Spatially Enabling RiverWeb, a Web-Based Resource for Historical Exploration of the American Bottom

RiverWeb (<http://www.riverweb.uiuc.edu>)
is a web-based education and outreach program to
promote environmental education and historical awareness
about rivers and their watersheds. One aspect of the project is
an extensive collection of historical materials pertaining to early
settlements in the “American Bottom,” a location just south of
the confluence of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers,
near modern-day St. Louis. This also includes a large historical
record of the early development of East St. Louis (IL), from its
early settlement through the twentieth century, up to and
including the most recent census.
This poster illustrates efforts to spatially enable the RiverWeb
collection. The outcome is a dynamic web mapping application
that forms a browser-based flexible user interface to the
collection of historical materials, newspaper clippings,
directories and census information. The system has been built
using open source software compatible with Open GIS
Consortium (OGC) standards and includes web mapping
functionality, a gazetteer and basic geovisualization. The paper
describes the design and architecture of the system and the implementation of the linkage between the historical
information and its spatial imprint. This is illustrated with a
historical analysis of neighborhood change in East St. Louis as
a result of redlining policies in the early 20th century. Change
in neighborhood profile over time and across space can be
visualized and basic exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA)
techniques provide ways to quantify these patterns.