Maplines 0413 by The British Cartographic Society

BCS Design Group pages 4-6

Mapping the Vatican See page 7

Following the Meridian pages 8-9

BCS Symposium 2013 pages 12-13

Spring 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ÂŁ3.00

From the Editors Hello, and a very warm welcome to this Spring issue of Maplines. With the Societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 50th anniversary preparations well under way, I was given a timely reminder of how cartography has changed over the decades when a relative of mine visited our office recently. She was truly fascinated by the modern map making process as a whole, and she was introduced to concepts such as photogrammetry and digital editing. She was also given a tour of the equipment of yesteryear, vast iron photogrammetry machines come to mind as well as boxes of ever decreasing nib sizes and tools with which to use them.

It is difficult for myself to imagine how large map sheets were produced before the advent of computer technology and I am not wholly sure I am keen to learn! Give me a computer any day. But where computers have improved the margin for error in mapmaking, cartographers of today are merely faced with different challenges. The sheer quantity of data available means that computing power is simply stretched to meet the demands of the modern map consumer. The article on pages 8 and 9 is testament to that, for a 600GB dataset would have been impossible to imagine for cartographers of perhaps 15 years ago! Adam On behalf of Lynda, Adam and Martin. Maplines Editors

Being an artist by trade (and hence something of a purist!) she was immediately drawn to the remaining examples of how the maps were produced prior to computers and the second age of enlightenment! As a relatively young cartographer myself I too listened in on the lesson she was being given by one of my more senior colleagues. It struck me how much things have changed in our profession over the past 50 years, since the Society was first founded. Edtorial Contact details: Senior Editor: Lynda Bailey Editor: Adam King Editor, Design & Production: Martin Lubikowski

Deadline for copy for the Summer 2013 edition is 4th June 2013. The views expressed in Maplines are those of the Editors and Contributors and not necessarily those of the BCS. If you would like to sponsor the Maplines Quiz please contact the Editors. ÂŠ The British Cartographic Society 2013

maplines.editors@gmail.com The Magazine of the British Cartographic Society

Volume 19, 1st Issue, Spring 2013 Registered Charity No. 240034

Illustrations and photography in this issue Front cover p.2 Lynda Bailey p.4-6 On application to Maplines Editors p.7 By permission of Gizi Map p.8-9 The Survey Association p.10-11 The individual portrait images are copyrighted to the various mapping agencies respectively p.16 Alison Hardcastle and Angus McArthur; Lynda Bailey

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Consider this a shop window to promote your company, event, course or publication to the mapping community. For more details contact the Editors:

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STOP PRESS

Practice makes perfect... Anyone who remembers Senior Editor Lynda out and about with her camera at past Symposia & Fellows Evenings, recording the atmosphere and events for Maplines, please read on... Participating in her first season in South London photography club competitions, Lynda has won several individual awards and certificates and is now a regular contributor to the inter-club team entries from her club. Thanks to some very patient BCS members, all the time and opportunities taken by Lynda to practise her photography in the field has certainly paid off! Thank you!

2 â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2013 / Maplines

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Notes from our President

ith all of the modern technology that is available to us, we tend to imagine that the whole world has now been mapped and that the great age of discovery has passed. A new project, ‘Bedmap2’, has reminded us that there are still parts of our planet about which we know relatively little. The project run by the British Antarctic Survey set out to establish the volume of ice in Antarctica and perhaps more interestingly to cartographers, the most accurate map yet of Antarctica’s land mass. I always have a vision of Antarctica as a massive frozen wasteland with the odd mountain peak poking through the immense glaciers; I think we tend to forget that there is a huge landmass beneath the ice and snow. Several features of the bed have been revealed for the first time including a new deepest point. The bed under the Byrd Glacier in Victoria Land is 2,870 metres below sea level making it the lowest point on any of the Earth's continental plates.

Mapping something that you can’t see is an interesting challenge, one that requires a high level of technological input in order to make it understandable. But for people who can’t see, or have limited vision, then even a standard map is inaccessible to them. Sensory mapping is one of the topics that we will be examining at the Annual Symposium in September. The details for the Symposium are starting to come together and the draft programme will be issued shortly. I am pleased to be able to announce that the heads of the national mapping organisation have all responded positively to an invitation to present at the Symposium. We have allocated a session on Wednesday afternoon where we will be able to hear their reflections on the last 50 years within their own organisations and a glimpse of what they see happening in the future. Events to help celebrate our 50th anniversary have started well; we

are building up a head of steam. As I write this the Design Special Interest Group is about to hold a one day workshop to which they have invited speakers who do not have a traditional cartographic background, but work very closely with maps. Their take on how maps inspire us will I am sure be both fascinating and instructive. Our first big event of the year, the talk by Michael Palin at the RGS will also have taken place before this drops through your letterbox or arrives in your in-tray. I am confident that I can say now that it will have been a wonderfully entertaining evening to hear him talk about ‘My Life in Maps’. Anyone who has seen his many travel programmes on TV will have picked up on his enthusiasm and those of us old enough to have watched Month Python will remember his whacky humour. Those who have heard him speak, tell of his relaxed and engaging attitude, so I am sure that it will have ensured that our year is off to a cracking start. One of the projects that we have been working on for the 50th anniversary is a commemorative book to be published later this year. The idea is to look at the major news stories that have happened over the last 50 years and choose a map to illustrate the story: one UK topic and one world topic. It will also include a history

