Map Events Tool
	Name and Last name: Lex Berman Position: Project Manager, China Historical GIS Project School: Harvard Yenching Institute E-mail: mberman@fas.harvard.edu Address: Vanserg Hall 20, 25 Francis Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138 Software/coding used: ArcGIS, ArcView, MapInfo Unicode and GB2312 (for Chinese Characters) Hardware used: Windows 2000, PIII, 850, GIS workstation Linux RedHat7, PIII 800, mapserver and database host
Description: The China Historical Geographic Information System (CHGIS) project was launched on January 8th 2001, with funding from the Henry Luce Foundation. The participating institutions--Fudan University, Harvard Yenching Institute, Griffith University--have joined together to form CHGIS with the idea of creating a new digital product for free distribution to scholars without restriction. The CHGIS will establish a database of historical administrative units for different periods in Chinese History, and will also provide a base GIS platform for spatial analysis, temporal statistical modeling, and representation of selected historical units as digital maps. The project begins with the publication of datasets for the year 1820 (Qing Dynasty). Following this release, the project will work backwards, creating a continuous time series of records that track changes in placename, administrative status, and geography. The objective is to create a flexible tool that can be used to investigate any sort of geographically specific data related to China.