The GIS Division at the Department of Growth Management, in Alachua County, Florida initiated a partnership with the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida, and with funding assistance from the Division of Historical Resources, at the Florida Department of State (Grant No F0219), carried out this multimedia GIS based web application on a historic structures information system in Alachua County, Florida. Florida site files, photographs, video clips with a voice narrative, related databases, and detailed descriptive information, are all integrated in an interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) with live mapping capabilities, help and tutorial support. Conceived as more than just a framework for a digital archive, sixteen other GIS layers with land information have also been integrated with this application, boosting the ability of GIS to integrate, analyze, and visually represent spatially referenced information in support of innovative interpretations. A CD, that includes all of the data and the GIS and web software application, designed to work off-line, is provided free of charge, via web and other conventional means.

In Florida, a local government makes historic preservation a public policy through passage of a historic preservation ordinance. This is the first step towards being designated as a Certified Local Government (CLG) from the state. The CLG was enacted as part of the National Historic Preservation Act amendments of 1980 with the purpose of linking federal, state, and local governments into a preservation partnership for the identification, evaluation, and protection of historic properties. Becoming a CLG entitles the community to many benefits from preservation incentives, but it is not legally required. At present, in the State of Florida, out of 67 counties each with multiple local governments, only 44 local governments participate in the CLG program. According to the CLG guidelines (1999), two of the five requirements to be met by a local government for CLG consideration are: a) the local government shall maintain a system for survey and inventory of historic properties b) local governments shall provide for public participation in local historic preservation programs.

Alachua County does not yet have a historic preservation ordinance and it does not officially designate historic properties. Only two cities in the county have a historic preservation ordinance: Gainesville and Micanopy. Current efforts are underway to develop a historic ordinance, that will provide a policy for the protection of historic resources, will establish a process for designating historic properties, will protect the integrity of designated historic properties by requiring design review, will authorize design guidelines for new development within historic districts, and will stabilize declining neighborhoods protecting and enhancing property values.

The GIS Division has played a key role in the fulfillment of the two requirements to be met by Alachua County, for CLG consideration. The first step towards this role was a historic structures survey conducted by Quatrefoil/Anderson Consulting in June of 2000, funded by Alachua County with assistance from the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources. The result of this survey was a GIS database of historic structures. This effort paved the way for an effective fulfillment of the second requirement. The first step in implementing the strategy for fulfilling the second requirement was a web-deliverable descriptive information system on Historic Preservation in Alachua County. The web site, Historic Preservation in Alachua County, Florida, provides the public with access to important historical information on everything from town histories, to historical organizations, incentives, and local preservation activities. This work was part of Jennifer Moreau's master thesis in Urban and Regional Planning, and courtesy contribution by Juna Goda Papajorgji, who introduced the idea to her. The second step and a more major one towards implementing this strategy, is this historic structures GIS and multimedia web application. The web application insures transparency to a structured wealth of historic information, for use in support of preservation activities and related planning efforts of various local government agencies. It contributes to community education on historic preservation, stimulating educated and informed civic participation to decision making. The GIS component can serve as a minimal cost prototype model, to be implemented in other Florida counties.

This project started life as an idea in Fall of 2000, when I first opened the report on Alachua County's Historic Structures Survey. It has progressively materialized during the last three years and it is now in its final stage of implementation. Following are the major technical goals and components of this application.

Some of the primary objectives this project set out to accomplish are as follows:

• overcome limitations in GIS technologies and in institutional arrangements and open opportunities for public input and participation along the process of historic preservation policy making
• create a platform for incorporating local public knowledge into decision frameworks now primarily property of GIS experts
• provide for the public to be brought in the preservation planning process at its early stages
• enable wider public acceptance of the decision making results through a participatory GIS based process
• guard against exclusion of groups marginalized by the digital divide reality
• provide public access to digital data archives
• educate students of all ages on local history and culture
• promote heritage tourism

Develop a user-friendly GIS software application that would bundle together and bring alive all the information from the historic survey as it relates to other GIS data sets in Alachua County. Make it easy to use by anyone with basic to no knowledge of computer operations. Choose a contemporary technological solution that will provide for a minimal cost implementation, for dispensing of the same application in a CD to be used on a desktop with no GIS software installation, for re-utilization of this solution in other counties with no resources assumed.