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

of the Society, so watch out for the pre-publication information and then get your order in quickly. In an attempt to ensure that we are making the most of modern social media to advertise and promote the BCS, I have signed up for a Twitter account and will try to be a regular ‘tweeter’ – if it’s good enough for Steven Fry then it’s good enough for me. For fellow tweeters, you can follow me @geomapnut. So far I have 12 followers! I will try to tweet regularly with what is going on in and around the Society, but also make sure that you keep an eye on the website and my monthly reflections which come out by e-mail. Pete Jones BCS President

Calling all Corporate Members

Share your projects and successes with Maplines readers. Send your copy for the Corporate page to: maplines.editors@gmail.com Maplines / Spring 2013 • 3

WARnIng! VIRAl MEMES CAn SERIOuSly AlTER yOuR WORldVIEW

ichard Dawkins is famous for his book ‘The Selfish Gene’, and for his recent attacks on organised religion, but what, you might well ask, has he got to do with cartography? The link is his ideas concerning ‘memes’. The ‘meme’ – as opposed to the ‘gene’ – is the concept of self-replicating units of cultural imitation that thrive in brains or the products of brains (books, computers, web-sites, etc.). Dawkins regards memes as a form of cultural DNA and uses this concept to explain how a particular set of ideas about the world might come to flourish in specific populations – although he is careful to state that the ‘meme pool’ is not organised in the same consistent

4 • Spring 2013 / Maplines

manner as the ‘gene pool’.

Maps, if you accept this idea, are ‘meme-carriers’, just as you, I and other living organisms are both gene and meme machines. What units of imitation are involved? A good example, in terms of cartography, is the ‘Eurocentric meme’ – the concept that Europe is the economic, geopolitical and cultural pivot of the world. This is a hegemonic construct, reinforcing an ideal of the superiority of Western ideals. This is itself a mutant of an earlier meme, the Christian worldview centred on Jerusalem, as exemplified by various medieval Tin-O maps. The Eurocentric meme is so embedded in our culture that

we find other representations, especially ‘turn-about’ maps (with south at the top) or sino-centric worldviews, distinctly odd. Even Arno Peters, author of the (in)famous Peters projection, could not bring himself to challenge this dominant worldview by inverting his map – memes have an incredible hold on the mind!

Eurocentric world maps are a good example of a dominant meme, but can cartographers learn lessons from images closer to Dawkins’ concerns with the evolution of life on earth? The answer is yes. Dawkins himself notes that the ‘dominant icon of evolution [shows] a shambling file of simian ancestors, rising

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Design Group progressively in the wake of the erect, striding, majestic figure of Homo sapiens: man as evolution’s last word (and in this context it is always man rather than woman)’. This imagery could be described as the ‘andropocentric meme’ – ‘man’ as the inevitable end-product of evolution – its ‘be all and end all’. This has clear echoes in cartography’s conventions of ethno-centrism and orientation which privilege Europe on most contemporary world maps. The person who, perhaps, has done the most to bring to public attention the role of imagery in creating a biased and andropocentric view of life on earth is the late, great essayist, Stephen J Gould, who died in 2002. Gould, paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, used the generic term ‘canonical images’ to describe images representing an ‘authorised’ or hegemonic viewpoint. The term originates from religious ‘canon law’, but may now be taken to represent any authoritative position. Gould’s particular concern was the manner in which images are used to explain scientific ideas, but also to impose socio-cultural meanings; such as the biased view that ‘progress’ is inherent in evolution and the ego-centric idea that life reaches its pinnacle in humans. This meme is re-presented through various graphic devices, for example The Parade of Life - a key canonical representation of evolution as progressive and inevitably leading to modern ‘man’ (Homo sapiens). Gould notes that this image is entirely misleading, displaying supposedly primitive or lower life-forms being replaced in tableaux as the ‘torch of novelty passed to higher vertebrates’. In this classic imagery, the Age of Fish is replaced by the Age of Reptiles, which are in turn displaced by the Mammals, with ‘man’ at the apex. This ignores the fact that many major life forms have continued to evolve and diversify, while hominids have not! Any honest representation, based on diversity, could legitimately represent the current age as the Age of Fish, with over fifty-percent of living

vertebrates represented by the teleosti - the higher bony fish – while humans represent the only extant hominid – a mere twig on the bushy shrub of life. Unfortunately, humanbiased images abound in books of popular science as well as more formal educational formats. The classic example is Charles R. Knight’s Parade of life Through the Ages in the classic February 1942 issue of The National Geographic Magazine in which four of the twenty colour plates (showing the whole history of life on earth) are devoted to modern hominids. This basic graphic conceit continues to dominate educational graphics to date. Images of the ‘parade of life’ are the cartographic equivalent of an atlas. If a simple, single graphic were to be picked as the equivalent to the Eurocentric world map, there would be two contenders, the classic ‘tree of life’, and graphics representing the evolution of ‘man’ from ‘his’ ape ancestors (females are rarely shown). The ‘tree of life’ is generally regarded as an uncontroversial image of evolution as a branching process. It has, however, often been represented as culminating in ‘man’. This meme has its origins in Ernst Haeckel’s classic graphic representations of evolution (he was an early supporter of Darwin’s theories). His tree of life famously places us at the apex. This image retains its power and includes recent recycling by influential people like

