Analysing Urban Dynamics in Historic Settlements Using a Geo-Spatial Infrastructure. The Venice’s Nissology project

Abstract

This paper presents the ERC StG project Venice’s Nissology (VeNiss), a semantic geo-spatial web infrastructure for reconstructing over five-centuries of transformations of Venice’s lagoon islands, alongside their interwoven relationships in a geographically- and temporally-based digital environment. VeNiss constitutes the first analytical methodology for investigating, interpreting, and visualising, through computational media, the connective dynamics of centre-periphery relations in historic settlements, with specific reference to archipelagoes. Through a transdisciplinary approach, which combines history, architecture, art history, social studies, and advanced digital technologies the research infrastructure enables the intersection of historical data with georeferenced maps, 2D reconstructions, and 3D interoperable models to express the urban processes that shaped the lagoon city from the sixteenth century.