History and GIS:railways, population change, and agricultural development in late nineteenth century Wales

Historical Geographical Information Systems, or historical GIS, has become a rapidly growing fi eld within historical research. 1 Historical GIS is an interdisciplinary approach that involves applying GIS technology to the study of history. Using a conventional database of only statistical information, a researcher can search for aspatial patterns of variation and change. Using historical GIS, the researcher is now equipped to identify patterns of change that occur simultaneously over time and across geographic space. Additionally, because all of the data are located in space, they can be integrated with any other data that are also located in space. With historical GIS we can get closer to understanding the complexity of change and historical reality.