Thematic Cartography, Volume 1, Thematic Cartography and Transformations E-Book

Colette Cauvin

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 722

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

A thematic map is a map that illustrates more than simply geographical relationships or locations, but rather also portrays themes, patterns, or data relating to physical, social, medical, economic, political, or any other aspect of a region or location. Examples include maps that show variations of population density, climate data, wealth, voting intentions, or life expectancy with geographical location. These tools have become central to the work of scientists, practitioners, and students in nearly every field, from epidemiology to political science, and are familiar to members of the public as a common means of expressing complicated and multivariate information in easily understood graphical formats. This set of three volumes on Thematic Cartography considers maps as information constructs resulting from a number of successive information transformations and the products of decision stages, integrated into a logical reasoning and the order of those choices. It thereby provides a thorough understanding of the theoretical basis for thematic mapping, as well as the means of applying the various techniques and methodologies in order to create a desired analytical presentation. This first volume introduces the basics of thematic cartography. The authors present the transformations necessary to the production - using a scientific approach - of any thematic map. Four stages are detailed: from geographic entities to cartographic objects; the [XY] transformation; the [XYZ] cartographic transformations; and the semiotic transformation. Technical aspects giving map-reading keys are also included.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Foreword

General Introduction

PART I. CARTOGRAPHY: AN EVOLVING SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE

Part I. Introduction

Chapter 1. A Brief History of Thematic Cartography

1.1. From cartography to thematic cartography

1.2. Thematic cartography from its birth until the 1950s

1.3. Main trends from 1950 until after

1.4. Conclusion

Chapter 2. Cartography: A Discipline of Transformations

2.1. The discipline and its output

2.2. Categories of maps and cartography

2.3. Functions of maps and of cartography

2.4. Conclusion

Chapter 3. The Map – a Construction Based on Scientific Reasoning

3.1. Terms to be defined

3.2. From scientific approach to cartographic reasoning

3.3. The demonstration phase dominated by cartographic logic

3.4. Conclusion

Part I. Conclusion

PART II. DATA CONSTRUCTION: A TRANSFORMATION DEFINING THE QUALITY OF THE MAP

Part II. Introduction

Chapter 4. Localized Data: the Specialty of Cartography

4.1. Characteristics of spatial data

4.2. The acquisition of localized data: a domain in revival

4.3. From the cartographic generalization to the change of spatial base

4.4. Conclusion

Chapter 5. Attributes: the Specificity of Thematic Cartography

5.1. The need to harmonize vocabulary

5.2. Highly heterogenous sources

5.3. Raw data, information and measurements

5.4. Conclusion

Chapter 6. Locations and Attributes: Quality Criteria

6.1. Data quality: digital and visual criteria

6.2. A condition of quality: metadata and their standards

6.3. Spatial Data Infrastructure and Digital Earth concept

6.4. Conclusions

Part II. Conclusion

PART III. NECESSARY TRANSFORMATIONS IN THEMATIC CARTOGRAPHY

Part III. Introduction

Chapter 7. A Permanent Phase: The Semiotic Transformation

7.1. Communication and sign system

7.2. Signs in cartography and their syntax

7.3. From recipient to transmitter: perception, reading and rules of construction

7.4. Conclusion

Chapter 8. Cartographic Transformations: the Representation Modes

8.1. Point-based representation modes

8.2. Linear representation modes

8.3. Areal representation modes

8.4. Conclusion

Chapter 9. Cartographic Design

9.1. Map elements: a guided inventory

9.2. A fundamental component: the legend

9.3. General layout and thematic meaning

9.4. Conclusion

Part III. Conclusion

General Conclusion

Bibliography

Software Used

List of Authors

Index

Summary of Other Volumes in the Series

To Waldo Toblerwho developed the concept of transformationand opened up for us so many new paths in cartography

To Henri Reymondwho helped us put these new paths to work,offering guidance and scientific support to our reasoning

The authors would like to thank the Laboratoire Image et Ville (UMR 7011, CNRS) and all the people who, in one way or another, have helped in the production of this book. We would like to mention in particular, Jean-Philippe Antoni and Hélène Haniotou who have made a tremendous contribution to the creation of the figures in all three volumes, as well as Jimena Martínez who created the website (http://www.geogra.uah.es/carto-thematique-hermes/).

First published 2010 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Adapted and updated from two volumes Cartographie thématique 1 et 2 published 2007 in France by Hermes Science/Lavoisier © LAVOISIER 2007

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

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The rights of Colette Cauvin, Francisco Escobar and Aziz Serradj to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cauvin, C.

Thematic cartography and transformations/Colette Cauvin, Francisco Escobar, Aziz Serradj.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84821-109-4 -- ISBN 978-1-84821-110-0 -- ISBN 978-1-84821-111-7 -- ISBN 978-1-84821-112-4

1. Cartography. 2. Visualization. I. Escobar, Francisco. II. Serradj, Aziz. III. Title.

GA108.7.C38 2010

526--dc22

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-84821-109-4 (Set of 3 volumes)

ISBN 978-1-84821-110-0 (Volume 1)

Foreword

In any scientific study the work is done on three levels: declaration of a guiding idea, conception of suitable methods for verifying it and use of techniques to implement these methods. This book is intended to be devoted to the methods of working with localized information, and as such is it somewhat of a scientific paradox. How can we use the rich range of techniques which the authors present to us without first posing a problem or a hypothesis?

This question can be inverted: how can a researcher in the Earth Sciences conceive a project without knowing whether the tools which may help with it already exist? The authors start from the idea that tools are a determining factor in a good part of geographical research and that the most important of these tools is a so-called thematic map. The map allows us to pass from a literary (linear) description to two- (x,y), three- (x,y,z) or multidimensional descriptions which are irreplaceable when trying to learn about the surface of the globe.

Maps whose theme is not topographic are traditionally qualified as “thematic”. The theme can be anything from relief forms to the the distribution of lovers of quiche Lorraine. The authors of this book are interested in variables (quantitative) or characters (qualitative) of terrestrial phenomena which may be socio-economic or natural. Only indirectly do they address mathematical cartography, which treats, in particular, projections onto ellipsoids [DON 95]. We will see below that the authors are interested in the differences found in methods which have to do less with the themes than with their discrete or continuous character.

