Artemis

Project information

General Information

As recurring flood disasters and countless policy plans demonstrate, we urgently need more 'water-resistant' cities. This calls for changes in policy and infrastructure, but also in the way we interact with our natural and 'blue' environment. One of the tasks of the academic community is to provide fundamental knowledge to underpin well-informed decision-making and to raise awareness within local communities. However, collecting and analyzing the necessary data is hampered by the lack of a common spatial infrastructure. Such an infrastructure makes it possible to map the long-term evolution of urban 'waterscapes' and to analyze the complex socio-ecological interactions. Artemis-UA is creating this open mapping infrastructure for research into cities and their blue infrastructure in a long-term historical perspective (16th-20th centuries). It will do this based on a unique data source that distinguishes us internationally: the extremely rich (but dispersed) historical map collections held by the Belgian archives, which—often handwritten and in incredible detail—document human use and reconfiguration of (urban) rivers, wetlands, wells, sewers, drainage ditches, etc., from the sixteenth century to the present day. Designed as the UA contribution to the Artemis FWO medium-sized research infrastructure (initiated at the UA, but funded solely at Ghent University), Artemis-UA brings together specialists from the Centre for Urban History (CUH), the Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change (CRESC), AntweRp Cultural HEritage Sciences (ARCHES), and the Urban Studies Institute (USI). These research groups at the University of Antwerp are at the forefront of international and interdisciplinary research into urban 'waterscapes', their management, and the inherent risks and opportunities. Artemis-UA will focus on a study area central to many of their research projects: the Scheldt Valley, recently declared a National Park and part of the UNESCO Global Geopark Scheldt Delta. For three cities within the Scheldt Valley – Antwerp, Dendermonde, and Lokeren – Artemis-UA will realize a 'blueprint' by

  • collecting relevant handwritten/local maps covering these cities and their (peri-)urban areas in the long term, processing and enriching these maps through
  • crowdsourced georeferencing and
  • automatic extraction of landscape features, and
  • publishing the derived spatial data via an 'Open Mapping Infrastructure'

The long-term focus, the extensive collection of 200+ highly detailed maps, and the publication of both precisely localized maps and derived 'research-ready' geodata make Artemis-UA a truly groundbreaking and unique infrastructure. Artemis-UA will elevate the University of Antwerp to an internationally renowned knowledge centre for historically informed analysis and decision-making regarding urban water challenges, and will further strengthen the leading position of UA research in socio-ecological analysis of rivers, estuaries, and flood management. More specifically, mapping and reconstructing long-term changes in the urban water landscape has enormous valorisation potential for any research into 1) urban planning and urban development; 2) inclusive water management; 3) unequal exposure to and awareness of water-related risks; and 4) the integration of water heritage into climate adaptation strategies.

Research group: Centre for Urban History (UA) Funding: BOF

See also here!​

Team