The use of industrial heritage is a profoundly important factor in the process of creating a sustainable economic, social, and political future for many communities occupying industrial heritage landscapes. More than ever we recognize the need for such communities to be capable of shaping and expressing their heritage in different forms in the context of current events and issues, and in doing so to inform both contemporary decision-making as well as the way their industrial heritage is represented to the broader world.

Big data – based digital approaches to the representation, communication, and study of industrial heritage promise important contributions to this process, including: offering new ways for communities to discover, visualize, and explore their industrial heritage; fostering public access to archival data and virtual access to heritage sites; supporting genuine collaboration between communities and heritage researchers and professionals; and providing new ways for communities to share knowledge and express their heritage values in a data-rich environment.

This session takes the form of a workshop and presents three interactive web-based digital heritage projects for exploration and evaluation with project team members. Researchers will briefly introduce each project, after which session participants will be given time to explore the projects and generate questions, comments, and critiques. The session will conclude with a discussion exploring the applications of digital, geospatial approaches using historical big data to improve public engagement with industrial heritage, better integrate heritage values with sustainable development efforts, and other themes highlighted by the congress.