If the map is crucial for research, it is not only because the map facilitates observations on a plane, but also because, depending on the method adopted, it may bias or even completely falsify the researcher’s interpretation. Taken to the extreme, if a user does not know how the map’s legend was designed, he or she will not be able to interpret it at all. It is also common that a person unfamiliar with the data-structuring methods produces maps which are not comparable to others, difficult to read, not very objective or even prejudiced. For this reason, some regional studies, although based on cartographic representations coming from reliable censuses in administrative units, appeared as mere artifacts. The regional grouping in them seemed to be the result of slicing done in a premeditated fashion. Since researchers or administrations cannot justify the logic of their slicing, they could be suspected of demonstrating the regional hypothesis which they expected to see, simply by choosing the boundaries in the way that suited them yet without altering the data in any way. Instead of a guiding principle it becomes more like rough guess work. It is, therefore, with a good reason that the authors of this book insist on the rigor of the methods of grouping values into class in other words on “discretization”. Even though the discretization of values centered at the mean and normalized by their standard deviation is widely used nowadays, it is still useful, necessary in fact, to remind the reader of it as well as to compare it with other methods.

Discretization is also spatial: administrative units (cantons, departments etc.) are examples of partitioning observations. In these examples a country’s area is divided into irregular shapes, mostly reflecting political considerations (electoral districts, school maps, plans of land use, and others, which generally aim at reducing the effect of the dominant populations). Alternatively, the divisions may be based on long distant and forgotten historical heritage. Their shape is often “not very geographic”. We need, therefore, to try to reduce the influence of the shapes and sizes of units which makes the data contained in them impossible to compare. To this end we can either work with the data (for example, the data can be weighted by unit area and thus become a relative quantity) or with the spatial units (for example, by adopting a lattice). Geography is thought of as a science of spatial relations, so that the comparability of the observations is a prerequisite for finding the relations among them.

Unfortunately, discretization of the units (the containers) and the values (the content) is a convenience which goes against the very nature of the Earth: the surface of our planet is continuous. The break between the sand and the water on a sea shore is only an illusion: the continuous rocky relief under the surface of the ocean is smooth, albeit deformed. Similarly, the temperature never falls suddenly as soon as a political border is crossed, not even during the Cold War. Thus, we need to employ a variety of methods and special techniques: isolines and points of variable density are suitable. The construction of isolines, however, involves choosing an appropriate interpolation method. Thus, we arrive at geostatistics.

This brings us to another distinction: while the treatment of variables makes use of methods (standardization, interpolations, etc.), their graphical expression makes use of procedures (shaded choropleth maps, isolines, proportional symbols, etc.). These techniques themselves will become an object of semiotics which the authors also consider.

It will become clear that thematic cartography has become inseparable from statistical methods. Not only do statistics guarantee a certain degree of objectivity in the data structure, but coupled with computer science they also enable us to process large quantities of data. It is obviously impossible to process a remote sensing image containing seven million pixels in each of its channels, either manually or intuitively.

After all, what is data? It is an observation which is part of a model. The model can be very simple: for example, a graphical triangular model. The researcher should always know the model and think about it before setting out to collect the observations. It may occur that the existence of the model will help the researcher to determine their way of working, by guiding him or her to an adequate data collection procedure.

The practical use of statistical methods, physical and mathematical models and the graphical representation of their results would be extremely difficult and strenuous without the excellent modern computer programs we have at our disposal. It is tempting, therefore, to subordinate the research and its applications more and more to the methods and techniques of available computer science. However, doesn’t this book risk simply becoming a catalog of recipes? On the contrary, we think that it provides the necessary understanding of what programs can do in a few minutes. The explanations in this book eliminate the situation where the commercial programs are nothing but “black boxes” in the eyes of the user, implying the need to trust them blindly. This book considers itself to be a guide for making a choice from amongst the many methods suggested by the programs. Most of the time these methods are explained with the aid of tables and diagrams and illustrated with small maps of Luxembourg for which we never could imagine such a variety of possible representations.

Although such a guide is obviously helpful for a modern cartographer confronted with the available powerful and costly geo-informatic software, this is not the authors’ primary interest. It is concerned not so much with the immediate usefulness of recipes as with the logic of intellectual constructions which lead – often after many obstacles – to a trustworthy method. It is wonderful if the propositions of this book help to perfect the applications. However, it is also good if they only pose new questions, to which there is no solution yet. The important thing is to safeguard the freedom of learning, imagining and making mistakes! Paid researchers and employees should “make profit” and make deadlines. They are expected to produce publications at a specified date, without months to ponder the difficulties. Besides, even independent researchers would not survive if they contented themselves with thinking at their leisure, hoping to become “discoverers”. Where is then the liberty required for thinking, without time constraints, if not in waiting for scholarship grants and various thematic programs? Perhaps it can be justified as necessary for perfecting the reliable methods which will produce a quick answer when a paid contract turns up, and with it the benefits – the carriers of the post-contract freedom which will be used to find the next know-how. Research has organized itself around a kind of “advance takings” basis, which is so familiar to our authors. It is the practices presented in this work that for example in 2005 enabled them to respond to the request of the Délégation à l’Aménagement du Territoire et de l’Action Régionale (DATAR) entitled “Exchange between public and private partners and interactive cartography of urban services” [CAU 05]. Their study dealt essentially with daily mobility in the cities of Belfort and Nancy. Among others, it brought about a real animated atlas published on a CD, showing the pulsation of openings and closings of urban activities hour-by-hour. This should help to improve public transportation and security. A large part of their work was devoted to structuring and querying the database. The animation and the interactivity made use of two groups of techniques developed in modern cartography: on the one hand, a series of dynamic images created independently from each other, and on the other hand, a transformation of the same image via motion (sprite), change of shape (twining) or change of color (color cycling). This book benefited from this recent experience.

But doesn’t the diffusion of original know-how, not protected by patents or copyrights, create the risk of the researchers’ work begin stolen, which in turn will lead to this diffusion stopping? There exists a conflict between education, popularization and research. The spreading use of the Internet is now leading us to rethink the nature and the legislation of the intellectual production. There can also be competition among researchers to know who will publish and hence divulge such and such new results for the first time. In a time when some governments are busy developing innovations, it is hard to see how they can protect them. Does it mean that our cartographers only present here unoriginal methods which belong to the public domain and do not violate their copyright?