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

David Attenborough in his Tree of Life video to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species, and the Open University/BBC Tree of Life poster - which ironically shows the end product of evolution as Darwin himself! This remains a very potent meme of the progressive nature of evolution and of human egocentrism. The other representation of the androcentric meme is the oft recycled image of the evolution of humans from their ape forebears. The classic image shows ancestral apes slowly morphing into upright, modern ‘man’ – almost inevitably a male Caucasian, very often blond, compared to the preceding black haired stages that connote a more primitive condition, and in some cases clothed in European fashion! This meme has at least been open to many satirical re-workings, with the crouching form of the ape forebears ‘evolving’ into upright humans, before finally degenerating into back into hunched figures over computers or games consoles! A classic example of where map and ‘evolutionary’ graphics meet is the map supplement to the Graphic (July 1886) showing the Imperial Federation – the British Empire in 1886. This map’s margins display the people of the empire gazing on Britannia; she sits centrally, astride the globe, her trident a north arrow drawing the eye to the British Isles Maplines / Spring 2013 • 5

Design Group

at centre stage. Art confirms the ‘natural order’. Further viewing unearths other forms of visual hierarchy, for example, a British soldier/explorer holds chained a submissive tiger representing both European dominion over nature and Asia, while behind him, bent under bales of produce, are two ‘natives’ of the sub-continent. This is all too redolent of the ‘march of evolution’ discussed above, with the ‘superior’ European at the fore-front, in this case, of economic and social rather than evolutionary progress. All of these worldviews, reproduced by viral memes, could be deemed to be infections of the brain. Infection can mean ‘to influence the mood or emotions of people’, but its broader meaning ‘to taint; to corrupt’ is also relevant to the subliminal ‘viral’ influence of the propaganda contained in hegemonic images. What is our duty as cartographers and others involved in producing or studying information graphics? It must, at the very least, involve an awareness of the connotations implicit in the representations we create and perpetuate, if not an active attempt to combat misrepresentation. Go forth and reproduce (carefully)! Prof. Peter Vujaković, Ecology Research Group, Department of Geographical and Life Sciences Canterbury Christ Church University (UK).

6 • Spring 2013 / Maplines

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Vatican mapping

t the end of January, the BCS had a stand at the DGI Conference at the QE II Centre in London. A first time exhibitor there from the mapping community was Gizella Bassa, a cartographer and the manager of Gizi Map based in Hungary. Gizi Map has been in IMTA, now IMIA (International Map Industry Association) for many years. The company produces maps covering a wide area, broadly covering the landmass from Eastern Europe, North Africa, through the Middle East to China. But one map caught my attention - ‘Vatican City’. On reflection I thought I’d write a few words about it for Maplines, so I ordered a copy of the map from Amazon and was given a delivery timescale of 3-12 days. However, to meet the copy date for the Maplines Editors I needed the map in three days rather than twelve. As luck would have it, I had a meeting in London, at the three-day point so what could be better than to pay a visit to Stanfords in Long Acre and buy a copy of ‘Vatican City’ off-the-shelf. What impressed me about this map was the level of detail. Detail that one would normally expect to find in a guide book expressed using text and small graphics was instead included on a map sheet 98 by 67.5

Historical Mapping

cm which, as you might expect, folds down to 24 by 13cm. You may think that this map would be somewhat unwieldy to use in a confined space surrounded by others but because of the layout this should not be the case. The main map is a map of the Vatican City at a scale of 1:2250. The other maps on the sheet are: a map of Rome at 1:30,000, maps of the Grottoes, Necropolis, both of which contain tombs which are suitably labelled, and Saint Peter’s Basilica at 1:1250 where all the monuments, chapels, altars etc. are comprehensively labelled too. Finally, there is a very detailed diagram of the Sistine Chapel on which the scenes on the ceiling are labelled as are the stories of Christ and Moses on the walls together with the names of previous Popes. So, might what we call ‘conventional maps’ that include large scale maps and detailed diagrams of specific locations and buildings be a competitor to guide books and, of course, ‘apps’? In any case, the ‘Vatican City’ map is impressive and very shortly I shall have two of them!

