By Thanika Pancharat
Geographic Thought: Spring 2008
Introduction
Map is sometimes claimed as the language of geography (Sauer 1956). Cartography in the traditional definition refers to “the art, science and technology of making maps”. Since the computer revolution emerged around 1980s, consequently, computer assisted mapping play important role in cartography, it is most recently defined as “the art, science and technology of spatial data handling” (Wheate 1996). This paper will study the transition in cartography by considering in two major parts. The first one is aimed to review the work of Robinson(1977) who is honored as the Dean of American Cartography, and the interesting curriculum development by Nyerges(1989) is included. The second part is purposed to investigate the predictions of Robinson and the situation of cartography at the present time.
Part I
The Dean of American Cartography
Arthur H. Robinson was born in 1915 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to American parents. He earned an undergraduate degree at Miami University of Ohio in 1936. His M.A. degree was from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1938) and he earned his Ph.D. degree from The Ohio State University in 1947 (Morrison 2007).
During the Second World War, Richard Hartshorne who was called from President Roosevelt in 1941 to report him the information about foreign areas, asked Robinson who was a geographer with experience in cartography to work as a chief of the Map Division with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (Crampton 2006). The wartime had made him experienced the difficulties in technical, mechanical and organization problems. However, the conceptual problems were the major issue he concerned. According to most of map production staff were engineers and draftsmen and the people who were preparing reports in the OSS had little understanding of geographical concepts and interrelationships, large number of maps they produced could not be able to “convey quickly and accurately the essential geographical character of some set of phenomena, sometimes combined with a reference function as well” (Robinson 1979, p. 98). Later, his works was achieved the goal of improving the efficiency and functionality of maps as communication devices to map users (Crampton 2006).
Robinson is most widely known from the map projection he developed. The Robinson Projection was designed in 1963 to minimize distortion, particularly near the equator, and to give the world a realistic appearance. In addition, when he joined the Wisconsin faculty, his textbook, Element of Cartography, published in 1953 is still now widely used as the bible for the introductory course in cartography as taught in university geography department worldwide (Morrison 2007).
Robinson’s Investigation
The Second World War created a huge demand for maps. “Increased planning and controls called for maps; restoring devastated cities and areas required maps; rebuilding the economies of nations demanded maps; expansion of transportation facilities delayed by the war needed maps; analysis of the consequences of development called for maps; integrating water use in drainage basin organization necessitated maps; and so on almost without end”(Robinson 1979, p. 101).
In Cartography 1950-2000, Robinson and his co-authors had interestingly reviewed the changes in cartography since 1950 and guessed the future developments from 1975 to 2000. His paper has focused on three aspects of the transformation: conceptual change, technological change and institutional change, and stressed that these changes occurred base on technological innovations, the results of the war.
Conceptual Development
Robinson suggested that the bases of the development of cartography as a scientific field were a recognized need plus a useable technology. The need for maps from hundreds of new formed agencies after the war had increased the demand of education from thousands people who wanted to become an instant cartographer (Robinson 1977). Consequently, for the need of their curriculum, the basic theoretical structure and theories of the field should be tested to make the field identifiable.
During the first half of the period of investigation, the concept of the essential character of the field whether was referred to as an art, a science or a technology had not been argued to support one view over the other, while there were arguments for cartography was a science not an art or technology when this paper was written in 1976. The debate of the cartography discipline would get significant attention in the future.
Thematic cartography got a lot of interest during the first 25 years of the review. The geographical subject was variety, ranged from oceanography to social phenomena. That paper had predicted that geographers would produce maps by concerning the desire of the map users. Moreover, the concern for the map as storage medium for spatial data and as a medium of communication would increase.
Technological Development
Technology was found significantly develop since 1950. The innovations of computers, electronic devices and spacecraft technology had led to the ease of map production with the saving of time and cost.
New technology had improved ground survey precision and provided the means for monitoring. Meanwhile the use of satellites and special electronic and photographic scanning devices had provided and broadened data acquisition capability from remote regions as we known in the term of Remote Sensing. Robinson noted that remote sensing applications in cartography would be expanded and cartographers had to deal with huge amounts of previously unmapped data by the year 2000. In addition satellites imageries would be treated as maps in themselves which the user would require the image reading, analysis and interpretation skills.
The development of computer technology gave new opportunities for cartography in terms of new tools and applications. The traditional map making by ink and pen was took place by the use of new production materials called digitizing devices.
Data handling and processing capabilities of large computers plus quantitative techniques benefited environmental studies by making it possible to hold and process the huge number of environmental variables. Therefore environmental issues would become a new trend of the research of the field. By 1976, as knowledge of cartography dealing with modern data acquisition, the subject of data structures was a major cartographic concern. “It would remain the problem of how cartographically to handle the vast amount of available data” (Robinson 1977, p. 9 ) .
Photomap would become the standard general map in the future because the major primary data source in the future would be acquired from the high altitude aircraft and satellites which could be able to generate large amounts of imagery.
The fact that computer technology allows map data to be stored electronically, the rate of map produced on paper would be declined. Maps could be displayed for a time on the computer screen, disappeared when the presentation end or printed out the desired map. Robinson called the nature of these electronic maps as ‘temporary maps.’
According to the advanced technology, made-to-order maps would become practical and widespread. The design for purpose type of problems would be out of cartographer’s hand. The map user would become the map maker as he would like to create alternative maps for testing purpose especially among environmental sciences.
Institutional Development
After the Second World War, at least 80 percent of cartographic societies increased from being prior 1950 while the cartographic journals increased 75 percent. “A major aim of scholarly societies is to support a journal for the dissemination of research findings and the exchange of philosophical views” (Robinson 1977, p. 13) . As cartographers in an individual country tied together to form on a national level, the International Cartographic Association (I.C.A.) was founded in 1961.
