Beyond Mapping Meeting National Needs Through Enhanced Geographic Information Science (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C Evolution of the Mapping Sciences
Appendix C Evolution of the Mapping Sciences
Pages 81-98
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From page 81... ...
. After regular European contact with the Americas at the end of that century, the mapping sciences evolved rapidly, driven by European commercial and imperial ambitions and accompanying warfare (Black, 1997)
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From page 82... ...
Similarly, digital technology has forced comprehensive rethinking of almost all aspects of the mapping sciences during the last 30 years. In addition to making a large number of maps and map-like illustrations even more widely available than did printing, digital technology offers the further capabilities of producing highly customized maps tailored to each individual user's individual specifications, and of permitting each individual to personally produce such customized maps.
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From page 83... ...
Private firms involved in the mapping sciences, commercial map publishers, and small surveying firms lagged in accepting and employing new developments. Academic mapping scientists experimented continuously, but focused primarily on developing and updating courses that met the needs for professionals trained to use the evolving technologies employed by federal agencies.
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From page 84... ...
Core Mapping Disciplines The set of disciplines relevant to the mapping sciences has expanded in the last 30 years as a result of four developments: increased availability of affordable digital technology and data, a heightened appreciation for the analytical power of geospatial tools, increased locational accuracy and precision of data owing to the deployment of the Global Positioning System (GPS) , and increased awareness of the value of the spatial data on the part of entrepreneurs and society.
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From page 85... ...
As Prince Henry staffed his school at Sagres with specialists in the mapping technology of the time, so the national mapping agencies that evolved in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and their state and private-sector equivalents drew personnel from the core disciplines of the mapping sciences. Today, traditional national mapping agencies face unprecedented challenges as they struggle to evolve in an era of very rapid technological change.
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From page 86... ...
Mapping agencies clearly face difficult human resource issues in the coming decade that can only be addressed with a clear vision of the new nature of mapping, geospatial information, and their core disciplines. Adding Disciplines to the Mapping Sciences Five disciplines are particularly relevant to today's mapping sciences.
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From page 87... ...
As the mapping sciences have been affected by information technology, such topics have become increasingly important for two reasons. First, as geospatial information becomes more pervasive, it is essential that information be made widely available, including to the young, whose cognitive skills may not be fully developed, and to the disabled, particularly the visually impaired.
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From page 88... ...
However sound the basis for the mapping sciences as an application topics for these five disciplines, or even as the basis of an important specialty, the tradition of dividing the scientific community along well-established disciplinary lines remains a strong conservative influence. Geographic Information Science By 1991, it was evident that the cumulative force of new technologies and the engagement of new disciplines were producing a creative tension in the mapping sciences.
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From page 89... ...
Both "geomatics" and "GIScience" were coined in response to a perceived need to reshape the academic landscape of the mapping sciences. Their adoption signals a more holistic view of the mapping sciences and the need to integrate content from the disciplines that have recently joined the mapping science community.
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From page 90... ...
Today firms range from software developers to consultants and data providers, from producers of airborne digital orthophotographs to aerospace corporations deploying high-resolution Earthobserving satellites, and from local firms creating vector-based recreation maps to national data vector collection firms (e.g., Navigation Technologies or NAVTEC, Teleatlas, Geographic Data Technology)
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From page 91... ...
The private sector has created industry associations not only to promote sharing of information but also to lobby Congress and state and local governments for various causes, including increased federal funding to the private sector as contracts (e.g., Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors) and for enhancing funding for geospatial activities overall (e.g., Spatial Technology Industry Association)
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From page 92... ...
are all not-for-profit organizations, with varying abilities and inclination to lobby Congress and other governments for funding to support geospatial activities. Other nonprofits include professional societies with specific interests in geospatial data and technology (Association of American Geographers, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Geospatial Information and Technology Association, and the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association)
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From page 93... ...
census, when researchers recognized the potential to develop maps from newly available digital census data and to use GIS to analyze urban and regional issues. It carries out its mission through vendor-neutral workshops and publications.
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From page 94... ...
Army Corps of Engineers, and a geological survey of the State of Nebraska under the Interior General Land Office. 1867 The Sanborn Map Company, primary American publisher of fire insurance maps was established (http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/ sanborn/browse.html [accessed 24 May 2006]
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From page 95... ...
1899 Sanborn Map Company acquired Perris and Browne firm, and the name is changed to Sanborn Perris Map Company Ltd. until in 1902 the name was shortened to the Sanborn Map Company.
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From page 96... ...
and was called "The Rand McNally Auto Chum." Hammond and Gallup produced their own road atlases, each with its own identifiable characteristics. Clason offered an atlas featuring spectacular cover graphics that seemed particularly suited to the West.
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From page 97... ...
1973 Federal Mapping Task Force issues its report. 1974 USGS started digitizing land use and land cover maps (Geographic Information Retrieval and Analysis)
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From page 98... ...
Name later changed to GITA (Geospatial Information and Technology Association)
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