This volume was funded by the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign A airs in the framework of the project “Safeguard, Management and Promotion of Cultural Heritage of the Kurdish Region in Iraq”. Scienti c editor: Design, graphic layout and English translation: English texts revision: Carlo G. Cereti and Roberta Giunta BraDypUS. Communicating Cultural Heritage (Julian Bogdani and Erika Vecchietti) Daniela Williams 2011 ISIAO. Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente via Ulisse Aldrovandi, 16 00197 Roma 7DEOH RI &RQWHQWV Preface (Gerardo Carante, Carlo G. Cereti, Roberta Giunta, Gherardo Gnoli, Maurizio Melani) pp. 5-8 1. Graphic and Topographic Documentation 1.1 Topographic Survey and Cartography in the Ancient Center of Erbil Sven Stefano Tilia 1.2 The Graphic Documentation of the Rashid Agha diwan khanah Angela Bizzarro p. 9 pp. 9-12 pp. 13-16 2. Restoration Plan for the Rashid Agha diwan khanah on Erbil Citadel 2.1 Project Methodology and Historical Pro le Giuseppe Morganti 2.2 Diagnostic and Conservation Giolj F. Guidi 2.3 The Knowledge of the Building as a Basis for the Intervention and the Restoration Plan Design Rossana Nicolò 2.4 Restoration Project of the Architectural Elements Fabio Colombo 2.5 Technical Proposal for Restoration, Strengthening and Reinforcement Design Valter M. Santoro p. 17 pp. 17-20 pp. 21-24 pp. 25-30 pp. 31-34 pp. 35-38 3. Archaeological Investigation on the Erbil Citadel 3. Geophysical Prospections with GPR RIS/MF System. A Preliminary Archaeological Survey on Erbil Citadel Luca Colliva, Alessandro Colucci, Giolj F. Guidi p. 39 pp. 39-46 4. Geographic Information System (GIS) 4. The Project of an Information System of the Erbil Citadel Julian Bogdani p. 47 pp. 47-50 5. Cartography 5. Cartography of the Paikuli Area Alessandro Tilia p. 51 pp. 51-54 6. Cataloguing of Museum Property 6.1 Coins Cataloguing Activity in the KRG Museums: A Methodological Introduction Simona Artusi  6.2 The Numismatic Collections of the KRG Museums: Ancient Coins. A Preliminary Survey Samuele Ranucci 6.3 The Numismatic Collections of the KRG Museums: Islamic Coins. Preliminary Results Simona Artusi p. 55 pp. 55-56 pp. 57-60 pp. 61-63 Geographic Information System (GIS) 7KH 3URMHFW RI DQ ,QIRUPDWLRQ 6\VWHP RI WKH (UELO &LWDGHO 4 Julian Bogdani The Geographic Information System of the Erbil Citadel aimed at creating a shared work platform, able to link all the data produced by the multidisciplinary research team of the Italian Cooperation Project in the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan. The project has been created and developed, at this early stage, by the writer, in close collaboration with Angela Bizzarro; it is however necessary to note that the improvement and enrichment of the system were made possible only through the fundamental contribution of all the members of the project. Since the beginning of the activity, the system was planned and created with a multiscale attitude, able to receive and manage data coming from research carried out at di erent geographical scales. 47 The rst of these scales is the extension of the city of Erbil and its immediate surroundings. The main contents are various satellite images, purchased for the purpose. In addition to providing the coverage of the area (at a satisfactory degree of metrical accuracy), for which no other more accurate coverage is available, they are also a valuable document for the reconstruction of the urban development of the modern city. Purchased satellite images taken at di erent times were used to process layers for the analysis of the dynamics of the recent urban development of the past 10 years (Fig. 1). These analyses will certainly be of great bene t to any archaeological investigation at an urban scale, or even higher. The amount of data and information increases with the enlargement of the scale. For the area of the Citadel, in addition to satellite images, a preliminary vectorial map, a survey of the buildings, the districts and the streets, on the basis of satellite photos and direct survey, are also available. Fig. 1. Visualization, at an urban scale, of the GIS system dedicated to the center of Erbil Italian Cooperation Project in Iraqi Kurdistan (2009-2010). Preservation of Cultural Heritage of the Kurdish Region in Iraq Although the accuracy of this survey is not adequate for a detailed research, it provides a good general informative background for further investigation. In addition, the geophysical surveys at this scale show all the relevant data: the investigated areas and the anomalies found, accompanied by information on the type, depth, etc. 48 Fig. 2. Detail of the main oor of the Rashid Agha diwan khanah in the GIS system of the Erbil Citadel, with the localization of the main sections The third level of information, concerning the Rashid Agha diwan khanah (Fig. 2), is by far the most detailed thanks to recent activity of the Italian Cooperation Project. In this house accurate and multidisciplinary surveys were carried out, both aimed at documenting the evidence, and, mostly, carrying out a restoration project. The results of these surveys and investigations performed on eld with di erent methodologies (Total Station, direct measurements, stereo-photogrammetric surveys – especially of the walls – GPS acquisitions, etc.) were geo-referenced on the basis of speci cally recorded GPS points. Similarly, all the data concerning the samples of the petrographic analyses and pigments were localized on the plans and/or