Even if this was the case, it would still be completely unprecedented to have such methods assembled in a rational and accessible fashion. Besides, the animation (as well as the modeling) led the authors to a completely new approach to legend design.

And let cartographers rest assured: even after a careful reading of this book they will still have a lot left to do.

Nowadays, world geography is much more about a game of invisible flows than about descriptions of delimited territories. Financial flows in particular not only cross borders, but use them. Some international companies have become more powerful than many states and instead of being impeded by the countries’ borders they profit from the differences in legislation. We therefore need to imagine a cartography of a moving flow network superimposed onto the framework of fixed borders. Of course it is difficult to represent changing flows. Such a representation constitutes the current research domain of several laboratories. In France, the CartActive group of GDR Sigma [MUS 06] is attacking the problem of dynamical cartography (moving maps) and interactive cartography (maps which react to the requests of the user). Our authors have tried their hand at these problems.

Moreover, major cities are becoming colossal: in the year 2000 there were 41 urban agglomerations with more than five million people. Although the cities concentrate activities more and more, the latter are impossible to represent as there are too many people at the same site. Should we therefore abandon any hope of representing the most dynamic urban centers because of graphical difficulties? Conversely, between these cities there are large back-water territories whose inhabitants emigrate to avoid the misery. What are we going to do about these problematic “holes” or, to use the expression of a contemporary geographer, these “murky fringes”?

Merging initiatives are appearing to deal with the international networks and the “holes.” For example, the European Union possesses a large administration which scrutinizes the management of these territories. With 27 Member States, the territories vary a lot and creating community descriptions which would allow international comparisons becomes a very delicate matter. How can we design maps which would enable us to compare the opportunities in Malta to those in Finland, in order to estimate what subsidies are needed for the goats of the former and the reindeer of the latter?

Moreover, how can we construct maps which demonstrate processes of both physical and socio-economic geography? Consider, for example, the process of migration of the Polish plumbers to Ireland, with the partially negative implications for the country of departure. Here we find the concept of information (where are the better salaries?), of structure (the transportation route) which the energy flow travels through (the migration), followed by the feedback (the reduction in the workforce which creates an adjustment in the original salaries). This takes us to thinking about and favoring the systems cartography linked to modeling. And here, too, our authors discover new directions.

Of course, the European Commission supports cartography via Eurostat, the European Space Agency, the Agriculture and Forests community and the IST program of risk reduction. Moreover, the launching of satellites to observe the Earth requires us to work on a global level and adopt the ellipsoidal model of the Earth, both in geometric and physical applications. Thus, the Global Positioning System (GPS) of Navstar has adopted the ellipsoid of the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGGS84). Nevertheless, every, or almost every, European country uses a different ellipsoid and a different projection system which requires transformations in order to use them as a reference; see [DON 97]. The International Cartographic Association (ICA; see [CFC]) is in the process of standardizing this “geo-information”. This is going to be a long process. The present volume could bring if not a contribution then at least some thought to these regulation efforts to achieve “spatial data standards”.

Although locating observations on a scale less than 1/50,000 requires the mastery of coordinate transformations on ellipsoids and projections, the observations performed on larger scales can do without it. For them it suffices to make “adjustments” after the geometric corrections. This fact makes it possible to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in regional or local applications. The authors of our work do not miss the opportunity to use the data processing resources of GIS, as well as their visualization possibilities. These tools have been around for about 20 years. A very pedagogical Idrisi [BOS 94] of the “raster” (or matrix) type dates back to 1987. Its close contemporary ArcInfo (ESR 89) is a vector-type tool. GIS were quickly adopted by the public and private administrations. They are used for managing urban agglomerations and regions, for studying trading zones or for geo-marketing in private companies. In addition, the GIS of the 1980s enabled the resolution of the questions raised by the advent of the theoretical and quantitative geography in the late 1950s [HAG 91]. However, the good use of the GIS depends primarily on formulating the guiding idea: what are we trying to count, measure, add, extract, select, combine or simulate in order to give an answer to a question that has been posed? Choosing the third-order trend surface is not enough to demonstrate the attraction zone of a museum of modern art, a football stadium or the direction of spread of the Chikungunya virus. The GIS cartography is far from being “automatic”. A “spatial” way of thinking is needed, which is often multidisciplinary and draws on theoretical geography. This is why the authors did not hesitate to include numerous digressions which allowed them to follow the evolution of the discipline since 1960, when the first works of Waldo Tobler and William Bunge appeared. Of course, in 2003 a work was published in French [DAU 03] which traced the development of theoretical thought in geography, so that this book might seem to be redundant repetition. It is not, however, because this book treats cartographic methods and not the rules interrelated by some internal principles.

This book devotes a lot of attention to numerous transformations: transformations of data, of the reference frame, of the scale, of hypotheses, of colors, etc. A map nowadays is no more than a “snapshot” in the unrolling “movie” of possibilities. Transformational cartography enabled geography to pass from a descriptive stage, which was limited and static, to combinations of classifications, spatial selections, observable and theoretical distributions, experiments and predictions. We hope that this book will help the readers to realize this, and also to show them the way to new applications. In 1985 Peter Gould [GOU 85] spoke of “the explosion in cartography” which we see today. He did not know what to call the new practices to distinguish them from the classical “cottage-industry” cartography: geomatics (as in Quebec)? Computer-assisted spatial analysis? Cartography on demand? Meta-cartography or rather computer-assisted theoretical cartography? We owe these last terms to William Bunge in 1962. As Paul Claval [CLA 64] reminds us, citing the prophetic words of Bunge which are now more than 40 years old, “…geography will no longer be divided into human and … physical, but into geography of points, lines and areas,” and they all “will be adorned by an abstract … general science, the theoretical geography.” It is this geospatial approach supported by cartography that distinguishes geography from sociology and economics, and gives it its unique character. Our authors go along this road. We hope that they will have provided future cartographers not only with a rich bibliography on the works of the past, but also with good tools to follow them and to outdo them.

