Arches 3.0 Released for Heritage Inventory

Developed jointly by the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and World Monuments Fund (WMF), Arches 3.0 (http://archesproject.org/) is an open-source based heritage inventory and management system.  I wrote a short blog about Arches back in 2013, and lot has happened since then!

"Prior to Arches, no modern software system was freely available to the heritage field, often leading organizations to expend scarce resources to create custom systems from scratch." - Arches Project 

Example of webmap powered by Arches: http://historicplacesla.org/map

For a live example of website and map powered by Arches head over to Historic Places LA: http://historicplacesla.org/index.htm or for the map: http://historicplacesla.org/map.

According to the project factsheet, Arches was designed with the following principles in mind:

• Economical: As an open source system, Arches is available at no cost and allows adopters to share resources for software customization and maintenance.

• Customizable: The software code is open, and the system is structured in modules to be easily extended. It is capable of presenting its user interface in any language or in multiple languages and configurable to any geographic location or region. 

• Standards based: Arches incorporates internationally adopted standards for heritage inventory, semantic modeling, and information technology, leading to better practices in the creation and management of heritage data and facilitation of data exchange and longevity in spite of advances in technology.

• Broadly accessible: Web-based for the widest possible access, Arches is user friendly, requires minimal training for most users, and is freely available for download from the Internet.

The Arches project website has a nice user-friendly layout and information is easy to find.

For documentation including how-to-install, visit: http://arches.readthedocs.org/en/latest/.  There is also a forum on Google Groups: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/archesproject.

Arches Heritage Inventory and Management System

For a more recent update on Arches 3.0, visit: http://opensourcegisblog.blogspot.com/2015/05/arches-30-released-for-heritage.html


If you have taken or even thought of taking an anthropology course, you will understand the need for Arches. Arches is an open-source based heritage inventory and management system.   It was envisioned and created by the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI).  Code is currently available for download. A more advanced version is expected in July. 

"Arches has been purpose-built for the international cultural heritage field, and can be used to inventory and document all types of immovable heritage, including buildings and other structures, cultural landscapes, heritage ensembles or districts, as well as archaeological sites."

On the Arches website, you will also find interesting background information about similar systems being deployed: http://archesproject.org/project-background/.  Also be sure to check about their FAQ page: http://archesproject.org/faq/ or view the factsheet.

For a quick hands-on-feel, quick out a demo from an earlier version of the tool using Jordan and search for a site like Petra and explore a few different areas.  You will notice familiar features, like web-based mapping from OpenLayers.