D: How do you compile, maintain and enhance an HER?
Maintaining and developing an HER is a continuous process that involves various types of work. At any one time, new information may be received from recent fieldwork about changes or additions to the lists of protected sites, or through project work. Numerous different organisations and individuals are involved in the process of collecting and supplying information, and with the increasing use of GIS and on-line access, new ways of making a wide range of data accessible to HERs are beginning to emerge.
This section of the manual gives general guidelines for maintaining and developing the information resources of an HER and suggests some new approaches to recording information from development-led fieldwork and some ideas for enhancement projects. For the purpose of this manual this topic has been broken down into three areas:
- Compilation from standard digital and documentary sources of information
- Fieldwork and digital data collection
- Enhancement projects such as national projects and programmes, local partnerships, universities and special interest groups
Case studies of some recent HER enhancement projects are also included.
D.1 Compilation - the beginnings#
The information in most HERs has been compiled over a long period of time. Much of it was collected before the use of databases let alone GIS and this has greatly affected how we can use it in the present.For most HERs compilation has been a complex process involving collecting information from a wide range of sources including national agencies, local bodies and private individuals. When SMRs were developing in the 1970's and 1980's three stages of information collection were envisaged: compilation, enhancement and ongoing maintenance.
In reality, the development of the information base held by HERs has been more ad hoc. The resources available for compiling information have varied considerably from one HER to another and also over time. A mixture of permanent and temporary staff (funded from, for example, local authorities, English Heritage, Historic Scotland, Cadw, RCHME, RCAHMS, RCAHMW and the Manpower Services Commission, National Trust), volunteers and students have been involved in compiling and enhancing SMRs and HERs. In many of the present HERs increasing responsibilities for development control activities, the pressure of work arising from planning guidance and limited resources have given rise to backlogs of information waiting to be compiled and input into the HER database. The purpose of this section is to step back from the backlogs and take a fresh look at the range of information sources that is available and to consider old and new approaches to incorporating it into HERs.