Sylvie RIMBERT

Strasbourg, 2007

Bibliography

[BOS 94] BOSQUE J., ESCOBAR F., GARCIA E., SALADO M.-J., Sistemas de informacion geografica: practicas con PC Arc/Info e Idrisi, Rama Editorial, Madrid. 478 p., cd-rom, 1994.

[CAU 05] CAUVIN C., GWAZDZINSKI L. et al., Offre spatio-temporelle des services urbains au public, Rapport Final pour la commande N°BC 03000208 de la DATAR. 2 volumes, cd-rom, Faculté de Géographie et d’Aménagement, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, 2005.

[CFC] Comité Français de Cartographie. 107 rue La Boétie. 75008 Paris. CFC is the counterpart of ICA in France, publishing “Le Monde des cartes”.

[CLA 64] CLAVAL P., Essai sur l’évolution de la géographie humaine, Cahiers de Géographie de Besançon, n°12, 162 p., see page 150, 1964.

[DAU 03] DAUPHINE A., Les théories de la complexité chez les géographes, Anthropos, Paris, 248 p., 2003.

[DON 95] DONNAY J-P., Cartographie Mathématique, Laboratoire Surfaces de l’Université de Liège, Belgium, 270 p., 1995.

[GOU 85] GOULD P., The Geographer at Work, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, Boston, 351 p. (see part V, “The geo-graphic revolution”), 1985.

[HAG 91] HAGGETT P., “Revolutions and quantitative geography: some personal reflections on the bicentennial” in D. PUMAIN (ed.) Analyse spatiale et dynamique des populations, INED Paris - John Libbey Ltd, London, see Chapter 1, 1991.

[MUS 06] MUSTIERE S., “Les chercheurs rendent les cartes actives et inversement…compte-rendu de réunion du groupe de travail CartActive du GDR Sigma”, Le Monde des Cartes, Revue du Comité Français de Cartographie, n°190, pp. 18-19, 2006.

General Introduction

Maps1, in one form or another, were established and drawn very early on in history, in all epochs and all civilizations, as testified by the abundance of books and articles on this subject [JAC 92, KIS 80]. These documents showed property boundaries, helped military operations, as well as showing the way for travelers. Maps multiplied and became abundant in the scientific domain, in the overview of the general public, as well as in planning organizations. They have become an object of frequent use in various activities: mountain hikes, road trips, as well as finding a hotel or a restaurant. The arrival of the tools for free access to digital maps, of which Google Earth is certainly the most prominent example, further reinforces the importance of maps, either topographic or thematic, in the modern world. We live in a society of maps. Nevertheless, are the correct uses of a map, its creation and the possibilities it offers well known?

These questions are pertinent when we look at the maps published on paper (in magazines, books or atlases) or on screen (on the web). There we find carefully designed, highly complex maps, though illegible, as well as simple schematic documents, crudely and imprecisely drawn, possibly attractive but misleading. Everyone believes that he or she is capable of creating a map, as if using a computer is sufficient for obtaining an immediate response to a particular request. Maps are required “right away”, as if “push button” maps existed and a map’s validity was automatic. In reality, even before making a map, we need to know what the actual request is, whether the map is truly needed or whether a table would be more appropriate. Given the current proliferation of maps, their abundance and the dangers inherent in the variety of technological possibilities, it is important to carefully determine the necessary mapmaking route, in order to put cartography2 into a more strict, rigorous setting and to produce a reliable document. This leads us to considering cartography and maps in a new light and to proposing a novel approach, after having identified new objectives.

The approach presented in this book utilizes cartographic reasoning, which puts mapmaking within a larger experimental scientific approach. A map is no longer a document produced in an isolated fashion, simply for illustration. It is a constructed image incorporated into a larger study, which at a given point of its development warrants the production of a map. It is therefore necessary to explain the context which justifies the map, to know its intended recipient in order to determine the theoretical and contextual elements on which the production of the map will hinge and based on which further choices will be made. The cartographic reasoning is meant to instruct us how to “dissect” a map request, in order to ascertain which questions to ask and what range of answers to offer. In fact, there is no unique answer for each request: “the Map” does not exist. Among others, there are solutions that produce maps more appropriate to a given purpose.

This reasoning provides a loose guide, which can incorporate changes, both conceptual and technical. Making a map by “clicking” a computer mouse may produce an image, whose quality or reliability cannot be certain: inaccurate data and improper processing do not produce correct maps. Wrong signs, inadequate representation modes will not yield accurate, meaningful information. Making a map based on cartographic reasoning allows us, however, to recreate an image whose elements can all be justified and explained and whose quality is assured. It produces a document which the recipients can use for deliberations, for asking and answering questions without worrying about the validity of the initial information. In order to achieve this, the map’s author should be familiar with the readers’ interests, objectives and capabilities.

From this point of view, a map is not a simple illustration accompanying a text because for most it is more pleasant to look at than a table. Depending on the context, it becomes a tool for deliberation or research, a “revealer” of hidden structures, or a supporting document, allowing partners to have concrete discussions. Nevertheless, we should not forget that regardless of its context, a map is always the result of at least a minimum amount of research: even for an illustration, we need to have some knowledge concerning the thematic phenomena represented and the locations in question. This presupposes a certain amount of preliminary study. It is based on this knowledge that a map can be established and can fulfill its multiple functions. Indeed, while preserving its initial function of locating observable spatial phenomena, the map also acquired the function of locating the characteristics which are invisible and which underlie these spatial phenomena both in structure and process. The map becomes, therefore, a tool for discovery, and cartography becomes a discipline of localizing the invisible.

This work on thematic cartography thus provides a guide to making a map, such that the map fits the requirements which originated its production, be it in the framework of a hypothesis in a study or the work of a consultant office. Although work conditions may differ, the basic principles are the same, and the guiding thread is identical, since a map is always produced via a succession of very particular stages.

An important point, which we will emphasize, is the dynamic component of cartography, which manifests itself throughout production stages that include all the transformations. We cannot proceed from the Earth to the map without transforming the elements present on the Earth and those depicted on the map. We will show that a map is the result of a series of transformations, each of which plays a specific role and requires a particular field of expertise. No longer can a map be designed by the two classical co-authors – the cartographer and the thematician. It needs the expertise of geomaticians, computer scientists, mathematicians and semioticians, which has its positives and negatives. On the one hand, because of the diversity of the domains which come into cartography, and the proliferation of experts or amateurs who consider themselves cartographers, a certain confusion is created, which considerably damages the final product, the map. On the other hand, the cartographic discipline is constantly expanding thanks to the contributions of the related disciplines and is gradually turning into what is currently called “geovisualization”.

