Documentation
Porong work plan
The proposed work has three phases.
Stage 1:
The first step will be to organize these materials, edit them, and put them into a permanent database repository to be integrated into an online GIS model, but also standing independently as a research archive on Porong. A critical dimension of this first phase is to establish a sufficient contemporary base map of the area using satellite remote sensing data at a 15-meter resolution. GPS points collected in the field will be added, which will eventually be linked with other databases in the Oxford collection, e.g., videos and audios (mpg), images (jpg), spreadsheets (xls, fpd), documents (doc), ultimately to produce user-friendly, scalable, interactive GIS maps (GDMS, xml) on the THDL platform. In this first phase, THDL has worked towards establishing the necessary templates and interfaces, as well as provide training and adaptation of systems/tools for the Porong project. However, to migrate Oxford archives to current data structures present levels of staffing are inadequate for the work of using those tools to catalog, process and shape the actual data.
Stage 2:
The second step will be further fieldwork. This fieldwork will both expand the breadth and depth of the research, and provide the opportunity to improve data collection by field testing and ground truthing remote sensing data. Fieldwork will provide more video documentation of the Porong's vibrant song and dance traditions. We would also like to purchase and process high resolution satellite imagery of the area to document, classify, and observe changes in the vegetation of the area (e.g., through an AVHRR/NDVI analysis of vegetation productivity, 1975-2000).
Stage 3:
The third phase will be the ongoing processing of these materials (i.e., transcription, translation, technical enhancements) and finally integration into the digital library environment as a coherent collection dedicated to the environmental-cultural region of Porong. The third stage can explore diachronic dimensions of land use by relying on historical documents to extend into Porong's past. This could take the form of composing a textual chronology, followed by the use of animation and other techniques, to demonstrate visually the changing boundaries of pastures and administrative organization.
Current work
GPS points and descriptions were migrated to Excel spreadsheet and converted to degree decimal points from degrees/minutes/seconds. The coverage of the GPS points is not the entire circumference of pastures, but rather points within the boundaries of pastures, and other spot features along the way like stream crossings, monasteries, lakes, settlements, cultural/archaeological sites, etc. These GPS points are presently being converted and added to an ArcGIS base map built on 15 meter resolution satellite images (3-band, NASA). This work is being completed by Franz Suppan at Vienna's University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (Institut für Vermessung, Fernerkundung und Landinformation, Universität für Bodenkultur, Wien). The project's main local collaborator, Porong native Kuthok Zla ba, has taken detailed ethnographic notes and recorded a census data for livestock and households for each village in this township. These documents are being translated into English. Place names extracted from these notes will be correlated with Chinese names in the THDL Gazetteer to generate spatially-referenced social data about the pastoral economy of this region.
THDL is building the database infrastructure that will yield an internet-capable GIS user interface that can be used to access multi-disciplinary, multi-media research information about this pastoral community in the TAR. Field data collected will be migrated into these structures. These templates will then feed directly into the THDL Gazetteer, the repository of analytical and descriptive information about spot features and GIS layers.