New Publication on Hazards in Rustbelt Cities uses Keweenaw Time Traveler Technology

HESAL Post-Doctoral Researcher Dan Trepal and Director Don Lafreniere recently published an article titled “Understanding Cumulative Hazards in a Rustbelt City: Integrating GIS, Archaeology, and Spatial History” in the journal Urban Science. 
 
The article explores how researchers can use the same technology that underpins projects like the Keweenaw Time Traveler to understand the cumulative impact of industrial activity within modern postindustrial cities. This project examines the city of London, Ontario from the 1880s to the present. HESAL researchers drew on hundreds of historical maps and other records to digitally reconstruct a city’s historical built environment across 130 years of industrialization and deindustrialization. This reconstruction allowed us to identify ‘hotspots’ where industrial hazards may remain, even when hidden by later development.