Irrespective of the name given to the discipline, a map must be useful and serve a purpose. It is no secret that a map is not always legible and reliable: being overloaded or badly drawn (lines too thick or too thin, for instance), it is not useful. A map should be of good quality and should present accurate information. Like any science, cartography must follow deontology rules. This is especially sensible today, when maps are circulated on the Web, mutually enriching each other, subject to their original quality.

In the three volumes of this book, the various transformations leading to the production of the map will be discussed sequentially.

Volume 1 contains the stages and the expertise necessary for the production of any thematic map. The content is standard, but as mentioned above, the approach is different, the stress being on the guiding role of cartographic reasoning. Part 1, after a brief history of thematic cartography, identifies different transformations and shows the basis of cartographic reasoning, which relies on the scientific approach. Part 2 concerns the data, locations and attributes, and emphasizes their quality and the importance of the associated metadata. Part 3 addresses the physical production of the map, explores the sign systems, characterizes the representation modes and completes the process by giving the legend of the map.

Volume 2 is focused on the known, though partially updated, transformations: the consequences of the introduction of quantitative methods in cartography and the renewal of old methods by means of novel technologies.

Finally, Volume 3 concerns the changes related to the recent revolutions in numerics, multimedia, the Internet and the Web, that is to say, the advances due to the most recent technologies.

1 At this stage we will state that a map is “a simplified or conventional planar geometric representation of the whole or a part of the Earth’s surface with a suitable degree of similarity to the original” [JOL 76]. This term will be explored further in Chapter 2.

2 Here cartography is defined as “the set of scientific, artistic and technological studies and operations starting from the results of direct observations or the use of documentation with the aim of creating maps, plans and other modes of expression, as well as their usage” [JOL 76]. This term will also be clarified in Chapter 2.

PART ICartography: An Evolving Scientific Discipline

Part IIntroduction

We pointed out earlier that mapmaking should follow very precise minimal rules in order for the final document to be a scientific construction and not only an author’s illustration accompanying a text. These rules act on all stages of the cartographic production, and the “products” should be created using a recognized scientific approach which consists of several connected steps. Researchers generally invest in one or other of these stages, foregoing the logical process in the production of a map. However, none of the stages is independent from the others, and disregarding the links between them can only result in maps which are unsatisfactory in many aspects. There is a need to establish a scientific approach.

In fact, the rules of mapmaking should not be limited to graphical expression. They should act in all the phases of cartographic production. Nevertheless, while this idea has already been recognized and partially explained [CAU 96a, CAU 98], its structuring and generalization are exigent today for at least three reasons: the proliferation of computer software, the diversity of specialists and the absence of a structured theoretical body of knowledge.

The proliferation of computer programs for cartography or for geographical information systems requires a harmonization of tools and a determination of their real innovative quality. This (over)-abundance in fact makes anyone capable of somehow producing a map by using the functions of a program, regardless of its validity, without even knowing whether the chosen technique can be applied to the data at hand, whether it is new or whether it has been tested before. This common ignorance is the reason for sketching the history of cartography in the first chapter, in order to avoid errors and consider as new the techniques which have been in use for several centuries.

The diversity of specialists in map production creates the need for a harmonized vocabulary, because the increasing number of specialties produces a simultaneous increase in the number of new terms and unheard-of possibilities which must be coordinated and unified for the sake of correct usage. It is sufficient to recall the phrase by Epicurus addressed to Herodotus to understand the necessity of a precise and explained vocabulary, even if it is only a vocabulary of work: “In the first place, Herodotus, you must understand what it is that words denote, in order that by reference to this we may be in a position to test opinions, inquiries, or problems, so that our proofs may not run on untested ad infinitum, nor the terms we use be empty of meaning” [EPI 98]. Thus, Chapter 2 will deal with the definitions of the terms used in explaining the adopted choices and points of view.

The absence of a structured theoretical body of knowledge is manifest in the absence of thought-through and coordinated scientific principles applied to the stages of the cartographic conception and production. Evidently, a theoretical body of knowledge is vital for the development of any scientific discipline. Hence, only the formation of such a body will allow cartography to fully exploit its potential, and allow the map to demonstrate the directly observable thematic phenomena as well as reveal the underlying spatial structures which contribute to their understanding. Cartographic construction and geospatial analysis are inseparable in understanding these structures and demonstrating the corresponding processes. Therefore, maps must be made using the rigorous approach described in Chapter 3 if we want a map to be reproducible and to serve as an object of experiments and/or of demonstration in understanding a spatial phenomenon.

To conclude, a map cannot be produced for the sake of producing a map. Mapmaking should be justified; otherwise it is a waste of time both for its author and its user. A map is a logical construction, and the logic on which it is based is two-fold: that of the topic of the map and that of cartography. The disciplinary and the cartographic logic fit together and rely on the experimental scientific approach which makes sure that each step can be verified, explained and discussed. This approach, therefore, is an indispensable guide.

Chapter 1

A Brief History of Thematic Cartography

“One needs to know history to avoid thinking that certain things are new”, maintain M. Friendly and D. J. Denis [FRI 04]. This statement is essential in our time when many authors announce such “discoveries” and emphasize the originality of a map they produced, without having a single argument to support their claims. Cartography is ancient, perhaps even preceding writing [ZUM 93]. If we want to avoid mistaking some maps for discoveries, knowing the history of this discipline, just like any other, is essential. It allows us to put into perspective the real importance of maps produced in our time, to understand better the social context in which they have been created and thus to avoid errors of interpretation.

