Please join us on Thursday afternoon February 8th, from 2:00-3:30pm EST, for a live webinar program that will examine how linked open data can be used to address the impacts of climate change on heritage resources. The program consists of a ca. 30-35 minute talk with slides followed by a Q&A period. It is part of the Climate Change in America’s National Parks Webinar Series, from the NPS Climate Change Response Program.

Missed it? Here’s how to view the webinar: We have posted slides and audio from the webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/r_yMpq7X3qU. Many thanks to the National Park Service for providing the recording!

Protecting American Heritage through Linked Data: Using DINAA as a Guide in a Changing World
David G. Anderson, Eric C. Kansa, Sarah W. Kansa, Joshua J. Wells, and Stephen J. Yerka

Abstract: Linking heritage data at regional and continental scales is essential if we are to effectively plan for and steward human history through current and coming environmental change. This project used the Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) to explore how projected sea-level rise and human population displacements in the coming years, if unchecked, will impact vast numbers of settlements, cemeteries, and cultural landscapes past and present. DINAA is a continental-scale database that allows online access to linked heritage and environmental information, providing a powerful modeling and planning tool useful for research, resource management, and public education. Developed by a large and diverse team of archaeologists, resource managers, and interested parties in state and federal agencies and tribal nations, DINAA currently includes nonsensitive data from half a million archaeological sites in 15 states in Eastern North America, and is expanding as rapidly as new partners are added to the project. While we used DINAA to examine threats to US heritage, more optimistically the work provides a powerful example of how access to open data can highlight the richness of the archaeological record that surrounds us, and can raise public awareness about America’s fascinating past. It allows researchers, land managers, and interested members of the public to examine the changes in human settlement that have occurred over the ca. 15,000 years people have lived in the Americas. It will also allow us to make better informed forecasts and policy decisions about the consequences of rapid climate change, extreme weather events, losses to history and heritage, and the relocation of displaced populations.