Cartography and the others – aspects of a complicated relationship

ABSTRACT

Cartographic visualizations have been known for thousands of years and have brought forth a wealth of different map projections and cartographic products. Yet, cartography as an independent science has been established only about 100 years ago and sometimes its position among the spatial disciplines is challenged by the scientific community. In this respect it is a young science based on a very long tradition of map making, globe production, and the development of map projections. Maps and map related visualizations play an important and indispensable role in many other spatial disciplines such as geography and geodesy. Cartography has many overlaps with these traditional disciplines as well as with the more recent ones of photogrammetry and remote sensing. This paper reviews fundamental aspects of the conception of space and time throughout human history, the historic development of cartography from a technique of map making to a spatial science, highlighting major milestones in the history of the discipline. As a young science and confronted with major technological developments in the late 20^th century cartography underwent several crises as to what exactly is cartography and how it relates to other spatial sciences, in particular to geographic information systems. Major pitfalls and misconceptions are discussed and the three major scientific pillars of cartography are identified. The relationships of cartography with neighboring disciplines are discussed and the position of cartography vis a vis the others is delineated. Finally, desirable future developments of scientific cartography are discussed.     

SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS AND METHODS IN CARTOGRAPHY

The Chair of the Cartography Department at Moscow University describes the development of cartography as a scientific discipline in the USSR, a process accompanied by the formation of new theory, differentiation into subfields, and strengthening of linkages with other disciplines. Major emphasis is on cartography's incorporation of concepts and methods characterizing science in general–modeling, systems analysis, structure, function, information theory, quantification, automation, and “cosmologization.” Modern cartography represents both a manifestation and one of the causes of the trend toward integration of scientific disciplines. Translated from: Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, geografiya, 1985, No. 1, pp. 3-9.     

Revisiting Web Cartography in the United States: the Rise of User-Centered Design

This paper reviews the recent development of web cartography based on Plewe's 2007 short paper in the U.S. National Report to the ICA, titled Web Cartography in the United States. By identifying major changes and recent research trends in web cartography, this paper provides an overview about what the web means to cartography, and suggests two major research directions for web cartography in the future: 1) the rise of user-centered design, including design of user interfaces, dynamic map content and mapping functions; 2) the release of the power of map-making to the public and amateur cartographers. I also present web cartography concepts in this paper to challenge the traditional research agenda in cartography.     

现代地图学理论对地图学的影响

现代地图学理论的研究,不仅使我们对地图及地图学的内涵有了更深入的认识,而且使地图学基础理论及地图学体系得到完善和充实。现代地图学理论的提出,对进一步阐述地图学的研究对象和理论建设,认识地图学与地理学、测绘学、计算机科学、遥感、地理信息系统的统一关系,理解现代地图制作与应用的特点,揭示现代地图学发展的规律和趋势都具有指导作用。现代地图学理论促进了地图学的发展,尤其是促进了计算机地图制图的发展,使建立在计算机地图制图基础上的地理信息系统日益完善和快速发展。现代地图学理论对地图学的影响意义深刻而久远。     

THE DEVELOPMENT AND INTRODUCTION OF AUTOMATION INTO CARTOGRAPHY

The author, in response to a critical review of his book on automation in cartography by K. A. Salishchev (see preceding article), defends his ideas on “raster digitizing” (proposed as only one of several approaches to cartographic automation) by documenting the need for a certain level of uniformity in the storage and presentation of information. In the process he continues a debate on the theoretical basis that should govern the development of automated cartography that occupied the entire “Cartography” section of the May 1986 issue of Geodeziya i kartografiya. In a preface to the section, the editorial board of the Soviet journal emphasized that there is no single, universally accepted position on standards for automating cartography or on the ultimate role automation should play in the discipline as a whole. Translated from: Geodeziya i kartografiya, 1986, No. 5, pp. 38–43.     

