Design and implementation of a Taiwan history choropleth map system

GIS (geographic information systems) system is a multidiscipline that combines geography and cartography. In the broadest definition, any application systems that utilizes spatial data can be called a GIS. Employing GIS in historical research has become popular in recent years. However, using GIS has its technical barrier, which many humanists find difficult to overcome.
In this study, we focus on the presentation of Taiwanese statistical data on historical maps. The maps we have used are Taiwan maps from the GIS Center of the Academia Sinica and the Institute of Transportation of the ROC government, totally 61. Since the purpose is to provide choropleth maps, we emphasize on providing the different administrative regions during the different periods over the 400 years history of Taiwan. The system we have designed is browser-based and does not require any installation of additional software. A user needs to only upload the data and select a few options to produce a choropleth map. We hope that the system can reduce the technical barrier that historians often encounter when using GIS, and encourage them to better utilize GIS in their research.