1.1. From cartography to thematic cartography

Originally, cartography responded to concrete needs, and maps – the output of cartography – were developed for practical reasons. For example, they served to define the boundaries of land property, as with the cadastral plans on clay Mesopotamian tablets from around 2500 BC [JAC 92], to find one’s bearings, as with the road maps in the Roman era (the Peutinger table, 2nd century AD), or to determine the course at sea, using vellum nautical maps. A map can also serve as an archive of knowledge of a group of people [ZUM 93]. In the beginning, therefore, cartography was first and foremost aimed at positioning places relative to each other, and precise locations remained uncertain. It gradually became more precise thanks to the great discoveries, inventions in different domains and technological advances. These advances took place in the cultural and social context of varying degrees of openness to change.

1.1.1. The Middle Ages in the West: symbolic maps

During the early Middle Ages in the Western world, maps were mostly figurative and symbolic, expressing the ideas of the time, i.e. religious ideas, since “symbols reflect the way we interpret them through the prism of the culture of the time and religious beliefs” [ZUM 93]. These maps were a complete departure from the ideas proposed by Ptolemy. At the time, the scientific approach of a real world depiction was abandoned in favor of figurative, Bible-related imagery and religious beliefs. The famous “T-O” maps abounded, with a ring (“O”) of ocean encircling the world, inside which there is a “T”, separating the space into three parts: Asia at the top (corresponding to the East), Europe on the left and Africa on the right [LEF 04].

In this period, only Arab cartography, which acknowledged and continued Greek work, drawing mainly on Ptolemy, advanced thanks to the geographers, travelers, and writers such as Masudi and Ibn Haukal in the 10th century, Edrisi (or al-Idrisi) in the 12th century, and Ibn Batuta and Abufelda in the 14th century [CUE 72, LEF 04]. It is also thanks to these Arab researchers and writers that the compass, the instrument devised by the Chinese a few centuries earlier, arrived in the West around the 13th century and caused a major change in mapmaking with the appearance of portolans. The recognition of Ptolemy’s work allowed a departure from figurative imagery, to correct the flagrant errors and to expand the content of the map, even if some new errors were introduced on the way, since Ptolemy in his time did not possess all the necessary information. For instance, the size ascribed to Eurasia and the calculated length of the equator made the existence of America completely impossible [ZUM 93].

1.1.2. From the Renaissance to the 19th century: resurgence of cartography due to discoveries and innovations

During the Renaissance, innovations emerged in a variety of fields, some of which would play an essential role in cartography. The improvement in measuring instruments allowed advancements in surveying the Earth. Developments in mathematics led to a much more precise depiction of projected information. The blossoming of techniques due to the introduction of new tools induced a genuine revolution in the design, as well as the printing and distribution, of maps (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1.Innovations and resurgence of cartography

The end of the 15th and the 16th century is a period marked, at least in the West, by the great discoveries which helped update, modify and correct cartographic documents. Knowledge of the Earth had increased considerably with the voyages of Christopher Columbus (1492–1502), Vasco de Gama (1497–1524), Magellan (1519–1522) and others. New techniques caused major changes in mapmaking: the introduction of paper in Europe thanks to the Arabs between the 11th and 14th centuries, the invention of the printing press (or rather, of typesetting) by Gutenberg (1440), with the first map printed in 1472, and switching from wood engraving to copper engraving devised by Finiguerra (1452), which enables much finer details to be depicted. The 16th century is punctuated with discoveries and inventions which revolutionized the knowledge of the Earth and cartography. G. Palsky [PAL 01], M. Friendly and D. J. Denis [FRI 04] agree in stressing the importance of new instruments, which allowed more precise observations and corrected measurement errors. The first planimetric surveys made with a compass and cord [CUE 72] were developed at the same time as the new projection systems, in particular, the Mercator (1512–1594) and the Ortelius (1527–1598) projections.

In the 17th century, cartography continued to be marked by technological innovations. Thus, optical instruments, conceived by Galileo with the creation of the first high quality telescope in 1609, allowed the execution of fine details on a map and a considerable improvement in the quality of the fieldwork [CAH 74], and thereby “propelled geography and cartography into modernity” [ZUM 93]. These advances were crowned by repeated application of the triangulation technique invented in 1533 by a physician, geographer and mathematician G. Frisius, which led to the complete coverage of France by the Cassini family (17th and 18th centuries). Some of the ministers of Louis XIV were strongly interested in maps, which were becoming more reliable and had practical uses. Geographical maps were requested from the Academy of Sciences created by Colbert in 1666, while the royal corps of engineers supplied maps to Louvois (French Secretary of State for War during the reign of Louis XIV). Efforts were being made toward improvements in surveying and also in accuracy of data. At the end of the century, these efforts extended to the revision of latitudes and longitudes, as well as measurements of the Earth [CUE 72]. Similar efforts were evident in other countries: in Russia, Peter the Great established the teaching of geodetics, while in England topographic surveying was also carried out [CUE 72].

Other new techniques concerning the accuracy of measurements, drawing, as well as the reproduction and distribution of maps, came about in the following centuries. For instance, there were new measurements of the meridian arcs at the equator and at the poles [CUE 72], and an increase in number of projection systems brought about by Bonne, Gauss and Lambert [ALI 66]. The 18th century saw the invention of the chronometer1 by Harrison in England (1734), the adoption of the metric system during the French Revolution (1791), the completion of the Cassinis’ topographic map with 1/86,400 scale and the design of the first machine for the continuous manufacture of paper by Louis-Nicolas Robert (1798).

The emergence of lithography (1796) would lead in the 19th century to the production of maps in several colors, which, from that time on, would be obtained via mechanical processes such as chromolithography in the 1840s [PAL 02]. At the end of the same century, the invention of photography by Niepce (1822) began to be used in cartography. From then on, photographic reproduction offered an opportunity to draw maps without inversion. Offset printing, invented in 1878, was put into use around 1910 [CAH 74].

1.1.3. The 20th century: widespread acceleration

In the 20th century, the pace of change accelerated due to an ongoing proliferation and diversity of technological advances concerning chemistry, electronics, the processes of drawing, printing, visualization and distribution, as well as the types of data used. Aerial photography, whose fundamental role E. de Martonne emphasizes2 [MAR 48], was followed in the 1960s and 1970s by remote sensing with its range of images, which revolutionized the field of geographical information. After World War II, plastics, scribecoats, photographic emulsions and photocomposers appeared. Drawing and printing underwent changes both in speed and quality [CAH 74]. Increasingly over the course of the 20th century people moved on from a single map on paper, to multiple maps and then to maps on a screen [PAL 02], thus fundamentally transforming visualization and distribution. Thus J. A. Wolter [WOL 75] emphasizes that over the course of several centuries people went through three technical stages: maps drawn by hand, printed maps and finally electronic maps. Thanks to computers and later micro-computers, new processes could develop, such as anamorphosis and 3D representation. The computer revolution is unstoppable. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, hypermaps, multimedia and the Web invaded the domain of cartography.

