Only 50 years ago, mapmakers struggled to obtain enough information to make a map. Today, massive amounts of data can be registered to the Earth’s surface, mapped and analyzed.
Cartography
has undergone a revolution brought on by the widespread availability of
automated techniques, including GIS technology. In the past, the tasks
of the mapmaker altered little from one generation to the next. No longer.
Few aspects of this complex field have escaped the impact of digital technology.
In fact, the pens, ink, drafting tables, large format cameras, and darkrooms
that characterized map production facilities a generation ago have largely
disappeared. They have been replaced by scanners, workstations, mass storage
devices, and plotters. Modern techniques, especially aerial photography
and satellite imagery, now provide almost infinite amounts of map-like
information or data that can be registered to the Earth’s surface. The
problem is to manage and display the flood of new data.
A very strong commercial marketplace has developed to provide the new breed of cartographers and GIS specialists with exciting, powerful hardware and software tools to process and display data. People entering these professions today can look forward to practically unlimited capabilities for handling vast amounts of geographic information, analyzing data to help solve important problems, and generating maps that aid in critical decision making. Cartographers will need a variety of skills, including visualization techniques, data processing, database management, computer programming, as well as methods for assuring data quality.
The increased speed and reduced costs gained through modern map-making technology and GIS techniques are fundamentally changing the nature of cartography. New topics, particularly short-lived phenomena such as tornados, floods, or hazardous air quality can now be mapped quickly enough to be of immediate use in disaster response efforts and risk assessment. GIS technology enables planners to predict and visualize future land use patterns and determine which areas are most suitable for new development or susceptible to hazards, congestion or adverse environmental conditions.
Throughout
the history of cartography, map types have changed to reflect the needs
of the time. Thus, early maps depicted concrete, tangible features such
as coastlines, rivers, mountains, roads and towns. Later, the focus was
on the spatial distribution of environmental phenomena (such as vegetation,
soils, geology, and climate) and societal issues (such as population and
disease). Most recently, attention has shifted to short-lived phenomena
such as tornados, air pollution and floods, and to visualization of the
results of conceptual modeling of environmental phenomena such as groundwater
contamination. The trend has been one of shifting from simply mapping
obvious features to discovering relationships between different levels
and layers of geographic information.
Mapping has become more conceptual and imaginative. The scope of mapping possibilities has expanded in the process, so that at present more people find maps relevant to their life and work than ever before, and maps are being produced on demand to an ever-expanding market.
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