Cartographies of Heritage : Mapping the Interpretation of Landscape

Abstract

This thesis critically assesses the capabilities of data visualisation as a medium for effectively presenting and communicating fuzzy data, exploring cartographic methods as an effective form of knowledge communication. It considers how data visualisation can be used to explore landscape themes, specifically by integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to represent and analyse qualitative data for understanding cultural heritage landscapes. Using heritage as a key geographical theme, the thesis considers how individuals place ‘value’ onto locations by reviewing theories of landscape aesthetics as a way of conceptualising landscape recognition. By utilising GIS, the thesis devises a mixed-methods approach to map interpretations and responses to heritage landscapes, developing techniques to enable the visualisation of landscape responses through forms of digital cartography. The methodology is designed to be completed in two separate stages. The first stage involves the collection of categorical and quantifiable data through identified research methods. The second stage requires utilising the empirical data collection to create data visualisation and subsequent maps as evidence of the possibility to deploy qualitative cartographies. Consequently, this thesis shows that cartographic representations can interrogate the relationships between people and place using mixed methods through a qualitative GIS approach. Whether these are part of a series of ongoing innovations, as unique stand-alone maps or as complimentary and supplementary methods of visualisation, data representations can effectively communicate people's experiences with or interpretations of landscapes. Data graphics and cartographic representations can be used alongside or in tandem to one another as part of the same visualisation, to create new innovative forms of data visualisation for interrogating and deciphering the complexities between people and place.