CHRoMA: Towards Interoperability of Archaeological Survey Data by Addressing Colour Vision Deficiency in The Map Legend

Archaeology uses a range of non-invasive approaches including airborne mapping, ground survey and a range of remote sensing techniques to identify, analyse and interpret archaeology in the landscape. In Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has built up substantial datasets over thirty years from its ground survey and airborne mapping programmes. However, most survey work is undertaken on a project-by-project basis by the private sector, academia and community groups for a range of reasons. As archaeology is highly deregulated in Scotland, there is no consistent approach to collecting and sharing data beyond the project lifespan. Issues of accessing or archiving the primary data aside, little effort has been made to address aggregating survey data from different projects and techniques. A further challenge is to improve accessibility to that data, presented against already colour rich mapping and orthoimagery backgrounds, for about 4.5% of the UK population (according to Colour Blind Awareness) who have difficulty distinguishing shades of colour. Drawing on the extensive HES survey datasets, the CHRoMA (Cultural Heritage Review on Map Accessibility) project explored the challenge of aggregating data collected over many years to present a consistent colour vision deficiency friendly interpretation of the archaeological landscape. Mapped features were classified by the narrow terms in the Scottish Monument Thesaurus (published on Heritagedata.org). With eighteen top level term coupled with the poly-hierarchical nature of the thesaurus, results were cartographically unsatisfactory failing to adequately present the story of the archaeological landscape. Thesaurus values were further grouped into ten categories using SKOS:collection to model the connection of categories with the thesaurus for cartographic representation. As part of HES’s Equalities Action Plan, the project worked with a colour scientist to improve colour vision accessibility for the key The interoperability of the approach was tested against the recently released Historic England Aerial Investigation Mapping Open Data. Abstract taken from the EAA 2024 Abstract Book: 30th EAA Annual Meeting (Rome, Italy 2024) - Abstract Book Names, titles and affiliations are reproduced as submitted by the session organisers and/or authors. Language and wording of titles and abstracts were not revised. Technical editing: Sára Tylšová, Magda Karabáš (EAA) Design and layout: Sára Tylšová, Magda Karabáš (EAA) Design - cover: Symposia srl Design - logo: Caterina Amendola European Association of Archaeologists Rome, August 2024 © European Association of Archaeologists, 2024 ISBN 978-80-88441-08-3 30th EAA Annual Meeting (Rome, 2024) https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2024/scientificprogramme