Incorporation of anti-aircraft shelters into city cartography through Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Abstract

During the civil war, a large number of anti-aircraft shelters were built in Castellón de la Plana. At present, the outer part of most of them has disappeared due to the abandonment suffered after the end of the war and the inexorable urban growth, so its underground galleries have remained hidden below the city.
The objective of our research work has been to recover these constructions from oblivion as well as make easier the conservation and enhancement of this architectural heritage of the city. To achieve this, to collect the existing information about the shelters has been essential, which was obtained mostly from the Municipal Historical Archive of Castellón. This documentation has been digitized and processed to be used for the development of a new editable graphic documentation of each of the shelters which, together with the surveys of those that are still preserved and accessible, is part of the information to be added to the cadastral cartography of the city by the use of Geographic Information Systems. In this way, together with the geolocation of the site of the different shelters, you can consult all the information of each of them, from the original project to its current state, in those which are accessible.
Therefore, the results achieved, that are by themselves an unpublished documentation of this part of the heritage of Castellón, are presented in an easy-to-consult format that allows improving access to them for future research, as well as to be used as an useful tool in city planning.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.30.2023.21