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Peter Jolly Immediate Past President

Maplines / Spring 2013 • 7

Mapping the Meridian

apping the Meridian is a legacy of the London Mapping Festival 2011-2012. The concept, design and implementation are all thanks to two of the festival’s most active supporters: The Survey Association (TSA) and Topcon. TSA were one of the first and most enthusiastic supporters of the LMF ethos to increase public awareness of mapping techniques. They were keen to participate to the full and see what they could do to engage their members in the festival as well as the general public. Working with the LMF team a series of ideas for mass participation events were discussed. Some of these were sensible, others, to be honest were ludicrous and almost as immediately dismissed. When one of the TSA’s members, Topcon, a major international manufacturer and supplier of precise positioning and survey solutions, became a supporter of the LMF they were keen to be involved in this developing idea. Topcon visited TSA and suggested an idea that at first

sounded somewhat bizarre and unattainable. The idea was to map the Meridian Yorkshire to Sussex collecting spherical imagery and point cloud data using Topcon’s IP-S2 mobile-mapping vehicle. The data that would be collected would be XYZ laser point cloud data and panoramic images which would be freely available and accessible to all as a legacy of LMF. The idea was exciting but the logistics of such a plan was daunting. Although it was originally envisaged that the data could be launched at a one-off event in Greenwich Park, it soon became apparent that better publicity could be gained for a world wide audience by the use of the Internet and social media platforms. The public is now much more aware of this type of data presentation since the development of Google Earth and similar online applications and it was envisaged that a data set along the line of the Meridian would therefore appeal to a vast number of people. Having decided on this course of action, Topcon set about planning and collection of the data.

How it was undertaken

Following the line of the Meridian as closely as possible, a route along public roads was mapped out from Yorkshire to East Sussex. The route measured 320 kilometres in length and remarkably the largest distance away from the line of the Meridian using public roads, turned out to be just 4 kilometres. Topcon’s IP-S2 mobile-mapping vehicle was then driven the length of the line. The IP-S2, mobile survey system, incorporates state-of-the-art sensing technologies, including high-precision 8 • Spring 2013 / Maplines

GNSS receivers, IMU (inertial measurement unit), vehicle wheel encoders, 360° digital video camera and laser scanners. While driving the system-mounted vehicle at normal traffic speeds, the systems simultaneously collect precise vehicle position/bearing data and capture spherical imagery of roadside objects such as pavements, buildings, tunnels, bridges and overpasses. Whilst, the IP-S2 acquires highresolution point cloud data of objects using laser scanners that make more precise analysis possible. Along the route the vehicle collected eighty thousand panoramic images as well as the XYZ laser point cloud data. Amazingly it only took a total of just two and a half days to drive the route and collect the data, including going through the centre of London.

The result & potential

The result was a 600GB dataset. Traditionally, processing time of vast datasets caused a bottleneck in the production process. Today’s technology allows processing to be undertaken at a 1:1 ratio with data collection meaning the data was processed in just two and half days. It was then published online using Orbit’s Mobile Mapping Publisher, allowing the data to be accessed using any standard web browser. The data is now available for viewing at: www.mappingthemeridian.com and is available for use in non commercial projects by anyone. To encourage use within the younger generation it was decided that a competition should be launched. Class of Your Own, an organisation dedicated to bringing real world examples of architecture,

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Meridian mapping project

for the London Mapping Festival engineering and construction industry to the classroom were invited to lead this project. They devised a competition for primary school children based on collecting information from the final data set. The schools competition is now in full flow with eighty five schools close to the line of the Meridian being invited to submit an entry. They will be required to use the data to determine some local geographic data and the position of the Meridian in relation to their school. All submissions will be rewarded with a copy of Dava Sobel’s book “Longitude.” The first three placed schools will all be awarded prizes of survey equipment provided by Topcon. The future Today digital maps and databases form an essential infrastructure to all sectors of society. They are used throughout the professional and

business markets, as supplements to social activities and for personal use. As the digital age is dynamic this has brought with it a greater demand for more currency of the information displayed within the map and stored in the database. Conventional methods of collecting such data, using diverse kinds of surveying instruments and a number of operators, takes considerable time, labour and cost. The novel project of Mapping the Meridian has illustrated how high resolution data for over 320 kilometres can be collected processed and available within a week. The question this poses is how can this data be used by the cartographer to update existing maps? To help investigate the options and the opportunities, Topcon has kindly agreed to join The GeoInformation Group to discuss this within a workshop (see left) at the Symposium.

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

The data collected during Mapping the Meridian data will be used as a case study. It is hoped that this workshop will be a starting point for cartographers to become aware of benefits of point cloud data for map update, whilst the surveying company can appreciate the requirements of the cartographer when processing this data. The Survey Association

To find out more about the workshop visit: www.cartography.org.uk/symposium To find out more about Mapping the Meridian visit www.mappingthemeridian.com

Maplines / Spring 2013 • 9

UKCC Report

uch of this issue’s column focuses on activities of the Commission on Map Design and the Commission on Generalisation and Multiple Representation; thanks to Ken Field and William Mackaness for these contributions. It has been a busy period, with preparations for the International Cartographic Conference in August to the fore. Many UK based ICA Commission members are involved in refereeing papers for the conference, and I have been organising the UK contributions to the map exhibitions and Petchenik Children’s Map Exhibition. Overall the response has been disappointing with many major players in UK cartography not being represented, but there are some very interesting and unusual exhibits. It is planned to display the exhibits at the BCS Symposium in September. By the time you read this, early registration for ICC2013 will be passed, but it is still possible to register for this major international event. In addition to the main conference, there will be a large number of pre-conference workshops and meetings. These are an ideal way to get involved in the ICA as they are usually free or inexpensive and there is something catering for virtually all cartographic interests. For more information see www.icc2013.org.

