DEVELOPING, USING, AND MAKING AVAILABLE DIGITAL INFORMATION ON HISTORIC PROPERTIES
CHAPTER 2
Accurate, up-to-date inventories of historic properties in federal ownership, control, or care form the foundation for determining management priorities for those properties. Only with an understanding of their historic properties—their condition; the historical, economic, and educational values they embody; and the agency resources needed and realistically available to care for them—can agencies design management policies and shape plans that address their federal preservation responsibilities arising from the NHPA. Federal agencies were requested to report on whether their identification methods changed during 2017-2020 and approximately what total percentage or portion of their real property inventory has now been surveyed and evaluated for the National Register. A number of agencies noted advances in collection of survey information about historic properties in digital format, enabling direct population of agency GIS layers or other databases. For example, in 2020, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) rolled out a mobile application for the agency’s Forest Service Heritage Web/Mobile database that allows users to download data for viewing in the field as well as to enter data on tablets for direct upload to the agency database. DIGITAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT In its 2018 Section 3 report the ACHP recommended that multiple agencies, in consultation with the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) and the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (NATHPO), review currently available systems and take steps to promote the development of an electronically available inventory of previous surveys and the presence of historic properties that meets national inventory standards. The ACHP addressed this finding through the formation of a Digital Information Task Force in fall 2018. The Task Force’s findings and recommendations, presented to the ACHP membership in March 2020, recognized that states, Indian tribes, and local governments are primary managers
Shipwreck of the Norman , a 296-foot bulk carrier. Sunk in collision with the Canadian steamer Jack on May 30, 1895. Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, MI ( NOAA)
16 | IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A REPORT ON FEDERAL HISTORIC PROPERTY MANAGEMENT 2021
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