Visualising Ballarat

Visualising Ballarat is an ongoing project, currently in the early stages of development. It employs a collaborative research approach for developing state-of-the-art knowledge management and planning tools which will empower various community sectors to understand the urban landscape, recognise cultural significance, and assess and monitor change. It proposes a staged approach to a long-term research project that will result in web-based spatial information systems, which include 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional visualisations together with augmented reality experiences of past, present and future Ballarat city landscapes. In September 2013, Ballarat was the first Australian city to join an international pilot program to implement UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL). This recognises the role that urban heritage plays as a social, cultural and economic asset in the development of cities. The HUL program vision is to help Ballarat grow without compromising its heritage; by providing a road map on how to address change without losing Ballarat’s character. At the core of the HUL approach are the community's values, which are the starting point for city management. Hence, there is a need to map these values effectively and have all of Council referencing them as a starting point to city development. It is envisaged that Visualising Ballarat will have a much broader appeal than HUL, extending through a full range of uses - from the utilitarian, such as locating old mine workings and landfill sites - to the esoteric, such as immersive augmented reality experiences of historical places or events. The key component is to provide the community, practitioners, researchers and industry with place-based information on demand, and hence encourage a deeper understanding, consideration and appreciation of the city's historic urban landscape values. Federation University Australia's eresearch and digital innovation capability is being utilised to federate HUL information, data and databases to facilitate access to historic urban landscape information. The developing web-based portal will provide easy access to authoritative and credible heritage information for city managers, developers, planners, researchers, communities of interest, groups and agencies wishing to engage in HUL program activities. It will promote the sharing of knowledge and information, allowing people to gain insights, present ideas, advice and information in a friendly and easy-to-use format, available at people’s convenience. It allows the City of Ballarat citizens to grow their knowledge and share their thoughts and enthusiasm for their city's historic urban landscape. In that sense, the website is deliberately aimed in part at supporting ratepayers, citizens and community groups to feel connected and supported in their heritage interests. The longer-term intention is to encourage the generation of research ideas and projects with other collaborators, locally to globally. This discussion paper outlines a collaborative approach which can be regarded as a blueprint for research that will assist the City of Ballarat and Federation University Australia in achieving their shared goals. The proposed research is founded on the 144-year old relationship between the organisations that has resulted in a substantial repository of regional knowledge. Online liberation of this information, together with that held in the other knowledge repositories of long-standing Ballarat institutions, has the potential to provide new insights into the urban landscapes of this historic city. This visualisation, which is stage 1 of the Historic Urban Landscapes Project, starts the process of bringing together community activities, research and data from government, academics and other sources. It includes: A mapping interface that brings together historic and new data about Ballarat's history and landscape Connections to research on Ballarat's history and landscape and the Historic Urban Landscape approach to managing Ballarat A place for researchers to have an internet 'home' for their projects Connections to existing community activities on Ballarat's heritage and landscape Links into the international 'historic urban landscape' community. This is done through the collection and mapping of data which includes historic landscape imagery, heritage places, parks and gardens, natural landscape and character areas, geological features, community infrastructure and a range of regulatory planning tools and administrative boundaries. This visualisation is part of an interoperable web-GIS maintained by the Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation(CeRDI) at Federation University Australia (FedUni).可视化巴拉腊特（Visualising Ballarat）是一项仍在推进中的工作，目前处于开发早期阶段。项目采用协作式研究方法开发前沿知识管理与规划工具，赋能各社区板块理解城市景观、识别文化价值，并评估与监测城市变迁。项目提出分阶段推进的长期研究计划，最终将构建基于网页的空间信息系统，涵盖三维、四维可视化成果，以及巴拉腊特城市过去、现在与未来景观的增强现实（augmented reality）体验。 2013年9月，巴拉腊特成为澳大利亚首个加入联合国教育、科学及文化组织（United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO）《历史城市景观建议》（Historic Urban Landscape Recommendation）实施国际试点项目的澳大利亚城市。该倡议认可城市遗产作为城市发展中社会、文化与经济资产的重要作用。历史城市景观（Historic Urban Landscape，简称HUL）项目的愿景是助力巴拉腊特在发展过程中不损害其遗产风貌，通过提供路线图指导如何应对城市变迁同时保留巴拉腊特的城市特质。HUL方法的核心是社区价值，这也是城市治理的出发点。因此，需要高效绘制这些价值图谱，并让市议会所有部门以此作为城市发展的出发点。 预计可视化巴拉腊特项目的受众覆盖面将远超HUL项目，其应用场景覆盖多元范畴——从实用类用途（如定位旧矿场与垃圾填埋场）到小众沉浸式体验类用途（如历史场所或事件的增强现实沉浸式游览）。项目的核心功能是按需为社区、从业者、研究者与产业界提供基于场所的信息，进而推动人们对这座城市的历史城市景观价值产生更深入的理解、思考与认同。 澳大利亚联邦大学（Federation University Australia）的电子研究与数字创新能力正被用于联合整合HUL相关信息、数据与数据库，以提升历史城市景观信息的可访问性。正在开发的基于网页的门户将为参与HUL项目活动的城市管理者、开发商、规划师、研究者、利益相关社区、团体与机构提供便捷的权威可信遗产信息访问渠道。该门户将促进知识与信息的共享，让人们可以通过友好易用的格式获取见解、分享观点、提供建议与信息，且可随时随地访问。它将助力巴拉腊特市民提升相关知识储备，并分享他们对这座城市历史城市景观的见解与热忱。就此而言，该网站的部分设计初衷是为市政纳税人、市民与社区团体提供支持，让他们在参与遗产相关活动时能感受到归属感与帮扶。 其长期目标是推动与本地乃至全球的其他合作者共同催生研究创意与项目。本讨论文件阐述了一种协作式研究方法，可被视为助力巴拉腊特市与澳大利亚联邦大学实现共同目标的研究蓝图。本次拟开展的研究基于两机构间长达144年的合作关系，该关系已积累了大量区域知识储备。将该信息与巴拉腊特其他老牌机构的知识馆藏一同上线发布，有望为这座历史名城的城市景观研究提供全新视角。 本可视化项目作为历史城市景观项目的第一阶段，启动了整合社区活动、研究数据以及政府、学术界与其他来源数据的工作，具体包括： 1. 整合巴拉腊特历史与现状景观及历史数据的地图界面； 2. 关联巴拉腊特历史与景观研究以及用于巴拉腊特治理的历史城市景观方法； 3. 为研究者提供项目专属的线上“家园”； 4. 关联巴拉腊特遗产与景观相关的现有社区活动； 5. 对接国际“历史城市景观”社区。 该项目通过数据收集与绘图实现上述目标，涵盖的数据集包括历史景观影像、遗产场所、公园与花园、自然景观与特色区域、地质特征、社区基础设施，以及一系列监管规划工具与行政边界。本可视化项目是由澳大利亚联邦大学电子研究与数字创新中心（Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation, CeRDI）维护的可互操作网页地理信息系统（web-GIS）的组成部分。