Historical Map Georeference-a-thon

Join us for lunch, conversation, and geo-referencing at the Healthy Regions & Policies Lab's first Georeference-a-thon on Wednesday, November 20th at 11 AM! Whether you are a geo-reference novice or an expert, grab a seat, a lunch, and your laptop as together we will piece together old insurance maps from 1915 of the Champaign-Urbana area!

The in-person option is open the University of Illinois community (students, staff, and faculty). Please use the RSVP option on the right for the in-person portion of the event. We will have lunch for all attendees who RSVP by Wednesday @10 AM before the event.

A virtual option via Zoom is available for the public. To register for the Zoom option, please access the following link: go.illinois.edu/HEROP-GEO-ZOOM.

Adam Cox, MS, MLIS, developed OldInsuranceMaps.net through his master’s thesis at Louisiana State University. With a structured workflow and easy-to-use browser tools, anyone can use the site to transform historical fire insurance maps into mosaicked geospatial datasets. Now, a team of students at the University of Richmond is currently using OldInsuranceMaps.net as part of an NIH grant aimed at creating data resources to help further understand the impact of redlining and place-based systemic racism on health inequalities.

These Center for Urban Health Equity (CUHE) researchers have located and scanned over 130 Federal Housing Association (FHA) Block Data Maps for cities across the country. These maps represent another attempt to engage in redlining apart from the more commonly known HOLC Residential Security Maps. FHA maps were assumed to be destroyed, but they have now been found!

For these maps to be used in GIS analyses, the maps must be digitized and geo-referenced. Geo-referencing involves matching the locations of the digital image with the locations on the GIS map so that the FHA Block Data Maps can be overlaid and integrated into GIS mapping platforms for further study and analysis. In layman's terms: We'll be matching old insurance maps to current maps of the Champaign-Urbana area to help future research!

This event will be a major push in helping geo-reference the Champaign-Urbana area!

Healthy Regions & Policies Lab integrates innovative GIScience, public health, and statistical approaches to explore, understand, and promote healthy places. We’re experts in the spatial & social determinants of health. We're based out of the Dept of Geography & GIScience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Host or Publisher Healthy Regions & Policies Lab