National inventory: A way forward for maritime heritage management and information management in Canada

Maritime heritage has long been an afterthought in Canada by comparison to terrestrial heritage. Terrestrial resources are more frequently encountered because of the rate of land development and an efficient management system is in place to deal with these resources. However, it has become apparent to heritage professionals that when maritime resources are encountered they fall through the cracks due to a lack of proper management infrastructure. This thesis offers a summary of six challenges for maritime heritage found in Canada as well as some of the provinces. Through literature review it became apparent that there is a correlation between the challenges identified and a solution focused on inventory reform. Sweden, the US, and Scotland offer examples of jurisdictions that successfully reformed their maritime management infrastructure. First, by redefining the parameters of the inventory, and second, by performing a field survey to fill-in the database. This thesis outlines various real-world inventories such as Canmore, DINAA and ARIADNE and offers a case study of Scotland's field survey, SAMPHIRE. Based on these, the thesis outlines the steps necessary to enact maritime heritage reform in Canada.