1904年由臺灣總督府「臺灣臨時土地調查局」所繪製的「臺灣堡圖」，以及1920年代由「大日本帝國陸地測量部」測繪的「臺灣地形圖」，比例尺分別為二萬分之一與兩萬五千分之一，且涵蓋範圍幾為山地之外的全島，為當代讀者提供了詳細豐富的歷史空間資訊。透過GIS技術，這些地圖上的訊息可以系統地擷取、整合，用以製作相關的歷史主題地圖。為臺灣史或其它人文社會領域的臺灣研究，提供一個內容豐富、可供後續發展的「虛擬歷史田野」。 透過比較這兩套中比例尺的地圖看來無所不包、全景敞視企圖的圖式，可以看出二十世紀初期，臺灣社會的發展軌跡，特別是一些「現代」機構設施的部署，使吾人可以空間地再理解日本的殖民統治。甚至可反身地援引以往製圖史學者對地圖的批評，討論兩套地圖本身的時代意義。更進一步地，這個反身的討論，也可以針對GIS--這一經過另一層人為加工、並且具有更高門檻的技術所再現的歷史地圖上。

In the two middle-scale atlases made by Japanese colonial government of Taiwan in the early twentieth century, there are abundant sets of spatial information. Through GIS technique, these sets of information can be systematically extracted and integrated into numerous historical thematic maps, which provide concrete historical spatial reference and might fertilize various fields of humanistic studies on Taiwan history. By the comparison of these atlases, which had a panoptic enterprise revealed in other topographical maps as well, we could spatially represent and reinterpret the early twentieth-century transformation, especially the deployed modern institutions and facilities under the Japanese colonial rule. Furthermore, this article engages a reflection of colonial mapping, beyond the way argued by cartographic historians who cannot use GIS. Finally, take this reflexivity into GIS on historical study itself.