International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering Volume 2, Issue 7, March-2015 ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718 www.ijtre.com Copyright 201 5.All rights reserved. Page 1234 GEOINFORMATICS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE MAPPING - A CASE STUDY OF SRINAGAR CITY, JAMMU AND KASHMIR Zubair Latef Khan * , Manzoor Ahmad Rather*, Nisar Ahmad Kuchhy*, Umar Firdous Ahmad* and Khalid Omar Murtaza** (State Remote Sensing Centre J&K Government) *, (University of Kashmir) ** Corresponding author email: manzoorgif@gmail.com ABSTRACT Cultural heritage is the most universally valued and most evenly distributed resource in the world. However cultural heritage is under a constant threat of damage or even destruction and comprehensive and accurate recording is necessary to attenuate the risk of losing heritage or serve as basis for reconstruction. Cultural mapping has been recognized by national and international agencies and institutions as a crucial tool and technique in preserving the world's intangible and tangible cultural assets and resources of a country. Geospatial information system is a valuable tool that captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that are linked to locations. It encompasses a wide range of techniques and activities from community-based participatory data collection and management to sophisticated mapping using geoinformatics based tools such as geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS), global positioning systems (GPS) and web-based mapping science and technologies. This allows preservation of the information of Cultural and Heritage value and offers new exploitation possibilities, like the immediate connection of different kinds of data for analysis, or the digital documentation of the site for its improvement. In the present study an attempt has been made to map the Heritage sites of Srinagar city through extensive field survey using GPS followed by generation of Geospatial Database of Heritage sites of Srinagar city. The heritage data pertaining to heritage sites was classified into different thematic maps or layers as: Residential, Public, Religious, Natural Features, Educational Institutes, Commemorative and Commercial. The thematic maps were stored in Geodatabase format to generate the final geospatial database of Heritage Sites in Srinagar City. Finally photograph of each heritage site was geo-tagged with each coordinate. It is hoped that this Heritage Information System would be used by concerned department for the planning, development and preservation of Heritage Sites in Srinagar city in future. Moreover, capacity building of such a new and emerging geoinformatics science and technologies is very important among other integral components of cultural mapping and project design for sustainability for conservation and restoration will be presented. KEYWORDS: Geodatabase, Cultural Heritage, GPS, Geoinformatics, Srinagar. INTRODUCTION UNESCO (2008), World Heritage Program defines heritage as “our legacy from the past, what we live with today and what we pass on to future generations”. Traditionally, it is classified as intangible or tangible, movable or immovable, natural or cultural, personal or communal. Cultural heritage plays a vital role in education about