Digitaler Rheinischer Städteatlas (Digital Rhenish City Atlas)

Through interactive maps, which will be linked with the information from the text part of the atlas and contain numerous other individually usable functions, the Rhenish City Atlas will not only be present in the digital space, but will also be made accessible to new target groups, such as interested laypersons, schools, history and local history societies as well as city planners.

For 40 years now, the Rhenish Urban Atlas has been the only research project that scientifically examines all Rhenish cities systematically and according to a uniform set of criteria. The digitalization of the existing data and the planned expansion of interactive maps represent a unique position feature for the entire Rhineland and - as the largest city atlas project in Europe - far beyond.

For the first time, the user will be able to interactively use the two basic components - the text and map sections - as a merged overall product. The starting point for navigation will be the redrawing of the original cadastre from the French or Prussian period up to about 1840 (scale 1:2500), which maps areas of use, public buildings, streets, etc. The user will be able to move freely from this point to the next. From here, the user can move freely, zoom in on different areas or select individual, linkable "objects", which thus form the link between map and text. By integrating further maps such as sections of the German base map (scale 1:2500), the user has the possibility to select different time periods and combine them with the comprehensive image material, aerial photographs or topographic maps of the atlases. The use of the underlying database will also build bridges between the different atlases and therefore offer a high degree of comparability.