Cartography and Geographic Information Systems

Abstract

Periodically through history, cartography has been invigorated by shifts in environmental conception and advances in technology. Current forces for change are information systems thinking, emphasis on visualization, and the electronic technology of computers and telecommunications. When these forces are harnessed for environmental applications, the result is an automated geographic information system (GIS) that integrates data bases, mathematical analysis procedures, and graphical representation methods. Maps serve geographic information systems as a source of input data, a framework for spatial analysis and modeling, and an output medium. Cartography and geographic information systems influence each other, but mapping may get the best of the relation. GIS technology promises to transform cartography by changing what gets mapped, what form maps take, who makes and uses maps, and how maps are used. We can also expect a better tailoring of maps to user needs and characteristics. In the process, all involved will have to pay closer attention to the nature of cartographic representation.

Visualizing Method-Produced Uncertainty in Isometric Mapping

“…Given these results, we might naturally recommend that cartographers employ the smallest gridding interval possible for interpolation so that more stable isometric maps will result. The fact that kriging and IDW show stable but very different representations of hardiness zone boundaries at fine gridding intervals supports the assertion that stability does not necessarily equal truth (but see MacEachren, 1995;Muehrcke, 1990). Moreover, changes in a variety of other parameters, such as search sector size, weighting exponent, or semi-variogram model, may produce even different patterning when fine gridding intervals are used in the interpolation process.…”

“…Visual stability is related to the concept of map stability (Muehrcke, 1990). It refers to the extent that visually detectable differences are found between isometric maps when different interpolation techniques or specifications are applied to the same set of control points.…”

Decision-Making with Conflicting Cartographic Information: The Case of Groundwater Vulnerability Maps

“…This issue became apparent during a project that investigated the use of GIS for implementing three different groundwater vulnerability models from the same data set (Rader and Janke, 1995). Different representations of groundwater vulnerability effectively illustrate the use of multiple views as suggested by Tufte (1990), Muehrcke (1990), and Monmonier (1991), since maps produced with these models supposedly represent 'similar' information. However, the maps (see Figure 1.)…”

“…Wood (1992, 186) suggests that presenting multiple "relationships constituted by the interplay of the data" is a desirable artifact of the mapping process. Muehrcke (1990) has extended this discussion to include the idea of "map stability." Map stability refers to whether or not changes in the way data are processed or symbolized have an impact on the message perceived.…”

Animation and the Role of Map Design in Scientific Visualization

“…A general strategy for creating multiple representations may be to decrease, rather than increase, realism. As Muehrcke (1990) states, "it is abstraction, not realism, that gives maps their unique power." Later in this paper we show how the dynamic variables introduced by animation enable analysts to use time in abstract ways that complement spatially abstract maps in enhancing visual thinking in geography.…”