“GIS for regional cultural heritages: methodology based on case studies from katuns on the Mountains of Kuči in Montenegro and cultural route sites of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area of China” is an inter-governmental Science & Technology Cooperation project implemented by Tianjin University’s School of Architecture and History Institute of the University of Montenegro. Approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and the Ministry of Science of Montenegro in 2018, the project aims to develop methodologies underpinning geographic information system (GIS) for documentation and analysis of regional cultural heritages based on specific cases. It attempts to perform special investigations from the perspectives of sustainable agriculture and tourism on Katuns, the traditional dwellings on Kuči Mountain in Montenegro and carry out research on cultural routes in China in terms of cultural landscape.

In September 2019, a group of researchers from History Institute of the University of Montenegro led by Dr. Olga Pelcer-Vujačić paid a visit to the School of Architecture, Tianjin University to discuss the innovative application of GIS technologies in the research field of cultural heritage conservation based on the GIS platform. During the visit, the two parties made a preliminary decision to carry out a special investigation on Skadar Lake region in Montenegro that is abundant in landscape and cultural heritage resources as well as diversify the studies about cultural landscape based on examples of cultural routes in China. This visit is considered as a prelude to this inter-governmental project.

        Researchers from History Institute of the University of Montenegro visiting TJU School of Architecture (from the left: Prof. Jie He,  Dr. Ivan Laković, Dr. Olga Pelcer-Vujačić, Dr. Tatjana Koprivica, Dr. Slavko Burzanović, and master's student Liyun Zhang)

In January, 2020, Prof. Jie He led three master’s degree students Xiaomin Guo, Liyun Zhang, and Yucheng Zhang to Montenegro at the invitation of History Institute of the University of Montenegro in order to conduct data acquisition and academic exchanges, during which they completed the field research, documentation, and surveying of historical sites such as castles and monasteries around Skadar Lake. As the second step of the cooperative project, this visit is aimed at studying the historical heritages and cultural landscape value of this region as well as the utilization and conservation methods of cultural heritage resources.

Professor and students from the School of Architecture and researchers from History Institute of the University of Montenegro in front of Skadar Lake (from the left: Dr. Ivan Laković, Dr. Tatjana Koprivica, Dr. Olga Pelcer-Vujačić, Prof. Jie He, master's degree students Xiaomin Guo, Liyun Zhang, Yucheng Zhang, and Dr. Miloš Petričević; photo provided by History Institute of the University of Montenegro)

Landscape of Skadar Lake district in Montenegro (photo by Dr. Ivan Lakovic)

 Distant view of Zabljak Crnojevica, a medieval fortress and one of the most imporatnat cultural heritage sites around Skadar Lake (photo by Dr. Ivan Lakovic)

The “GIS for regional cultural heritages” project will not only increase substantially the number and diversity of existing heritage documentation database samples, but also expand and improve the methodology system for the application of GIS in regional cultural heritage documentation and analysis, advancing the documentation and research work on cultural heritage in Montenegro and even the whole world.