The JShape object module, a Java applet, was used to implement this application. A free developer's edition is available from the author's website and can be registered for $150. No additional cost is required for network use or distribution. JShape can be easily integrated into an existing web site, or in an entirely new site, which can take full advantage of JShape's external controls without the need for a GIS web server software. JShape's user interface has the look and feel of most contemporary applications. The java applet follows standard GIS software conventions, such as dataset layering, symbolic coloring, and detailed data reports of selected map features. Commonplace GIS features are included with JShape, such as zoom, pan, identify, select, and change of data layers order. However, additional data queries must be implemented using Java Script forms, external to the Java applet. JShape allows for customization of only one of its five drop down menus. The other four menus cannot be modified from the author's original design. HTML, JavaScript, and JShape's Script were used for this application.

JShape uses standard file formats. This application uses shapefiles. To minimize network traffic, the shapefiles are compressed down to 20% of their original size, using FShape - a Java program part of the JShape package. Data files are used to link attribute information to the features defined by the shape file. Either text files or DBF files can be used for attributes. When the client requests a data layer, the shape and the corresponding attribute file are loaded by the JShape applet. Once loaded, the map is redrawn to show the new map features. The size and color of the drawn features can be customized for each data layer. A legend is sometimes used to differentiate between separate portions of any single data layer.

The central database in this application is the historic structures GIS database. It represents 967 structures, 39 considered potentially eligible for the National Historic Register, and 4 already in the National Historic Register. Most of these structures date from the 1880's to the mid-twentieth century. For each of the structures, the database maintains the required state standard info for the site file and a photograph in .gif format. For each of the architectural styles it has 2-3 sample video-clips. Other GIS data sets include, conservation lands, trails, lakes, streams, urban growth boundaries, municipality boundaries, historic markers, designated scenic drives, champion trees, etc. Some of these datasets have also been enriched with appropriate photographs, accessible the same way as the historic data with this application. For each of the datasets, corresponding metadata is provided in ESRI format, with the ArcGIS interface on line.

This project is a relatively new method of information exchange that aims to offer the citizenry of Alachua County an easily accessible vehicle to historic information. The citizenry of Alachua County is conceived as the collection of neighbors, concerned citizens, environmental activists, technical experts, students of all ages, media, planners and other regulators, elected officials as policy makers, etc. The underlining hope is that when nourished with more opportunities for better information, public voices would be more articulate and therefore public decisions in preservation would be better.

This state of the art web based GIS application has proven effective in managing and integrating many data components from one single interface, such as data archives, parallel text and other media, location based real-time analysis, real-time mapping, and data integration. With all the many different products that can be used to implement web-based GIS applications, a set of questions would center into why this particular lightweight technological solution was chosen. The right answers would be found in the relationship of this solution to the goals that the project sought out to accomplish. In the context of limited budgets, under the reality that historic data does not change very often, taking advantage of lightweight, inexpensive solutions has proven fruitful. A more conventional Internet Map Server (IMS) would have certainly been a more robust and steady solution, securing live connection to the data, and it could have provided a better framework for more customization and analysis than this application, but it would have for that very reason come at a much higher cost, and it would have certainly not provided for a portable solution to a CD.

If this model were to be applied to other Florida counties, enabling re-utilization at even a much lower cost, a new problem would emerge in the horizon. That problem would be defined as the need for a statewide standardization of the locally produced GI historic data. The solution to that problem would be a very valuable contribution towards fulfilling the objectives of a consolidated statewide Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).