Since 1950, in the United States, the number of institutions offering courses in cartography and related subjects, the number of students enrolled, and the number of higher degrees granted in cartography increased obviously. Robinson noted that the role of cartographic education had been shifted “as distinct from its subsidiary role as simply part of a geography degree program” (Robinson 1977). Master’s degree in cartography had been approved, certificate program were developed, and cartography-remote sensing options in geography degree program were expanding. Besides, a bachelor’s and master’s degree in cartography were offered at the department of geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison. By the year 2000, he had predicted that the growth in enrollments would not decrease and education in cartography would continue to grow due to the demand for all kinds of maps would still increase by the increasing of concern for the management of environment. The ‘training course’ in the past was set for people from variety of backgrounds but it would not be available in the future because cartography would become more specialize and complex. The graduate degree in cartography would become a requirement for a position in the job market. Furthermore, the existing or old traditional cartographers needed to be retrain for modern cartography otherwise they might not be able to deal with the new incoming technology.
Curricular Development
The growth of computer technology has brought the changes in mapping activities revolutionary. Spatial data capture, storage, integration, display and analysis have been advanced since the early 1980s by the development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (Johnston 2004).
Nyerges (1989) has interestingly presented A Framework for Model Curricula Development in Cartography and Geographic Information Systems in the department of geography at the University of Washington where cartography and GIS are combined into a program titled “CAGIS”. Curriculum development in CAGIS is built on the body of knowledge in cartography and GIS.
Curriculum development needs guidelines and standards to clarify who is being educated and what knowledge is being communicated. Professional skill could be a primary driving force for producing uniform guidelines for cartographic and GIS programs (Carter 1985, 1987, as cite in Nyerges 1989). Not all institutions can offer a complete professional curriculum. Jenks (1987, as cite in Nyerges 1989) presented the essential courses for geographic cartography education: maps and map reading, visualization and planning of thematic maps, map symbolization and compilation, and map composition. Four courses represent a core curriculum for a communication approach to cartography. However, the smaller department can not offer the full graduate program in cartography as this kind of curriculum. Jenks also listed other courses important to a curriculum in cartography: statistics for cartographers, GIS, cartographic databases, remote sensing, history of cartography, and map projections.
Part II
Beyond the Predictions
According to Robinson’s, the ability of computer technology to perform database management and analysis the vast amount of spatial data is now called ‘GIS’ made geography get much more attention from outside the discipline.
The incidents of employers seeking students with GIS skills rather than cartography and universities dropping cartography courses have made the existing of the discipline suspiciously. Consequently, the issue as “Cartography is Dead” has become an argument among articles since the late 1990s to the beginning of the twentieth century ( Unwin 1994, Wheate 1996, Wood 2003, Koch 2004 ).
The idea about this issue depends on individual aspect. Unwin (1994) thought that cartography is just one of a number of craft skills and almost everyone can be a potential cartographer as he knows how to use a map making software, he concluded that cartography is almost dead. Whereas Wheate (1996) thought that GIS developments these days are attempts to copy what cartographers have long done for decades. “Cartography is still king, but goes by a different name, which we might call ‘GIS mapping’ …” (p. 2).
Wood (2003) gave a strong idea by encouraging people to admit the death of cartography. Somehow he might be tired to ask a license for cartographers, “no matter how badly university-based cartographers demanded it, few noticed, and even fewer paid attention to the attempts to make mapmaking a profession” (p. 1). On the other hand, Koch (2004) had debated against Wood that cartography is not dead but just changed the way to call it, as we call geography-as-a science and more recently GIS as-a-science (p. 6). Moreover, all of the hard work as an analytic tool and other spatial mean calculation are all added into the mapping program and easily to use which he might not think it is important to ask for the license.
By the year 2006, mapmaking for special purposes has gone much further than Robinson expected for the year 2000. Not only the made-to-order map has passed out of cartographers’ hand to the environmental science experts, but also to anyone who have a home computer and internet connection. Modern technology has brought maps into more people’s hands directly. People can easily take advantage from practicing the open-source mapping application or map hacking. The popular open-source today is Google Earth. Google map, MapQuest and Yahoo map are also popular. Although these mapping sites based on geospatial technology, they have been developed by programmers not by the disciplines of cartography or GIS. Since mapping can be practiced everyday by outsiders, cartography is found being undisciplined (Crampton 2006).
While we let the simple kind of maps can be made easily by intruders, members should pay attention to specialize mapping in the specific issue such as environmental problems. Skole (2004) suggested that geographers have championed the use of geospatial information technology, with a growing trend of complex environmental research, everywhere within centers of global change research need someone who can deal with advanced spatial analysis techniques. Therefore, this situation might not be far from the one which Robinson predicted.
Conclusion
The change in cartography is a kind of phenomenon in response to technology revolution as other disciplines. It just change a set of tools, accountants use computer with Microsoft Excel instead of calculator, secretary use computer with Microsoft Word instead of typewriter, and cartographer use computer with GIS instead of ink, pen and paper. Only the name of the discipline is changed and it does not matter to the way we call it. The word “cartography” is called as a Greek name which is similar to “mapmaking” and recently we call it “GIS” which is just another name of it. Computer mapping software is a tool copying what cartographers have done before and the power of modern technology gives opportunities to us to make maps more analytically. Geographers who call themselves mapmaker, cartographer or GIS technician should realize that what the map they made is about, and how it can help specific problems, not only for mirror the input.
References
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