A number of innovations had their effect on the quality of measurements, quickly improving the resulting documents. Starting from the 16th and 17th centuries, a map became a document on which a person could rely on finding their bearings, first at sea and later also on land. Many developments were new techniques, often focused on the quality of drawing, printing and distribution. No longer was a map an exclusive document reserved for the privileged. In one form or another, maps became accessible to a large number of people and provided a means of information exchange. Nevertheless, the cartography which we have been describing was aimed mainly at providing information about the location and position of places, and the map remained a document which shows what can be seen in the real world. Starting from the second half of the 17th century, there developed a cartography interested in objects and features of roads, buildings, and so on, that is, in the content of places, in their description, and not just in the observable, directly visible facts. This was the birth of thematic cartography.

1.2. Thematic cartography from its birth until the 1950s

This thematic3 cartography produced a new type of document called singular maps or else maps for a specific purpose and sometimes geographic maps [ROB 76a]. The first examples are the manuscript map of Protestant sites in 1620 [DAI 02], A. Kircher’s maps of the earthquake in Calabria in 1636, E. W. Happel’s map of oceanic currents and tides from 1685, or E. Halley’s map of the oceanic winds (1686) and magnetic declination (1701) [ROB 82]. E. W. Halley is recognized as one of the founders of thematic cartography, and N. J. W. Thrower [THR 69] called him a “thematic geo-cartographer”. Methodological thinking about this particular type of cartography quickly appeared. Abbot de Dangeau (1697), like R. P. A. Lubin in 1678 and R. de Vaugondy in the next century (1755), criticizes cartography in which the number of symbols is too large [PAL 00], coming up with the first sketch of rules for making this type of document. Overloaded maps are to be avoided. G. Palsky [PAL 84] points out that from the 18th century onwards it was considered that a map had to be not only complete and accurate, but also readable and facilitate communication.

1.2.1. Towards an abstract code and adapted procedures

Fundamental, more conceptual changes began taking place between the 18th and 19th centuries. People moved progressively “from the representation of what is seen to that of what is known about an object, which implies passing from an analog code to an abstract code” [PAL 84]. As this author emphasizes, people were shifting toward the autonomy of the code. This was confirmed by the Topographic Commission in 1802, which asserted “the dignity of the language acquired by cartography”. In its thematic direction, the discipline thus developed from a simple system of illustrations to a complete and independent system of symbols. It no longer favored the basic criteria of the topographic map: exactness and resemblance of reality.

At the same time, a new practice of expression was increasingly employed, such as C. de Fourcroy’s maps of demographic quantities with squares proportional to the urban areas (1782), or W. Playfair’s charts of economic data (1786). It was not until the 19th century that most of the methods of representation were developed in statistical circles. This development often happened in relation to quantitative data, since the development of statistics was parallel to the development of cartography. Moreover, the need to locate epidemics in the 19th century produced the need for new representations and symbols. C. Dupin’s map with colors representing the levels of popular education in ascending order (1826) was a precursor of the choropleth maps with value classes. H. D. Harness (1837) with his maps of the population density in Ireland, with zones corresponding to different levels of density, announced the creation of dasymetric maps. A. J. Frère de Montizon proposed a dot map of the population of France, (1830) and Bollain (1844) – maps with circles representing the population of cities, as had been initiated by W. Playfair in 1801. The first traffic maps with stripes of corresponding width were the work of H. D. Harness (1837), and the maps of the circulation of travelers by C. J. Minard (1844–45). L. Lalanne suggested the principle of a map with isolines of densities (1845), which E. von Sydow named an “isopleth” (1859) and which would be used by N. F. Ravn in 1857 for the population of Denmark and by L. Vauthier in 1874 for the population of Paris. The importance of studying class intervals was highlighted at the International Statistical Congress in Vienna (1857) by V. Streffleur and P. Sick. Thus, as A. H. Robinson emphasizes [ROB 52], from 1860 onwards cartographic practices for representation of quantitative data became known: dot maps, symbols of proportional size, sectored circles, flow maps, choropleth maps with a selection of class intervals, dasymetric maps, isopleth maps, and others. Chorochromatic maps were proposed for qualitative variables. Among all these practices, colored maps spread very quickly, while the other options remained of very limited application until the second half of the 20th century.

At the end of the 19th century, a basic graphical language seems to have been established and J. Bertillon’s map of the population in the arrondissements4 of Paris (1896) is a demonstration of the efforts towards new experiments. The map used localized rectangles with the two sides modified according to two variables – the population of an arrondissement and the percentage of foreigners living in it – so that their product, the area of the rectangles, represented the absolute number of foreigners. Thus, thematic cartography developed parallel to topographic cartography, which belonged to the military sphere. Thematic maps were created by experts for specific needs, for example, maps of the extent and diffusion of illness. They reflect the political tendencies of the time. Maps highlighting colonial empires are a good example of this. However, as D. R. Montello writes [MON 02], until the 20th century a cartographer imposes on the readers his or her vision of the represented phenomenon, and does not allow the readers any independence, but rather “forms their thoughts”.

1.2.2. The 20th century: the birth of a scientific discipline

In the first half of the 20th century, some works on cartography began to appear. The book entitled Kartenwissenschaft, written in 1921 by M. Eckert [ECK 21], already established numerous rules for cartography, which it regarded almost as a science. The book by K. Peuker of Vienna dealt with abstract (then a synonym of thematic) cartography, and E. Raisz’s handbook General Cartography [RAI 38] presented the principles of map making. At the same time, institutions or schools of cartography were created: the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1925 in Zurich by E. Imhof and the Paris School of Cartography in 1934 by E. de Martonne. A journal dedicated to the history of cartography, Imago Mundi, was founded by L. Bagrow in 1935. It seems that during this period no new theoretical or philosophical development occurred, although map subjects multiplied and maps themselves became more diverse and specialized [ROB 79]. Nevertheless, the idea that cartography might become an autonomous discipline was in the air, in particular in the work of M. Eckert [ECK 08]. In addition, comparative analysis of these cartographic procedures began. We find traces of it in M. Eckert, as well as in E. de Martonne’s thesis [MAR 02, PAL 03a].

