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Morden Cartography
Morden Cartography
Morden Cartography
Modern Cartography
What Is Cartography?
Cartography is the art and science of creating maps. It
involves the gathering of geographical information, the
storage, processing, and editing of this information, and the
presentation of the data in map form. Cartography depends
on sound geographical knowledge of the surface being
mapped, as well as the many skills and tools instrumental
to the mapping process.
Early Cartography
Cartography has been practiced since ancient times. For
many centuries its highest application was the production of
hand-drawn flat maps and charts assembled from
information collected visually by explorers, and other
individuals. As a result, they were not as accurate as
modern maps, but are fascinating as a record of the level of
knowledge and thought at the time. Map reproductions
were also of great value because they were copied by hand.
Often these early maps were intended for specific purposes,
usually for military campaigns or for delineating the
boundaries of empires. The ancient Romans and Egyptians,
who created maps for these purposes, were among the
most scholarly cartographers of their time.
Today, as in ancient times, cartographers look for ways to
make more accurate maps, methods to reproduce them
more efficiently, and channels to distribute them more
conveniently. During the history of cartography, mapmaking has evolved with technology.
The Influence of Technology
The first major technological advance in map-making was
the invention of the printing press, first in China in the 12th
century and later in Europe in the 15th century. Printing
The idea of using map layers is an old one. It was used, for
example, in the 19th century by Irish railway
commissioners. But computers have made the application of
this concept more practical. The Canadian government
created and used the first computerized GIS in the 1960s.
Since then, GIS have become a widespread and highly
sophisticated mapping and data analysis tool. GIS are
popular for modelling urban landscapes because they
enable city engineers and planners to view multiple
geographical data layers of the city and track the interaction
of these data layers over time.
For example, in Aix-en-Provence, France, city authorities
are using GIS to plan new housing for its citizens while
maintaining Aixs historical character. In other situations,
city planners can use GIS to determine how average income
levels, on a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood basis, affect
the use of public gas, and electric supply lines sharing
transmission corridors. Similarly, zoning agencies are
beginning to use GIS to analyze complex land-use patterns.
GIS have inspired global approaches to resource
management that may help find solutions to major world
problems. In one example, in Hungary, the United Nations
(UN) is beginning to assemble a system of global soil
productivity monitoring that may allow more efficient
farming of land for sustained crop yield.
GIS are also extensively incorporated into scientific studies.
Ecologists study many different aspects of the earth, often
in geographically discrete areas, to learn how various
biological and physical factors interact. GIS enables these
scientists to separate major factors, including vegetation,
hydrology, surface terrain, soil type, and erosion, to study
how their interrelationships influence ecosystems.
In Finland, GIS is being used to map and manage forest
resources. In Italy, GIS and GPS are being used to map city
trees in Bolognas historical park at Villa Mazzacorti, and an
extensive park management system based on these
technologies is under development in the Emilia Romagna
region.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been using
GIS to monitor the boll weevil control programme in
southern Texas since the early 1990s. USDA cartographers
digitizedcoded as coordinates on a computer mapall
farms within an area of several hundred square kilometres.
They then used aerial photography to record which farmers
in this area tilled the cotton stubble in their fields under the
soil after the cotton was harvested. These aerial
photographs were digitized and fed into the GIS database.
Boll-weevil infestations were then mapped in all the fields
for several years and these maps were also entered into the
database. With the use of GIS, the USDA was able to prove
statistically that the stubble fields that had not been tilled
had more weevil infestations. The study supported the
hypothesis that stubble provides a winter refuge for the
beetles. The GIS also generated intricate practical maps of
boll-weevil trouble spots that could be used by the state
agricultural agency in controlling the infestations.
User-Friendly GIS
Although GIS are generally based on sophisticated
computer systems, some user-friendly GIS applications
have been developed, too. For example, one company in
California markets a system that enables citrus farmers to
monitor fruit production. This GIS, which can be operated
out of the home, receives ground data collected by the
farmer and aerial data fed to this system using satellite
cameras. All these data are fed into a desktop computer so
the citrus grower can monitor the various factors, including
fertilization, irrigation, and tree variety, that are responsible
for high versus low fruit production.
Remote Sensing
general vegetation.
High-resolution satellite cameras located at altitudes of
several hundred kilometres can record details as small as a
few metres in diameter on the surface of the Earth.
Satellites such as those in the LANDSAT series sweep the
globe with continuous scans to provide detailed up-to-date
maps of nearly the entire Earth. Satellite imagery is also
used to create up-to-the-moment weather maps.
Increasingly, data obtained from remote sensing are being
assembled into complex, highly refined electronic images
resembling photographs that are best viewed on colour
computer monitors or television screens.
Remote sensing is used to reveal obscure or misunderstood
phenomena. An example is the recent detection of the lost
city of Ubar in Oman, which was rediscovered with the help
of NASA satellite radar imagery. Image analysts used
cartographic methods to pick out clues from the radar
images, including caravan tracks that pointed them to the
buried city ruins.
Most maps and atlases use data from remote-sensing
sources to create some of its maps. Remote-sensing
sources used in these maps include SPOT satellite images of
cities, Earth by Day and Earth at Night composite satellite
images, and hypsography, or terrain and elevation data, for
the entire world. The Eco-regions data in Encarta World
Atlas is a combination of remotely sensed vegetation, land
cover, and climate data composed in a GIS setting.