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Questions of gender in cartography most often focus on the sex of people involved in the cartographic process. These areas of research include the history of women cartographers (Tyner 1997: 46; Ritzlin 1989: 5; Hudson 1989: 29), the cartography of issues centered on women (Seager and Olson 1986; Seager et al. 1997; Rocheleau et al. 1995: 62), and women in the cartographic labor force (McHaffie 1996). Such studies examine the experiences of men and women in map-making, but not the map itself. When studies have addressed gender and contemporary map design qualities, the focus has been on cognitive aspects of and potential differences between the sexes in the cartographic process of making, analyzing, or reading maps (Golledge and Gilmartin 1986; Gilmartin and Patton 1984). Such studies tend to polarize the experience of gender in cartography as either male or female, when in fact people display properties of both genders. This paper examines facets of the historical basis of contemporary cartographic design principles, especially where these principles are gendered. By examining gender as social constructions of femininity and masculinity and how they have been incorporated into mapping, instead of as the interaction of individuals with maps (although sexual stereotypes act predominantly on individuals on the basis of their sex), we more closely approach the complex array of skills and relationships within which people live, while gaining insight into the stereotypical experiences of individuals. The premise is that early modern map design was not gender neutral in terms of broader social forces shaping gender identity. Historical evidence suggests that modern cartographic design principles originated along the lines of ideals of masculinity.
An assessment of the current status of computer-assisted cartography, in part, is biased by one's view of the cartographic process as a whole. From a traditional viewpoint we are concerned about automating the mapping process; from a progressive viewpoint we are concerned about using the tools of computer science to convey spatial information. On the surface these viewpoints appear to be in opposition. However, it is postulated that in the final analysis, they face the same goal. This overview uses the perspectives from two viewpoints to depict the current state of computer-assisted cartography and speculate on future goals, trends, and challenges.-Authors
Digital cartography allows the portrayal of spatial associations among diverse data types and is ideally suited for land use and resource analysis. We have developed methodology that uses digital cartography for the classification of wetlands and their associated peat resources and applied it to a 1:24 000 scale map area in New Hampshire. Classifying and mapping wetlands involves integrating the spatial distribution of wetlands types with depth variations in associated peat quality and character. A hierarchically structured classification that integrates the spatial distribution of variations in (1) vegetation, (2) soil type, (3) hydrology, (4) geologic aspects, and (5) peat characteristics has been developed and can be used to build digital cartographic files for resource and land use analysis. The first three parameters are the bases used by the National Wetlands Inventory to classify wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States. The fourth parameter, geological aspects, includes slope, relief, depth of wetland (from surface to underlying rock or substrate), wetland stratigraphy, and the type and structure of solid and unconsolidated rock surrounding and underlying the wetland. The fifth parameter, peat characteristics, includes the subsurface variation in ash, acidity, moisture, heating value (Btu), sulfur content, and other chemical properties as shown in specimens obtained from core holes. These parameters can be shown as a series of map data overlays with tables that can be integrated for resource or land use analysis.
The initial spacecraft exploration of the Moon in the 1960s-70s yielded extensive data, primarily in the form of film and television images, which were used to produce a large number of hardcopy maps by conventional techniques. A second era of exploration, beginning in the early 1990s, has produced digital data including global multispectral imagery and altimetry, from which a new generation of digital map products tied to a rapidly evolving global control network has been made. Efforts are also underway to scan the earlier hardcopy maps for online distribution and to digitize the film images so that modern processing techniques can be used to make high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) and image mosaics consistent with the current global control. The pace of lunar exploration is accelerating dramatically, with as many as eight new missions already launched or planned for the current decade. These missions, of which the most important for cartography are SMART-1 (Europe), Kaguya/SELENE (Japan), Chang'e-1 (China), Chandrayaan-1 (India), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (USA), will return a volume of data exceeding that of all previous lunar and planetary missions combined. Framing and scanner camera images, including multispectral and stereo data, hyperspectral images, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, and laser altimetry will all be collected, including, in most cases, multiple data sets of each type. Substantial advances in international standardization and cooperation, development of new and more efficient data processing methods, and availability of resources for processing and archiving will all be needed if the next generation of missions are to fulfill their potential for high-precision mapping of the Moon in support of subsequent exploration and scientific investigation.