Commission on Map design The Commission is chaired by Ken Field of the UK, with vice-chairs Anja Hopfstock (Germany), Bernhard Jenny (USA) and Alex Kent (UK). In the last year, the Commission has contributed workshops at the 2012 British Cartographic Society Annual Symposium in June and held a meeting at the ESRI International User Conference in San Diego in July. Additionally, the Commission hosted a paper session at the GeoCart 2012 conference in Auckland, New Zealand where a presentation on Map Design from the ICA standpoint was delivered by the Commission chair (and editor of The Cartographic Journal) Kenneth Field. 10 • Spring 2013 / Maplines

At the NACIS conference in Portland, Oregon, vice-chair Bernie Jenny organised a series of sessions on the aesthetics of mapping which were co-sponsored and promoted by the Commission. This was well attended and led to some excellent debate and discussion. As a consequence of the meeting, a Special issue of Cartographic Perspectives is now scheduled for 2013 with authors predominantly comprising those who participated in the NACIS sessions. Volume 49, issue 4 of The Cartographic Journal was a Special issue on Cognition, Representation and Behaviour that formed out of the sessions organised in conjunction with the ICA Commission on Cognitive Visualisation at the Association of American Geographers in 2012. Chair Kenneth Field has organised a series of 3 sessions at the forthcoming 2013 AAG conference in Los Angeles focusing on map Design and Neocartography. These sessions are being run in conjunction with the Commission on Neocartography and will showcase a wide range of contemporary research in these related areas. There are also advanced plans for a joint workshop prior to ICC2013 in Dresden.

Commission on generalisation and Multiple Representation The Commission is chaired by Dirk Burghardt of Germany, supported by Cecile Duchene (France) and William Mackaness (UK). Currently the Commission is working on an edited book entitled: ‘Abstracting geographic information in a data rich world: methodologies and applications of map generalisation’. The book is a collection of 'connected' commissioned chapters, exploring theoretical and practical solutions and is considered as a companion to the ICA book published in 2007 entitled Generalisation of Geographic Information: Cartographic Modelling and Applications. Nearly 50 researchers and practitioners from the ICA Generalisation Commission are involved; a contract with Springer has been signed with publication expected around August of 2013.

The Commission continues to develop its links with National Mapping Agencies (NMA). As part of this process, an NMA Symposium, co-organised with the EuroSDR Commission on Data Specifications, is planned on the topic ‘Designing MRDB and multi-scale DCMs: sharing experience between NMAs’ (http://generalisation.icaci.org/index.p hp/activities/12-next-eventsdetails/48-nma-symposium-2013general). The symposium will take place from 21-22 March 2013, in Barcelona, Spain and will be hosted by the Institut Cartografic de Catalunya. The symposium will focus on workflow solutions based on the utilisation of MRDB as well as reviews of current practices and software environments. Over 10 NMAs from across Europe plan to attend. In the tradition of pre-conference workshops in association with the International Cartographic Conference (ICC) in conjunction with the ICA Commission on Map Production and Geo-Business, the Commission will organise a workshop in Dresden, Germany, 23-24 August, 2013. In addition to the research focused workshop, in order to broaden the outreach of the Commission and engage with practicing cartographers, a one day tutorial will take place prior to the ICA Conference 2013 in Dresden on Sunday 25th of August. This is the fourth time this event has been run, and this year will draw on material from the new generalisation book. The Commission is always keen to link up with other Commissions and continues to work closely with NMAs and geo-business. All information regarding the activities of the Commission are available via the website http://generalisation.icaci.org. David Forrest Chair, UK Committee for Cartography

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Omnium Gatherum new KickMap App of the london underground

Monitoring the World’s forests

Look out for the new KickMap App for the London Underground. It incorporates fluid scrolling and looks beautiful. It adds detail like neighbourhoods and landmarks only when zoomed in, preserving a simpler, less cluttered map when zoomed out. It also uses the phone’s GPS to locate the nearest station. Having just downloaded one, it is highly recommended. It costs only £0.69 and is a universal iPhone/iPad app.

An new online map that tracks in near real-time the vegetation area of all the world's forests simultaneously will launch later this year, after a preview was shown at a United Nations summit recently. Called "Global Forest Watch 2.0," the map is a project years in the making led by the World Resources Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on ecological issues. They designed the map to help monitor and stop illegal forest clearing and deforestation by loggers and ranchers around the globe.

Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral

Global Forest Watch 2.0 relies on a combination of data points to achieve this feat, including imagery captured by NASA's recently launched earth-gazing Landsat 8 satellite and a Brazilian system for monitoring the Amazon rainforest that analyzes each pixel of satellite data for minute changes.

nASA has released a free-air gravity map of the Moon: ‘If the Moon were a perfectly smooth sphere of uniform density, the gravity map would be a single color indicating that the force of gravity at a given elevation was the same everywhere. But the Moon has both a bumpy surface and a lumpy interior. The free-air gravity map shows deviations from the mean.’ Gravity data is from the GRAIL mission, the digital elevation model by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter laser altimeter. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. The KickMap App and the NASA moon articles are courtesy of Jonathan Crowe of The Map Room

Map Curators’ group Annual Workshop

To mark the BCS's 50th Anniversary celebrations, the Map Curators’ Group (MCG) will hold its Annual Workshop at Hothorpe Hall, Theddingworth, Leicester, on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th September 2013 as part of the Symposium: Mapping 2013: Today, tomorrow and beyond (see page 12-13). Further information is also available at www.cartography.org.uk The MCG 2013 Workshop theme will be: Then and now: the changing face of map curatorship Presentations to be given at the Workshop, on the following themes: • • • •

a miscellaneous collection of people and things

Retrospectives of individual map collections. Historical aspects of map curatorship and librarianship. Recent initiatives in map collections. Future developments in map collections. Ann Sutherland, Convener, Map Curatorsí Group ann.m.sutherland@talk21.com Paula Williams p.williams@nls.uk

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

On a recent visit to Hereford Cathedral I saw an excellent example of a meme as mentioned in our Design Group article on page 4. The Mappa Mundi is an example of the medieval Christian view of the world that lasted until the Florentine Renaissance. It is well worth visiting this beautiful ancient example of our craft.

Lost Rivers of London #13 Beverley Brook: rising at Cuddington Recreation Park in Worcester Park, Beverley Brook flows through Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park and Barnes and joins the Thames at Barn Elms, near Putney Bridge. Its name derives from the presence of the European beaver, extinct in Britain since the 16th century. Courtesy of www.strangemaps.wordpress.com

Contributions to Omnium Gatherum are always welcome. If you have any map-related stories, facts or announcements please send them to the editors on the Editors’ email address, see page 2.

Maplines / Spring 2013 • 11

Today, Tomorrow and Beyond… This year the Symposium returns to its birthplace... Hothorpe Hall Within the year of anniversary celebrations the centrepiece is our annual Symposium. The previous 49 Symposia have visited locations across the UK as far north as Aberdeen, south as Plymouth, east as Cambridge and west as Aberystwyth. This year we are returning to Leicestershire, for a fourth visit, at a date in September, as this was where and when the first Symposium was held in 1963. Our venue, Hothorpe Hall, Theddingworth, Lutterworth, Leicestershire has a fascinating history and is thought to date back to 900AD when it was known as Ude-torp. Ude, a Danish Viking leader navigated his 80 foot longboat from the Wash along the River Welland about as far as Marston Trussell. The current manor house was built in 1799 with a chapel added in 1891. The site has a varied history including being a home for London’s evacuated children during the second world war. Since 1984 Hothorpe has operated as a 12 • Spring 2013 / Maplines

conference centre and has been sympathetically renovated to provide the excellent facilities that are there today. Today, Tomorrow and Beyond...

The theme of our 50th Symposium is ‘Today, Tomorrow and Beyond…’ reflecting the Society’s forward looking vision for the future of cartography. The Symposium will follow a similar format to previous years including formal presentation sessions and workshops. This year however there are a few additional treats in store as we celebrate our golden anniversary. The highlight of the Symposium must be the keynotes session ‘The future for the UK world leaders in mapping’. For which we are delighted to announce that all of the following senior executives have kindly accepted our invitation to present:

1 Vanessa lawrence, Director General, Ordnance Survey 2 Paul Hancock, Director, Defence Geographic Centre

3 John Wilkinson, Chief Executive, Land and Property Services Northern Ireland 4 Ian Moncrieff CBE, Chief Executive UKHO

5 Professor John ludden, Executive Director, British Geological Survey This session, being held on Wednesday 4th September is probably the most important two and half hours of conference held in the UK this year on the future of mapping. ‘The heads of five British Mapping and Charting agencies coming together in one session to discuss how their organisations have changed over the last 50 years shows just how important maps are today in our rapidly changing and increasingly digital society.’ Peter Jones, BCS President

A Week of Activities: Presentations and Workshops The week of activities will start on Tuesday 3rd September when the Map Curators Group, GIS and

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Symposium 2013 Design Special Interest Groups will hold their workshops. The Map Curators Group will focus on Then and now: the changing face of map curatorship; whilst the GIS and Design SIGs are joining forces to present on GIS: Good Design Matters. In the evening the commercial exhibition will open with a wine reception followed by the biennial Helen Wallis Memorial Lecture. We are very pleased to announce that Nick Millea, Map Librarian, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford will present this lecture. The title will be Today, tomorrow and beyond: can the past project cartography into the future? The Symposium runs from Wednesday 4th September to Thursday 5th September. The call for papers this year has been extremely successful and we hope there will be something for everyone within the fascinating programme of presentations and workshops from all sectors of the mapping community. The four presentation sessions are: l Technology and Map Design l Mapping Technologies for Tomorrow l Mapping for the Challenges of Tomorrow l The Future for Mapping, Databases and Standards Workshops cover a range of topics including: l The Changing Fashion of Map Design l Mapping the Swiss Way l Point Cloud Data for Map Update There is also the opportunity for delegates to experience the Restless Earth workshop which the Society has been successfully running for Year 9-11 students for the past four years. Sponsors

