Project Context / Objective:
The Parks Canada Agency (PCA) oversees the protection and presentation of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage, aiming to foster public understanding and appreciation of these resources. PCA’s legacy heritage systems—the Directory of Federal Heritage Designations (DFHD) and the Canadian Register of Historic Places (CRHP)—were reaching the end of their operational life. The agency launched the Heritage Register Renewal project to consolidate these systems into a single, open-source Arches platform. The new system would serve as both a public-facing information resource and a decision-support tool for inventorying, evaluating, monitoring, conserving, and managing Canada’s heritage data.
Takin.Solutions’ Role / Contributions:
Takin.Solutions partnered with PCA to support the migration of legacy data and the development of semantic models to structure heritage information effectively. Our work focused on ensuring that the new Arches platform could accurately capture and represent both existing and new heritage data. In this project, we particularly focussed on supporting the development and adoption of vocabularies suitable to populate and manage the heritage register.
Key Activities:
- Developed controlled vocabularies and concept collections aligned with ten Arches resource models to support seamless data migration.
- Advised on semantic model design, including hierarchy structuring, metatypes, and terminology grouping across models.
- Created vocabularies in formats directly compatible with Arches for immediate import.
- Collaborated closely with PCA staff through weekly meetings to review, validate, and adjust semantic designs.
Deliverables / Outputs:
- Controlled vocabularies and concept collections supporting ten resource models.
- Recommendations and adjustments to semantic data models to accommodate both legacy and new data.
- Documentation of concept designs and guidance on best practices for semantic modeling.
Outcome / Impact:
Takin.Solutions’ contributions helped to ensure a smooth transition from legacy systems to the new Arches platform, enabling PCA to consolidate its heritage data into a single, coherent, and future-ready system. Our semantic modeling and controlled vocabularies enhanced data quality, interoperability, and the agency’s ability to report and make decisions on heritage management.