The Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica has received long-term funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology (the former National Science Council) and Academia Sinica to implement the Map and Remote Sensing Imagery Digital Archive Project and related projects. With academic collaboration from archive institutes from Taiwan and abroad, the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica collects all types of maps and remote sensory images of Taiwan and Mainland China from the past hundred years, and through digital archive techniques to preserve and add value to those materials.
This system integrates map resources from more than ten archives, including: Sinian Fu Library, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica; Library of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica; GIS Room, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica; Academia Historica; Department of Land Administration, Ministry of the Interior; National Land Surveying and Mapping Center, Ministry of the Interior; Ministry of Defense; Bureau of Mines, Ministry of Economic Affairs; Water Resources Planning Institute, Water Resource Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs; Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture; Department of Geography, Chinese Culture University; the Irrigation Associations of Taiwan; foreign agencies (Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, USA; Branner Earth Sciences Library, Stanford University, USA; Earth Sciences and Map Library, University of California, Berkeley, USA). The database includes various types of modern survey maps, such as topographic, cadastral, and thematic maps. From a single website portal, one-stop search engine service is offered, allowing map metadata and online preview of large images without applying an account. Requests for maps may also be submitted online.
The database archives map resources of different scales, eras, and themes; the maps number more than 400,000 (and growing). It provides objective and direct geographical information such as social and cultural change, evolution of the natural environment, and topographical change in contemporary Mainland China and Taiwan. This provides basic research materials for domains of study such as environmental change, historical geography, local history, clarification of land ownership, cultural heritage, urban history, and architectural history.