The Role of GIS in Protecting Cultural Resources
Rethinking Sustainable Transportation Planning
SCAG Region
The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is a made up of six Southern California counties (Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura). One of their main focuses is creating and implementing sustainable transportation plans and policies.
The SCAG region geographically encompasses thousands of known and unknown archaeological sites. When considering sustainable transportation plans, archaeological sites are the last thing on a planner's mind. But this does not mean that they aren't important; archaeological sites gives us insight on who came before us and can play a major role in who we become. By having accessing to proper GIS data collection tools, planners have the ability to ensure that archaeological resources are being considered during sustainable transportation planning.
Archaeological Resources in Southern California
For over 12,000 years Southern California has been occupied by numerous people. They have left remnants of who they were and their traditions in archaeological sites. Southern California is home to thousands of known and unknown sites, each giving insight on the people that came before us.
Type of sites:
- Prehistoric Native American Villages
- Native American sacred sites
- Mission period structures
- Petroglyphs or Pictographs
- Gold Rush era sites
Protection and Preservation
There is a desire in people from all over the world to learn about human origins. Archaeological sites hold great amounts of information concerning first peoples and their achievements. For hundreds of years, these sites have been looted and desecrated. Thankfully geophysical techniques and GIS have provided noninvasive ways to accurately locate and record sites without putting them at risk.
Proper preservation will only be achieved if there is profound knowledge of the site. Therefore when considering sites that have yet to be researched it is best that the general public not be exposed. But if a site has been properly researched, the conversation can be introduced as to whether the general public should be granted access. This is where a data collection app would serve as a great tool both for preservation and sustainable transportation efforts.
Data Collection: Survey 123
By utilizing Survey 123 from Esri, transportation planners and tribal members can catalog newly discovered or known cultural sites to aid in the implementation of sustainable transportation.
Survey 123 can be accessed from an internet browser or downloaded onto a phone or tablet. It doesn't need an internet connection which makes it highly useful when in remote areas. An Esri subscription is required for access, but thankfully there are more affordable data collection tools out there. Once the sites have been recorded using the data collection tool, they automatically update onto a web map which makes visualization easy and informative.
Implementing Survey 123
This data collection tool can empower transportation planning and policy officials to appropriately record and protect these sites and simultaneously contribute to the overall sustainable transportation effort. Planners will be able to better communicate their technical findings to their stakeholders and the general community that might possibly be impacted by the project.
A transportation planner might be considering where to put electrical vehicle (EV) charging stations or a tribal member might be considering where to put a new bike path. Whatever the transportation matter might be, Survey 123 can serve as a great tool when considering where to implement sustainable transportation plans.
Conclusion
As mentioned before, one of the main goals of SCAG is transportation planning for a for sustainable California. By incorporating an accessible data collection tool like Survey 123, transportation efforts can soon incorporate the protection and preservation of cultural resources. Soon California will not only be sustainable in its transportation planning but also proactive in the protection of valuable cultural resources.
