OH_FET: a computer application for analysing urban dynamics over long time spans

Laure Saligny (1) , Ludovic Granjon (1) , Thomas Huet (1) , Gaël Simon (2) , Xavier Rodier (2) , Bastien Lefebvre (3)

1 MSH Dijon (MSHD) - Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Dijon
2 CITERES - Cités, Territoires, Environnement et Sociétés
3 TRACES - Travaux et recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les sociétés

OH_FET formalism has been designed to analyse urban fabric over long time spans (Lefebvre et al., 2008; Rodier and Saligny, 2010; Rodier et al., 2010). The conceptual model is founded on the idea of historical object (OH – objet historique) which is defined as the Cartesian product of three elementary dimensions: social use (what), space (where) and time (when). Processes are performed in Python programming language and data are stored in various kinds of spatial database. With a minimum of required data from archaeologists’ observations, the application allows users to automate the calculation of standardised indicators about urban transformations and to generate graphical and cartographic representations. As an example, it is possible to query the database about functional transformations over time and across space either quantitatively (How many social uses for a given date in a given place?) or qualitatively (What changes occurred in social uses over time for a particular place?).

Mots clés: temporal analyses; space-time modelling; software development; Urban dynamics

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Laure Saligny, Ludovic Granjon, Thomas Huet, Gaël Simon, Xavier Rodier, et al.. OH_FET: a computer application for analysing urban dynamics over long time spans. CAA2014. 21st Century Archaeology. Concepts, methods and tools. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Archaeopress, pp.381-392, 2015, 9781784911003. ⟨halshs-01146871⟩