地图学技术、科学、艺术的对立统一

随着地图学内涵和外延的扩展,认识地图学的探索从未停止。本文在现有研究对地图学认识的基础上,分析地图学的技术性、科学性与艺术性,进而探讨地图学技术性、科学性艺术的对立与统一,探索当今时代易变性影响下地图学的恒常性,从技术性、科学性、艺术性角度重新认识地图学。     

THE RELATION OF CARTOGRAPHY TO THE LAWS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SCIENCE

The chairman of Moscow University's Cartography Department addresses questions about cartography's place in the system of scientific knowledge, qualifications as a science, subject matter, and methods of analysis. Critiques of recent theoretical works both within and outside the USSR lay the groundwork for the author's view of cartography: a multifaceted, interdisciplinary field of knowledge using maps for the presentation and investigation of natural and socioeconomic phenomena. Although few if any strictly cartographic laws exist at present, map use methods are applied widely for the discovery and analysis of laws in other disciplines. Translated from: Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, geografiya, 1984, No. 6, pp. 3-10.     

论地图学的属性和地图的价值

地图学和地图对测绘学和地理学来说都是十分重要的。不同历史时期的专家学者们对地图学的属性和地图的价值有不同的认识。本文从科学、技术、工程3个方面讨论了地图学的基本属性,总结了地图的科学价值、社会价值、法理价值和军事价值,对深刻理解地图学的基本属性和地图的价值,推动地图学和地图的健康、持续发展具有参考意义。     

地图科学的几点前瞻性思考

回顾了中国 2 0世纪地图学的理论研究与技术进步 ,包括古地图的发现、国家地图集的编辑、地图科学原理与方法的研究、地图科学利用等领域的开拓、遥感与地理信息系统的兴起等等。建议组织系统性总结。地图科学即将进入互联网络时代 ,面对经济全球化的机遇、信息产业的兴起、远程教育的社会需求 ,呼吁地图科学工作者积极拓进地图产业的信息化与结构调整 ,创新设计科学深加工的地图精品 ,开拓电子地图新局面。提出开展地学信息图谱的探索研究 ,并作为地图创新的切入点之一 ,这样地图学家就具备了有利的优势和潜能。     

THE SEVENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF SOVIET CARTOGRAPHY—SOME ACHIEVEMENTS AND TASKS OF RESTRUCTURING

This article, based on a presentation to the All-Union Conference on Cartography in the Era of the Scientific and Technological Revolution in November 1987, contains an eminent Soviet cartographer's evaluation of the state and development of Soviet cartography and his impressions concerning the tasks which lie ahead over the era of economic restructuring and social change. Translated from: Izvestiya Akademli Nauk SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1988, No. 3, pp. 17-21 by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005.     

地图制图学在人文地理学中的应用及不足

参与国家自然科学基金项目和国家社会科学基金项目,在绘制专题图时,得到了些心得体会,结合分析近些年人文地理学的发展,并结合现代制图学的发展,以及现代制图学在人文地理学中的应用,指出地图制图学在人文地理应用中的不足。为地图制图学和人文地理学更好的发展提供理论依据。     

MODERN CARTOGRAPHY: RESULTS AND PROSPECTS

The author reviews the principal problems pertaining to the development of modern cartography raised at a conference on Cartography at the Transition between the 20th and 21st Centuries, held in Moscow in the autumn of 1997. The conference was organized by the Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Russian Geographical Society, the Russian Federation Geodetic and Cartographic Service, the school of Geography at Moscow University, the Russian State Library, the Moscow State University of Geodesy, Aerial Mapping, and Cartography, and the Geoinformation System Association. There were 67 plenary reports, over 30 poster sessions, and a roundtable on “Cartographic Working Groups of Today and Tomorrow.” Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, VA from: Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, seriya geograficheskaya, 1998, No. 2, pp. 121-130.     