sections and processed. The detailed projects (sections and prospects) are linked with the core data referring to the plans of the several oors of the building. Aware of the di culties of managing the third dimension in the GIS environment, these data were gathered in smaller projects, connected to the main core: these projects include the orthophotos (from the stereo-photogrammetric processing), the direct survey with Total Station, as well as the detailed diagnostic analyses of the present state of conservation of the structures and decorations (carried out by the restoration team). This system of organizing the information has been designed for a future implementation in two di erent directions: horizontally – by increasing the number of data in the available layers – and vertically – by deepening the analysis of the acquired data through levels of representation not yet enabled in the structure of the main system. These two goals can be achieved both through the prosecution of the research and eld surveys of the Italian Cooperation Project, and by the local authorities, who will inherit our organized informative system. JULIAN BOGDANI The Project of an Information System of the Erbil Citadel The usability of this data collection, organization and optimization is of great importance to all those who contributed to its construction. In addition, the developed GIS platform not only works as an archive of the gathered and processed documentation, but also as a tool for further analyses and visualization. For this reason it was decided to create a centralized repository of all the data, accessible through the web only by authorized users. It is a rather complex webGIS platform (Fig. 3) which ensures a continuous ow of geographic information from the central archive to the single scholar and vice versa. Its implementation required the development of a complex centralized system of geographic servers, where all the data (gathered during eld activities) were collected, sorted and processed as explained above. Dedicated communication channels were also created and optimized in order to provide access to the data in various ways, according to the user’s needs and access privileges. The rst and most immediate of these communication channels allows to view and query all the geographic data (and information associated with them) on a web platform accessible through the most common web browsers (Fig. 3, n. 1). This tool does not require any software installation and allows full access to the data archive through a simple interface, provided with all the visualization and basic analysis tools (overlaying, measurements, query of attributes, etc.). This channel is very suitable for basic users, who need to access, view and query the data without the need to install or manage other GIS software (Fig. 4). A second access channel uses the WMF and WFS standards for data transmission (Fig. 3, n. 2). This system allows the users to employ their own GIS software on their own terminal, connect to the database through the internet and import in view mode all data that they need. This is a professional access channel, which allows the user to work independently on an single terminal, to build customized maps and create new thematic layers. The use of GIS software provides the opportunity to exploit the data not only as a cartographic basis, but also to interpolate them and perform rather complex spatial analyses. This channel, thus, enables expert users of GIS software to manage the data present in the database for new processing. However, this is a channel that does not allow the users to edit the data, but only their visualization and analysis. The last communication channel provided by this system is two-way: on the one hand, it allows the visualization and analysis of the data, on the other the editing (Fig. 3, n. 3). This is an access channel that has all the features of the previously described one. It is capable of allowing full usability and accessibility of the data, o ers the chance to cross-reference and analyse information without Fig 3. Structure of the webGIS system 49 Italian Cooperation Project in Iraqi Kurdistan (2009-2010). Preservation of Cultural Heritage of the Kurdish Region in Iraq Fig. 3. Visualization, at an urban scale, of the webGIS system (shown with Mozilla Firefox web browser) dedicated to the centre of Erbil. See the view of the same area in the desktop GIS system in Fig. 1 restrictions and to edit the archive (deletion, insertion of new elements or modi cations of existing items). For this last feature, access to the third communication channel is strictly con dential and can be activated only on special occasions. Given the considerable physical distance between the various partners and experts who collaborate in this project, the network can only be Internet-based. For this reason, the security, authentication and access control systems play an important role in the architecture of the whole system. For the same reason, it is not possible to give here more details about the web addresses from which it is possible to reach the archives, but we hope that, thanks to future agreements and projects, it will be possible to create the conditions and opportunity of a publication (partial and subsidiary) of this data archive for a non-professional audience. 50 Il volume Italian Cooperation Project in Iraqi Kurdistan (2009-2010). Preservation of Cultural Heritage of the Kurdish Region in Iraq è stato stampato nel 2011 presso Istituto Salesiano Pio XI, Roma