The inseparable roles of remote sensing and photogrammetry have been recognized to be consistent with the aims and interests of the American Society of Photogrammetry. In particular, spatial data storage, data merging and manipulation methods and other techniques originally developed for remote sensing applications also have applications for digital cartography. Also, with the introduction of much improved digital processing techniques, even relatively low resolution (80 m) traditional Landsat images can now be digitally mosaicked into excellent quality 1:250,000-scale image maps.
The U. S. Geological Survey National Mapping Division (NMD) has been conducting research and development in digital cartography since the early seventies. Since 1977 there has been an acceleration of activities associated with establishing a National Digital Cartographic Data Base (NDCDB). The NMD Office of Research is primarily responsible for fundamental and applied research together with systems development and technical standards to support the digital cartographic program. Three phases of development have been defined - the current system, an optimum system that can be built with current technology, and a future system that could be defined after some basic research is completed. Some of the current projects related to automated data capture, editing, coding, and structuring are described together with a perspective on future directions. The overall rationale is to develop a very large integrated system that will support a NDCDB and lead toward operational geographic information systems.
The initial spacecraft exploration of the Moon in the 1960s–70s yielded extensive data, primarily in the form of film and television images, that were used to produce a large number of hardcopy maps by conventional techniques. A second era of exploration, beginning in the early 1990s, has produced digital data including global multispectral imagery and altimetry, from which a new generation of digital map products tied to a rapidly evolving global control network has been made. Efforts are also underway to scan the earlier hardcopy maps for online distribution and to digitize the film images themselves so that modern processing techniques can be used to make high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) and image mosaics consistent with the current global control. The pace of lunar exploration is about to accelerate dramatically, with as many of seven new missions planned for the current decade. These missions, of which the most important for cartography are SMART-1 (Europe), SELENE (Japan), Chang'E-1 (China), Chandrayaan-1 (India), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (USA), will return a volume of data exceeding that of all previous lunar and planetary missions combined. Framing and scanner camera images, including multispectral and stereo data, hyperspectral images, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, and laser altimetry will all be collected, including, in most cases, multiple datasets of each type. Substantial advances in international standardization and cooperation, development of new and more efficient data processing methods, and availability of resources for processing and archiving will all be needed if the next generation of missions are to fulfil their potential for high-precision mapping of the Moon in support of subsequent exploration and scientific investigation.
The initial spacecraft exploration of the Moon in the 1960s–70s yielded extensive data, primarily in the form of film and television images, that were used to produce a large number of hardcopy maps by conventional techniques. A second era of exploration, beginning in the early 1990s, has produced digital data including global multispectral imagery and altimetry, from which a new generation of digital map products tied to a rapidly evolving global control network has been made. Efforts are also underway to scan the earlier hardcopy maps for online distribution and to digitize the film images themselves so that modern processing techniques can be used to make high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) and image mosaics consistent with the current global control. The pace of lunar exploration is about to accelerate dramatically, with as many of seven new missions planned for the current decade. These missions, of which the most important for cartography are SMART-1 (Europe), SELENE (Japan), Chang'E-1 (China), Chandrayaan-1 (India), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (USA), will return a volume of data exceeding that of all previous lunar and planetary missions combined. Framing and scanner camera images, including multispectral and stereo data, hyperspectral images, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, and laser altimetry will all be collected, including, in most cases, multiple datasets of each type. Substantial advances in international standardization and cooperation, development of new and more efficient data processing methods, and availability of resources for processing and archiving will all be needed if the next generation of missions are to fulfil their potential for high-precision mapping of the Moon in support of subsequent exploration and scientific investigation.
