Computer-Aided Cartography

Bibliographic Data

ID8964162
AuthorsDavid Rhind (corresponding author)
Year1977
Volume2
Issue1
Pages71-71
Publication date1977-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2307/622194
OpenAlexW2313783836
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited17

Though beset by problems of definition of terms and duplication of effort, computer-aided cartography has progressed over the last 25 years from producing almost uninterpretable assemblages of alphabetic symbols to having the facility for creating any desired graphic image. Two main strands may be distinguished in this development: the 'research' and the 'topographic' cultures. Recent developments, mainly in the provision of data, and the need for sophisticated data-base management software, are forcing these two groups to become increasingly interdependent and fused. Numerous benefits have been hypothesized for introducing computers into map-making processes: these are reviewed, together with the results of practical experience. The methods and equipment used to date and likely future enhancements are also discussed in relation to the needs of different user groups. THE definition of terms has become something of an obsession in cartography in recent years and computer-based techniques have provided another impetus to international codifications (I.C.A., 1973). More specifically, significant emphasis has been laid by geographers (e.g. Waugh and Taylor, 1977) on the existence of a substantive difference between 'computer cartography' and 'automated cartography'. The first of these is used to denote a process for producing essentially thematic-type maps, typically research products, while the latter is viewed as a process involving the use of a computer to produce existing-type topographic maps. Such a distinction is a convenient one, based upon the procedures used to date, the initial sources of innovation and the sparse availability of topographical data in computer form, but it is ultimately a dangerous and misleading one which obscures the identical nature of data handling in both 'fields' at the machine level and the considerable overlap of the subject areas. Thus, for the purpose of this paper, 'digital mapping' 'automated', 'computer' and 'computer-aided' cartography and 'computer mapping' will be treated as synonymous terms, particularly since no satisfactory entirely automated cartographic process yet exists. With very rare exceptions (e.g. Tobler, 1959), few geographers or cartographers were actually involved at the outset of computer mapping or, less surprisingly, of computer graphics generally. The first successful attempts to produce graphics from computers were reported in the early i950s. By the middle of that decade maps were being produced on the now-standard computer output device, the line printer (e.g. Dobrin, 1952; Inst. of Met., 1954; Simpson, 1954), on the earliest cathode ray tubes (D6is and Eaton, 1957; Sawyer, 1960) or on tabulating equipment (Perring and Walters, 1962). Both then and now, meteorologists (Menmuir, 1974), geologists (Sampson, 1975), geophysicists, geochemists (Webb et al., 1973), plant ecologists and other earth scientists have been the major innovators and users, though a significant growth in use by central and local government planning staff has occurred over the last 5 years (Gaits, 1975) and most national survey organizations in developed countries have at least carried out some experiments with automated mapping. By the end of the 1960s the SYMAP program, created by Howard T. Fisher and developed at the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis in Harvard University (Schmidt and Zafft, 1975), was running at more than Ioo sites. By 1975 this number had grown to 300; since the majority of these sites were universities, this represents a considerable growth in the availability of automated mapping facilities to academics in general

Cartography · Geography · Data Management and Algorithms · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Historical Geography and Cartography

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