In recognition of the Mississippi River's importance to the nation, Congress passed legislation in 1990 that established the Mississippi River Corridor Study Commission. Congress directed the commission to undertake a study to determine the feasibility of designating the river as a national heritage corridor. Congress also charged the commission with recommending methods for preserving and enhancing the unique natural, recreational, scenic, cultural, scientific, and economic resources of the corridor.

In recognition of the Mississippi River's importance to the nation, Congress passed legislation in 1990 that established the Mississippi River Corridor Study Commission. Congress directed the commission to undertake a study to determine the feasibility of designating the river as a national heritage corridor. Congress also charged the commission with recommending methods for preserving and enhancing the unique natural, recreational, scenic, cultural, scientific, and economic resources of the corridor.

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 542: Evaluating Cultural Resource Significance: Implementation Tools examines information technology (IT) tools that are designed to improve and streamline the National Register evaluation of cultural resources. The report highlights IT prototype tools that include a searchable database of historic contexts and a collection of National Register evaluation documents. The second prototype provides an explicit, but flexible tool designed to improve the National Register eligibility determinations.

This open-access publication provides essential guidance on digital inventories and surveys for the identification, conservation, and management of heritage places. A critical first step in the conservation of cultural heritage is to identify and understand the places we want to protect. Inventories and surveys are essential tools in this effort, and their use in managing national, regional, and local heritage is mandated in heritage-related legislation across the globe. Despite the widespread understanding of the importance of inventories and surveys, however, practical, up-to-date guidance on how they should be created, implemented, and maintained has been substantially lacking—until now. This publication draws from the Getty Conservation Institute’s ongoing work with heritage inventories and on the Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources’ experience with SurveyLA. It provides technical advice, guidance, and lessons learned for employing inventories and surveys as tools for heritage conservation and management. The free online edition of this open-access publication will be available at www.getty.edu/publications/inventories-and-surveys. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book.