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Plans for Interactive Map

The first interface is the THDL Cultural Geography webpage, with its zoomable map of the TAR; the project entails the development of an internet-capable GIS system. The base map of the TAR is linked with the THDL Gazetteer, which holds administrative information from the Chinese government, down to the level of township. This first interface will be linked to the second, regionally focused webpage for the Porong Project.

The second interface will be designed to facilitate researchers' understanding of the shifting political and social landscape of the Porong region of southwest Tibet. A map interface tied to a geographic database of political and resource use boundaries will allow a user to recall – at the click of a mouse – the transformation of the landscape over time.

The Porong Project will use a 15-meter resolution Landsat satellite image to build its base map. Points (e.g., encampments), lines (e.g., pasture boundaries), and polygons (e.g., vegetation type, pasture condition) can be turned off and on against this topographical backdrop. The Porong project will build the following set of layers for a geographic analysis of land use in Porong. These will include:

• Chinese administrative units: to township level
• Human settlements: including spot features like township, villages, encampments, etc.
• Pasture land boundaries: pre-1959, commune period, post-1980
• Pasture Toponyms
• Pastoral movements: numbers of animals, where animals are kept and moved between seasons
• Vegetation changes: relative productivity of vegetation between years and seasons
• Vegetation composition and range condition: within given GPS-referenced pastures, what is the species composition using remote sensing imagery and ground truthing at experimental plots established by Monika Kriechbaum of Vienna's University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences.
• Sacred sites: yul lha shrines, monasteries, retreat sites, archaeological ruins, etc.
• Built infrastructure: trails, roads, government and commercial facilities, access to markets
• Hydrology
• Land Use
• Others?