WebGIS Solution for Urban Planning Strategies

In line with the objectives established by the "European capital of culture" initiative, the entire community is involved in embarking socio-economic and infrastructure projects supported by an information platform which ensures efficient data management for the municipality. This platform should provide a good visibility of the candidate city in the context of enhancing the contribution of culture to its long-term development in accordance with its priorities and strategies. In particular, an important role is played by the implementation of a spatial data geoportal at Local Administration level (Timisoara City Hall) to streamline the data workflow and provide easy access to it in order to increase the visibility of cultural and historical heritage of the municipality. The need of this geoportal arises from the fact that Timisoara has the widest architectural heritage area in the country, of important value to both Romania and Europe. The preservation of this cultural heritage is a duty for the authorities and also for the owners. The present paper brings forward proposals and trends in implementation of a dedicated geoportal for the management of heritage objects to complete the existing urban GIS primarily aiming to contribute to fostering the urban planning and the sustainability of the "European capital of culture" project. This geoportal should include the 3D models of the cultural heritage objects for better preservation over time or restauration purposes and offer virtual tourism tours if they are made available by means of webGIS. That is why, the authors propose a webGIS solution in order to make the geoportal available on the City Hall's webpage. The actuality of the paper is given by the fact that preserving cultural heritage and historical sites represents an important issue that must be taken into account when urban planning projects are required for developing the model of urban growth. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.