The entire surface of the planet Venus is being mapped at global and regional scales (1:50,000,000 through 1:1,500,000) with synthetic aperture radar (SAR), radar altimeter, and radiometer measurements of physical properties from the Magellan spacecraft. The mapping includes SAR image mosaics, shaded relief maps, and topographic contour overlays made from altimetry data and by radargrammetric methods. Methods used include new techniques of radar image processing that became operational as a result of the Magellan mission. The area being mapped (at a resolution of 75 m/pixel) is roughly equivalent to that of Earth, including seafloors. The mapping is designed to support geologic and geophysical investigations.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the prime source of many kinds of topographic and special-purpose maps of the United States and its outlying areas. It is also a prime source of digital map data. One main goal of the USGS is to provide large-scale topographic map coverage of the entire United States. Most of the Nation is already covered. We expect that initial coverage will be completed by 1991. For many purposes, many public agencies, private organizations, and individuals need reliable cartographic and geographic knowledge about our Nation. To serve such needs, all USGS maps are compiled to exacting standards of accuracy and content.
The U.S. Geological Survey recently undertook the investigation of two seemingly unrelated cartographic tasks: (1) the preparation of map copy for digitizing and (2) the production of experimental slope maps. Both tasks, however, require techniques and equipment for changing or manipulating the line weights of existing map symbols and producing suitable reproduction copy. After a study of existing equipment, a prototype revolving illuminator was designed and fabricated for experiments in line-weight manipulation. Sufficient exposures have been made with the device to indicate that positive control of line-weight increases and decreases up to 0.2 inch is attainable. The device has been used for photomechanical experiments in slope mapping, hill shading, and preparation of map copy for digitizing.
No abstract available.
An important theme of our work is the synergistic use of a variety of geodetic, cartographic, and photogrammetric software packages. The USGS digital cartographic software system ISIS provides most of the processing capability needed for planimetric mapping tasks such as our revision of the global digital image mosaic of Mars (MDIM). The geodetic control network on which this mosaic is based was produced at RAND with planetary bundle-block adjustment software that was developed there and that has recently been transferred to the USGS where we are also using it to compute a revised control network of Io from Voyager and Galileo images. The revised MDIM compiled in 2000 is substantially improved over the version produced from the same ~4500 Viking Orbiter images in 1991, both in geodetic accuracy and in radiometric/cosmetic quality. Maps of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter have also been improved geodetically and cosmetically as we have added Galileo images to the control networks and digital mosaics. Stereotopographic mapping of the Moon, Mars, Venus, and the asteroid Eros requires ISIS for data ingestion and calibration steps, along with the commercial photogrammetric software SOCET SETâ for “photogrammetric” steps such as adjustment of control and topographic model extraction and editing. Novel procedures must frequently be developed to deal with problems of planetary datasets such as the need to use large numbers of small images, nonuniform image coverage, poor image overlap, and lack of true ground control. Some sensors, such as the Magellan Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), also require the development of specialized sensor model software. A second important theme is the complementarity between photogrammetric techniques and the laser altimeter systems coming into increasing use on planetary spacecraft. Stereoanalysis of Clementine images of the Moon has been used to fill in major gaps in the altimeter dataset at high latitudes, but the stereo data must be tied to the altimetry where the datasets overlap. For Mars and Eros, our stereomapping provides spatial sampling of topography finer than that achieved by altimetry, but use of the altimetry data for vertical control is essential to improve the absolute accuracy of photogrammetric topographic models. The dense spatial sampling of the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) dataset makes it useful as a source of horizontal control as well: features in images can easily be recognized in the altimetry and can be assigned coordinates with such small uncertainties that they function effectively as ground control points in the photogrammetric bundle-block adjustment. Such MOLA-derived ground points will be used to further improve the Viking Orbiter based control network and MDIM late in 2001 and will be incorporated into a subsequent network and mosaic based on global stereo imagery from MOC.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the United States' official national topographic mapping organization, is building and maintaining geographic databases for fundamental base geographic layers of land cover, structures, boundaries, hydrography, geographic names, transportation, elevation, and orthoimagery as The National Map. Data from the 3D Elevation Program, the National Hydrography Dataset and other national programs provide public domain, authoritative, accurate, and reliable data for The National Map, and data are served to United States government organizations and the public. Products of The National Map include viewable and downloadable data for all data layers, derivative products including US Topo, and web services of the data. The US Topo product is automatically generated from national map databases and produces topographic maps every three years for all 48 of the contiguous United States, Hawaii, and the United States territories.
