Fabio CAVULLI1 / Steno FONTANARI2 / Annaluisa PEDROTTI1

(1Laboratorio di Preistoria “B. Bagolini”, Dipartimento di Filosofia, Storia e Beni Culturali, University of Trento, Italy / 2MPA Solutions – Società Cooperativa, Trento, Italy)

The Alpine Network for Archaeological Sciences (Culture 2000 EU Programme), involving 13 European Research Institutions and Universities, aims the improvement of scientific knowledge concerning human Pre- and Proto-History of the Alpine area. Thanks to the interaction between scientific institutions and audience, the project increase a strong awareness of such periods. The main goal is the development of a website, named Web Museum, whose main aspect is a GIS application for the web.
The WebGIS-based solution was conceived as an interactive place of collaboration where each institution can add and receive scientific information. A strict formalized protocol ensures data homogeneity and management for six Alpine research areas (Northeast Italy, South Austria, Swiss Central Alps, French Western Alps, Ljubljana area, and Tyrol), which can exchange maps and databases.
Two interrelated databases were created to solve the complex organization of archaeological data: one concerning sites, phases and findings, and another managing the amount of articles, journals and monographs.
The WebGIS system was entirely realized by OpenSource technologies using Mapserver/MapBuilder in quality of engine and development suite of the WebGIS, and PostgreSQL/PostGIS in quality of RDBMS for the spatial data management. Open Source applications were chosen, due to their optimal trade-off between high customizability and costs. The whole project was realized following the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards to guarantee the cross-platform interoperability and to simplify the complex collaboration among partner institutions.
The WebGIS system allows visualization, georeferencing and insertion of archaeological sites. furthermore, it gives users the possibility to perform complex alphanumeric or geographic queries, to create automatic reports and to manage multimedia files linked to the sites. The Alpine Network is enriching with a powerful tool for an efficient collaboration which will grant successful results.

Keywords: WebGIS, Prehistory, Alps, Open Source