See also Where’s Geo? Londinium! and Where’s Geo? London Map Fair and Beyond.

Time for an overnighter. We headed from London to Canterbury and a visit with ESRI UK business partner, Digital Worlds, makers of the tailored ESRI-based classroom tool—Digital Worlds GIS.

Canterbury is historically many things—home to a great cathedral (both Catholic and Anglican), center of learning, and, once again, a key Roman city in Britannia that thrived into the 4th century AD.

Stepping outside the city, it’s evident that history and wonder follows—the Kent countryside, Dover and its white cliffs, and other characteristics are on the list.

Driving south from Canterbury, a literal, nearly straight line feature becomes evident—a current-day road heading for the coast, which was designed by Romans centuries ago (from Durovernum to Portus Lemanis). We drive this road for a distance before breaking away toward Dover and the incredible coastal features for which the area is known—white cliffs. Additionally, these cliffs and their proximity to the French coast are the stuff of World War II history—Dover Castle and secret British tunnels.

Using ArcGIS Explorer, we can tag (and create some of) these features and more importantly contextualize these places and their contemporaneous and historical attributes. Below is a synopsis screenshot of using ArcGIS Explorer to present some of this content: Present and past cities, Roman road, World War II (and Roman) castle, and the chalk/flint cliffs of Dover.

The image is only a beginning of a much larger potential investigation. It’s difficult in a single screenshot to capture dynamic aspects of time and geography. Regardless, geographic tools are critical to organizing it.

More to come.
- George Dailey, ESRI Education Manager