The period following World War II is marked by a complete revival of thematic cartography, initiated in the fundamental work The Look of Maps by A. H. Robinson in 1952 [ROB 52]. This book is testimony of the new developments both in the conceptual and technical areas. According to D. R. Montello [MON 02], the author had been influenced by the works of cartographers and geographers from the beginning of the century, such as M. Eckert, K. Peuker or J. K. Wright, as well as by his own military experience during the war, which made him realize the weight of the cartographers’ decisions, and by his research in psychology, which gave him new insight into the perception of letters, symbols and maps. This union of cartography and psychology realized the wish of M. Eckert [ECK 25], related by W. Scharfe [SCH 86] in one of his articles: “It would be an extraordinary progress if a scientific cartographer and a psychologist could proceed together to the empirical tests, which would allow them to see what cartographic load exceeds the eye’s and brain’s capacities.” The publication of this book was followed up by the first edition of the Elements of Cartography [ROB 53], and corresponds to the creation of the first university course in cartography in the USA.

From the 1950s to 2006, the history of cartography merges with the description of successive main trends in this discipline. These trends were connected to a varying degree with a number of technological advances of the time and, in particular, to the computer science revolution which started in the 1960s.

1.3. Main trends from 1950 until after 2000

This period is marked with the publication of manuals, specialized education, and the creation of associations and journals. The appearance of successive paradigms, the advent of the computer and the development of connections with other disciplines proved to be most influential events, opening up new directions in the field of cartography.

1.3.1. Remarkable facts

Several works, which can be viewed more or less as manuals, brought about the resurgence of 1950–1975, the creation phase of the discipline [MCM 02]. Among them were the two new editions of A. H. Robinson’s 1953 book [ROB 60, ROB 69], and those by E. Raisz [RAI 62], S. Rimbert [RIM 62], E. Arnberger [ARN 66], J. Bertin [BER 67], W. Witt [WIT 67], S. Rimbert [RIM 68] and E. Imhof [IMH 72]. Some of these are general works, as their titles indicate: Elements of Cartography, Principles of Cartography, Maps and Graphics. Others are more specialized, such as the work of J. Bertin who steers clearly towards semiotics, or the booklet by S. Rimbert [RIM 68] which bears witness to the new trends in thematic cartography in France. Summing up the books and articles addressing the history of cartography in this period [FAB 03, MAC 95, MON 02], we note that the idea of a cartography characterized by stricter rules on all levels is general, and encountered in the English-speaking countries, as well as in Europe and in the USSR.

American universities initiated specialized education that would dominate world cartography for decades: the University of Wisconsin with A.H. Robinson, the University of Kansas with G. Jenks, and the University of Washington with J. Sherman. It is from these universities that cartographers such as W. Tobler would travel across the country, opening new centers and introducing new directions of research. In Europe, the school of cartography created by E. de Martonne continued its work and transformed into DESS5 during the 1960s. New centers were also created: the ITC in Enschede, Netherlands in 1950, the TU in Dresden, Germany in 1959, the FU in Berlin in 1964 [FAB 03], and the ECU6 in the UK [BIC 82]. In parallel, the number of associations and cartographic journals increased considerably: “Surveying and Mapping” (1940), “International Yearbook of Cartography” (1961), “Canadian Cartographer” and “The Cartographic Journal” (1964), “World Cartography” (1965), “Cartography” (1972), “American Cartographer” (1973)7.

From the basic book of A. H. Robinson [ROB 52] and the work of researchers such as F. Ormeling [ORM 72], J. A. Wolter [WOL 75], A. M. MacEachren [MAC 95] and D. R. Montello [MON 02], we can see that cartography emerges as a distinct, separate discipline. It belongs to the domain of science, since artistic cartography has shown its limitations [MAC 95]. Cartography tends toward the standardization of rules and appeals to characteristics of perception, while establishing, based on objective principles, the relationships between the conception and the symbolism of maps. For J. A. Wolter [WOL 75], this stage in the evolution of cartography and, more precisely, of thematic cartography, is marked by an increase in cartographic literature, accompanied by attempts to give stricter definitions of the terminology used and creating a theoretical foundation for the subject.

1.3.2. From 1950 to 1975: paradigms and the technological revolution

This period is marked by changes at the theoretical level, with the appearance of research-oriented paradigms, as well as on the more general level, brought about by the fundamental revolution in technology due to the appearance of computer science (Figure 1.2).

1.3.2.1. Conceptual changes

Beginning with the book of A. H. Robinson [ROB 52], communication of information to people was recognized as the predominant function of maps. This function was increasingly being associated with the theory of information. From a “producer” or “manufacturer” of maps, the cartographer became a “communicator” [MOR 74b, WOL 75]. This led to the development of three inter-related fields of research – graphic design, psychology (or perception), and education in cartography. These three fields would develop differently for researchers in different countries until 1975. In France, J. Bertin mainly stressed graphic design or, more precisely, semiotics, although other directions were undertaken in other universities, as for example by S. Rimbert at the University of Strasbourg.

The situation was similar in other European countries, such as Germany and Switzerland, where the use of graphic design was paramount to mapmaking, without necessarily appealing to the principles developed by J. Bertin. Other countries were mainly interested in the theory of information and in a map as a channel of communication, as seen in the works of C. Board [BOA 67] in the UK, L. Ratajski [RAT 77a, RAT 78] in Poland and E. Kretschmer [KRE 78a, KRE 78b] in Austria. In the USA, the prevailing trend was toward visual perception and the establishment of diversified, specialized education at the university level. The period was marked by cartographers such as J. Morrison, E. Petchenik, J. M. Olson, P. Gilmartin, T. E. Slocum and P. C. Muehrcke. In 1975, the Vienna Congress [KRE 77] marked the recognition of cartography as a science and the value of “theoretical” cartography (Figure 1.2).