Platinum and gold Over the recent months Corporate Members have been asked to sponsor the Symposium and the

anniversary year. To date nine corporate members have become sponsors and we would like to thank them for their generosity. The Platinum Sponsors are Cadcorp, Esri UK, Leica Geosystems, Newgrove, STAR-APIC, The GeoInformation Group and Victoria Litho. These sponsors will be contributing to the Symposium programme with presentations and workshops on future mapping, public service mapping and technological developments. gold Sponsors HarperCollins and Ordnance Survey.

Corporate Members are still welcome to become sponsors for more information contact Alan Grimwade, the Corporate Liaison Officer.

Booking details and Information We do hope that you will be able to join us at Hothorpe. Members will receive a flyer advertising the event and further information can be found at www.cartography.org.uk/symposium

Over the next few months the website will be populated as the talks and programme is confirmed. An early bird discount will apply to the booking, closing at the beginning of June. Accommodation at the venue is limited to 55 rooms therefore we recommend early booking to reserve your place. For additional accommodation we will source local hotels and provide a shuttle service for any delegates staying offsite. Likewise a transport may be arranged for those arriving by train. Details will be available upon booking. We look forward to welcoming you to Hothorpe to join in the 50th celebrations.

Peter Jolly Chair of Programme Committee

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Maplines / Spring 2013 â&#x20AC;˘ 13

Special Interest Groups

HMMg CORPORATE

irst of all, a big thank you to those of you that have sponsored this year’s BCS events. We have had an excellent response and your support is greatly appreciated. As you will be aware 2013 has a packed programme, make sure you don’t miss out. I would encourage you to submit advertising, articles and press releases for inclusion in Maplines, an effective way to communicate with the cartographic community. On 1st April 2010 the Ordnance Survey released

some of their data under the brand OS OpenData. This was greeted with a mixed reaction; some groups and individuals had campaigned for this to happen, but for others it was not the best news. Now, three years on, it would be interesting to have your thoughts on how our industry has been affected. Has there been a positive or negative impact on your business? Maybe you had invested a lot of time and money creating copyright free data, only to have the same made freely available. Or maybe it opened up new business opportunities previously unachievable. Please let me know your thoughts and I will feedback the results.

Forthcoming Events

Sat 22 June

Several HMMG members will be speaking at a historical mapping seminar at Hermitage, Berkshire, hosted by the DSA. All HMMG members are cordially invited to attend. Among the speakers will be Adrian Webb on hydrography, Chris Halsall on aerial photography, Ted Rose on geological maps, Richard Chesney on moving maps and Alastair Macdonald on boundary disputes.

Sat 5 - Sun 6 October

2013 is both the 50th anniversary of the BCS and the 70th anniversary of the Dams Raid. It is intended to hold a study weekend in Lincolnshire to look at the RAF, charting, photographic interpretation and modelling. Plans are still to be finalised but it is suggested we arrive on Friday evening at the Petwood Hotel, which was 617's Mess during the war, with talk(s) that evening (Dams Raid?), a Saturday morning visit to Scampton then to East Kirkby to catch a taxi ride by the Lancaster if one is taking place that day. We will continue with talk(s) on Saturday evening (Hamburg or Augsburg Raid?).

14 • Spring 2013 / Maplines

On Sunday we visit Waddington and/or Digby, drive past RAF College Cranwell to visit Newark Air Museum

Alan Grimwade BCS Corporate Liaison Officer alangrimwade@cosmographics.co.uk

and have lunch before we hit the A1 for the drive south. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Visitor Centre at Coningsby is closed most weekends. At the moment the BBMF programme has not been finalised for October so we do not know if they are flying that weekend. East Kirkby Aviation Museum is not open on Sundays. Scampton have just relocated their museum to 617’s hangar and they have refurbished Gibson’s office. It can be arranged for the Digby Ops Room museum to be opened for us that weekend. If the emphasis is purely on Bomber Command, then the Waddington Heritage Centre is a must. Waddington had the largest number of losses in Bomber Command, it was the station chosen for the introduction of the Manchester and then the Lancaster, whilst Scampton is unique in that there were three aircrew who were awarded VCs flying from there, including Nettleton on the Augsburg Raid, the first big raid of the Lancaster Force. For further information and expressions of interest about either event, please contact me. John Peaty Convenor Historical Military Mapping Group johnpeaty@aol.com

