SPATIAL INFORMATION OF OLD MAPS VIEWED IN CURRENT DIGITAL IMAGES: A CONTRIBUTION OF GIS TO THE LANDSCAPE ARCHEOLOGY

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology based on Quantum GIS that allows the integration of recent satellite images to ancient or old maps The research uses as a basis the historical Jaboticabal topographical sheet of 1927 (1:100,000), produced by the Geographical and Geological Commission of São Paulo. This sheet give the positions of farmhouses; colonies, rural chapels, railway sidings, railway stations, roads, rural, urban networks and villages. In this paper, the topographical sheet of 1927 was georeferenced to the Google Earth image of 2010, based on GPS data and IBGE Jaboticabal sheet at 1:50,000 scale. Field control points that remained in the same geographical position since 1927 were selected. Then, in the GIS, it was applied a polynomial transformation, allowing a geometric adjustment between the old sheet and Google image. Landscape elements represented in 1927 were digitized and converted into buffers, and then, overlaid on the Google image. It was possible to map areas where is most likely to find nowadays objects built in 1927. This procedure allowed the location of objects that remain on the ground today, extinct objects, objects that remain as fragments of the past and those were replaced by others.