The Kentucky Historic Environments Spatial Data Repository (KHESDR) – Pilot Project

• PROJECT ABSTRACT: The Kentucky Historic Environments Spatial Data Repository (KHESDR) will develop a HABS-style documentation program that uses evolving digital documentation technologies. The KHESDR will emphasize creating 3-D digital models of historic buildings and landscape elements and will include supplementary photographs. The digital data repository will consist of a curated public-facing website where users can archive digital representations of defined categories of the historic built environment. The KHESDR will foster collaborative and interdisciplinary research and serve as a public archive of Kentucky''s historic built environment. The nature of the KHESDR, which incorporates public participation, requires a community of preservationists and volunteers to work together and share data. Researchers must establish a protocol that understands the limitations of information produced via different tools and methods available to stakeholders for data to be meaningful. During the initial phase, the University of Kentucky''s Department of Historic Preservation seeks to obtain and test the equipment necessary to create digital models of a historic log saddlebag house. Investigators will evaluate models based on point clouds created by two instruments: a benchmark product (Faro FOCUS S 3D scanner) and a consumer-grade product (a LIDAR-enabled iPad). Models created using the two LIDAR technologies and a third using the iPad’s photogrammetry capabilities will be compared to assess the benefits and limitations of each method. This comparative study will help the investigators evaluate the differences between data collection methods to guide the database creation and collection protocols in future project phases.