Whither the topographic map? Topographic mapping historically has been approached as a map factory operation through the period 1879-1990. During this time, data were field and photogrammetrically collected; cartographically verified and annotated creating a compilation manuscript; further edited, generalized, symbolized, and produced as a graphic output product using lithography, or more recently, through digital means. Adoption of geographic information systems (GIS) as the primary production process for topographic maps, including digital database preparation (1975-2000) and product generation operations (2001-present), has led to faster and more standardized production in a semi-automated process. However, the topographic product has remained the same static graphic. Global Navigation Systems (GNS) began in the post 1990s, led to publicly and commercially produced location-based information traditionally provided by surveyors for topographic maps. Advances in GIS technology, computer processing, memory, and storage devices, along with GNS spawned new location systems and led to ubiquitous, consumer-based cartography through commercial entities on the World Wide Web (Web). This global availability of cartography has provided consumer access and the ability to produce topographic types of map products previously supplied only by traditional National Mapping Agencies (NMAs). Information provided by location-based services made available through connected databases has led to completely new business models based on cartography and geospatial data. A new form of topographic map as an interactive, linked knowledge base is now being created. The appearance of the Semantic Web and Linked Open Data allows the map to become an interactive knowledge base. In this current theory and implementation of topographic mapping, the map is a graphics-based interface to a triplestore knowledge base which includes a topographic feature ontology, semantics and relations, and instance data with geometry and topology available. The topographic map graphic becomes an interactive link to the knowledge base and additional linked data through the Linked Open Data cloud.
Establishing modern scientific and technical standards for geologic maps and their derivative map products is vital to both producers and users of such maps as we move into an age of digital cartography. Application of earth-science data in complex geographic information systems, acceleration of geologic map production, and reduction of population costs require that national standards be developed for digital geologic cartography and computer analysis. Since December 1988, under commission of the Chief Geologic of the U.S. Geological Survey and the mandate of the National Geologic Mapping Program (with added representation from the Association of American State Geologists), a committee has been designing a comprehensive set of scientific map standards. Three primary issues were: (1) selecting scientific symbology and its digital representation; (2) creating an appropriate digital coding system that characterizes geologic features with respect to their physical properties, stratigraphic and structural relations, spatial orientation, and interpreted mode of origin; and (3) developing mechanisms for reporting levels of certainty for descriptive as well as measured properties. Approximately 650 symbols for geoscience maps, including present usage of the U.S Geological Survey, state geological surveys, industry, and academia have been identified and tentatively adopted. A proposed coding system comprises four-character groupings of major and minor codes that can identify all attributes of a geologic feature. Such a coding system allows unique identification of as many as 105 geologic names and values on a given map. The new standard will track closely the latest developments of the Proposed Standard for Digital Cartographic Data soon to be submitted to the National Institute of Standards and Technology by the Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on Digital Cartography. This standard will adhere generally to the accepted definitions and specifications for spatial data transfer. It will require separate specifications of digital cartographic quality relating to positional accuracy and ranges of measured and interpreted values such as geologic age and rock composition. Provisional digital geologic map standards will be published for trial implementation. After approximately two years, when comments on the proposed standards have been solicited and modifications made, formal adoption of the standards will be recommended. Widespread acceptance of the new standards will depend on their applicability to the broadest range of earth-science map products and their adaptability to changing cartographic technology.