A special GIS application – military historical reconstruction

Abstract

GIS is increasingly becoming popular in many humane disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology. In our research we use it to support military historical reconstruction. We deal with the Attila-line, which was a defence line around Budapest in the secnd World War. Up to now the researchers could find only short descriptions and sketches about this defence line. Our goal was a detailed and reliable reconstruction, which contains environmental, object, and event parts. To get through with this task we had to collect and manage a lot of variable-quality archive data. This information comes from different sources: libraries, archives, archive maps and aerial photographs, field measurements, and personal reminiscences. We can manage this information in a standard system with GIS. The investigation consists of three main parts: the reconstruction of the contemporary environment, the reconstruction of the defence objects, and the reconstruction of the military events. This database can be used as a reference system to support further research and to identify new parts of the defence line. Using the attributes we can make queries and various reviews. The database is usable as a digital data archive, too. Our next research goal is to follow the search of the Attila-line and other defence lines and to present them to wider scientific and public audiences.

Remotely Sensed Data Fusion in Modern Age Archaeology and Military Historical Reconstruction

“…The integration of airborne laser data into this conventional process is a significant step forward, considering the result's quality. In addition there is a unique potential in this technology to detect military objects especially in vegetation covered areas, in contrast with any other remote sensing methods (Juhász A., 2007). As mentioned previously, the earlier types of the LiDAR sensors could detect just a single reflected signal.…”

Application of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing in Military Operations: A Systematic Review

“…GIS has been used to support military historical reconstruction with focus on the defense line around Budapest in the Second World War [17]. This task was achieved by collecting archive maps, aerials photographs, as well as field measurements, among other data, and was managed in standard system with GIS for the reconstruction of contemporary environment, defense object and military events.…”

The use of web-GIS and crowdsourcing in the acquisition of historical data on the example of Polegli1939 project

“…The study of the relationship between a person involved in an event and the environment can be conducted on geographical and historical levels. Research on past military actions and their social consequences also fits into this framework (Juhász, 2007(Juhász, , 2014. The development and implementation of this research in the spatial dimension requires the development and construction of databases, which are crucial for the collection of geohistorical data.…”