高校“地图学”课程思政元素挖掘与课堂融入

高校专业课的课程思政建设是高校思想政治工作的基本载体。“地图学”是测绘工程、遥感科学与技术、地理信息科学、地理科学等本科专业的基础课,在测绘、地理等学科的课程思政建设中具有基础性地位。本文依据教学实践,归纳了地图学课程中与课程思政相结合的知识点,并介绍了在教学中如何巧妙、潜移默化地融入思政元素,在地图学课程教学过程中做到能力培养和素质提升共同进步。     

Editorial

Abstract

In different scientific fields, the abbreviation ‘3D’ is used in a multitude of ways. Hence, one might easily lose track of what 3D means in a particular context. 3D is just a generic term which the authors are trying to classify into different groups. An overview of the technical status of 3D technologies serves to explain the importance of the three-dimensionality in cartography. Solid landscape embodiments as well as pseudo-three-dimensional and truly three-dimensional autostereoscopic visualisations on planar displays are treated. Starting with the reasons for the advantages and the necessities for true-3D representations the article deals with the classification and explanation of the different true-3D visualisation techniques so far materialized for geodata, in particular at the Institute for Cartography of the Dresden University of Technology.     

Maps > Representation

Abstract

Colour is considered a key means of expression for use in cartographic works. This is because colours and the relations among them influence not only the aesthetic impression a map creates but also its overall utility. In addition to Newton’s spectral colour theory, today theories with origins in artistic technique are gaining ground in cartography. This article introduces J. Itten’s colour theory (first published in 1961 in The Art of Colour [Kunst der Farbe]) with special attention given to his concept of seven colour contrasts. The article also discusses the suitability and unsuitability of their application in practical cartography, and it contributes original examples employing thematic maps, a discipline with broad possibilities for the application of these inventive methods by today’s mapmakers.     

The Representation of Disputed Political Boundaries in General Atlases

Abstract

The extremely complex problems of boundary representation in general atlases are critically examined by a Lecturer in Geography at University College, London. The paper is based on that given in Section IX, Cartography, at the International Geographical Congress, London 1964.     

Maps as Knowledge Aggregators: from Renaissance Italy Fra Mauro to Web Search Engines

Abstract

For many years geological students have been graduating from universities with little knowledge of how to use the cartographic language of line, letter, symbol and tone by which the distribution and spatial arrangement of earth science data can be best expressed. The author discusses the development of the teaching of geological cartography in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Leeds. Details of this innovation are set against the background of data obtained from a recent questionnaire on the practice of cartography as a discipline in departments of geology in British universities.     

Jacques Bertin,from classical training to systematic thinking of graphic signs

ABSTRACT

Nearly 50 years after the publication of the first French edition of Sémiologie Graphique, Jacques Bertin’s thought is more than ever alive, in cartography as well as in various other disciplines, such as graphic design or visual data analysis. This article recalls the main elements of Bertin’s career and puts forward the salient points of his reflection on graphics. Beyond many conceptual or technical innovations, Bertin’s essential originality appears to be his attempt to propose a general framework for graphical representations.     

(re)Considering Bertin in the age of big data and visual analytics

ABSTRACT

This paper highlights a selection of core ideas articulated by Bertin and leveraged by many researchers over time, with particular attention to how the ideas relate to developments in cartography, big data, and visual analytics. A primary contribution is a bibliometric analysis of the impact of Bertin’s Semiology of Graphics at its 50th anniversary. A briefer bibliometric assessment of Graphics and Graphic Information Processing impacts is also provided. The bibliometric analysis includes exploration of citations to Semiology of Graphics over the entire time span (in both English and French editions) as well as more focused analysis by topic and outlet since the advent of visual analytics as a research domain. Then, very recent research related to cartography, visual analytics, and big data is examined in detail to determine if and how Bertin’s ideas continue to be leveraged and extended for current data representation and analysis challenges. After outlining some limitations of the bibliometric analysis, discussion reflects on the current relevance of Bertin’s ideas, potential applications in visual analytics, and the need for a complement to Sémiologie Graphique focused on interactive visual interfaces to an increasingly diverse array of display forms. The paper concludes with thoughts on next steps.     

Topographic Science at the University of Glasgow

Abstract

The problems of devising university courses in topographic science subjects, culminating in the institution of a full B.Sc. degree, are examined in relation to parallel developments elsewhere. Details of course content and structure are given, in the expectation that specific examples will provide discussion points for those concerned with the development of education in cartography.