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

BCS Administration Report

Subscriptions for 2013 are now overdue All members who renew their membership subscriptions by credit card, cheque etc (except for Standing Orders) were sent membership renewal letters in December 2011 and so far there has been a good response, but there are still quite a few members whose subscriptions are still outstanding, so please do not delay – RENEW NOW! Members have a choice of four methods of payment: l

our new more secure on-line payment system at www.cartography.org.uk and on the home page click on Renew Now. personal cheque payable to The British Cartographic Society. (Or for overseas members a Sterling Draft payable in London) Visa/Mastercard/Delta credit/debit card. You can do this over the phone to the Admin Office (0115 9328684) Standing Order (UK bank account holders only)

In May a final reminder email/letter will be sent to all members whose subscriptions are still outstanding and, if payment has not been received by 1 July 2013, their names will be removed from the society mailing lists for The Cartographic Journal and Maplines and, finally, suspension from the Society. Membership Members may be interest to note that at the end of 2012 the society had 628 current members. 48 members had their membership suspended for non-payment of subscriptions, this was slightly offset by the 74 new members joining throughout the year. This year has started off well with 25 new members joining since January. new members The Society has the pleasure of welcoming the following new members who have joined since the publication of the Winter 2012 Edition of Maplines.

BCS Admin Corporate Members: Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Chipping Norton School, Geographers A-Z Map Company Ltd, 135 Independent Geographic Squadron (V) RE, National Geographic Maps. UK Members: Miss S Ackers, Dr P Agarwal, Mr J A Cross, Mr S R Dodd, Mr P Davies, Ms C J Edwards, Mr R F Ellis, Mr M A Evans, Dr G Frigieri, Mr B Ghubril, Mr P C Harmston, Mr S Harrison, Mrs S Holmes, Dr D J Hunter, Mr S Jeffery, Mrs E. Kerhouant, Mr I F Macey, Mr A D Macnair, Mr J Mansfield, Ms K McLean, Mr C J Nelson, Miss C C Newman, Mr D Pal, Mrs S Patton. Ms G Perkins, Mr J G Peters, Overseas Members: Dr F. O'Cionnaith, Mr Cheng Wang. UK Associate Members: Miss M A Beavis, Mr D Hall, Adam Hill, Mr J G Marshall, Mr C J Smith

BCS Council You will find enclosed in this issue of Maplines a form for nominating members to the BCS Council. Council is the Society’s governing body and it is vital for the Society that it consists of a fair representation of the membership so that it can clearly reflect the diversity of the Society. The Society’s President and Vice President are keen to get new Council members on board to help achieve the strategic objectives and to strengthen the Society. Council must be a dynamic body where lively debate on how to take the Society forward can take place. Please consider carefully what role you could play within the Society, and whether you would wish to stand for election to Council this year. Meetings are held three times a year in London with an additional meeting at each Symposium. Expenses are paid for attendance at meetings and to cover other costs resulting directly from Society business. The next election will take place at the AGM in November. If you wish to stand, please find two members who are willing to propose and second you,

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and ensure the enclosed form is completed and returned to the address on the form by 1 September 2013. Forms can be mailed or faxed. If you want more information about what it might involve, or if you wish to stand but need help in contacting other members to nominate you, please contact me at BCS Administration.

And finally... When you receive this Spring Edition of Maplines I hope we can truly say it is Spring, and that we have left the winter weather behind. At the end of February the snow shovel was relegated to the back of my garage after having decided that enough was enough and if any more snow came someone else would have to dig us out!! The start of the year began with flurries (along with the snow) of membership renewals coming in and my thanks all those members who renewed their memberships online – the system is very secure and quite painless and I recommend it to all. I have even been asked by one or two members if it could be possible to email membership renewal letters each year and this is something I will look into. On the subject of emails I make no apology for the amount of emails members received during 2012 as the BCS Council believes that this is the easiest and most economical method to communicate with members and a heck of a lot easier that stuffing and addressing envelopes as my wife and previous incumbents of this post will tell you, and as 2013 is our 50th Anniversary year I should expect quite a lot more. With the number of events scheduled for the 50th Anniversary year your illustrious Administrator has been and expects to be extremely busy for the remainder the time administrating them – so it is back to the grindstone. My best wishes to you all. Roger Hore BCS Administration 15 The Crescent, Stanley Common Ilkeston, Derby, DE7 6GL, UK Tel/Fax +44(0)115 9328684 Email: admin@cartography.org.uk Maplines / Spring 2013 • 15

Quiz

Quiz Title

n March, the Design Group hosted their very successful event How Maps Inspire Us as part of the BCS 50th Anniversary celebrations; we hope to feature a full write up of this event in our Summer issue. Our quiz, sponsored by the Design Group, features a beautiful prize from one of the speakers that day, Alison Hardcastle. Alison and her colleague Angus McArthur’s Word Map is made using selected text which has a relationship to its particular geographic location. The words used range from regional specialities to historical fact, from local celebrities to indigenous species. The map can be seen at www.theo-theo.com/product/158/bristish-isles-map/

Our quiz highlights locations, events or other points of interest featured on Word Map. Everything can be spotted on the map so why not give it a go! Please send your answers to maplines.editors@gmail.com by 21st June.

1. What is the name of the traditional ring (jewellery) formed of two hands holding a crowned heart. Which city/area does it originate from?

2. The families of raiders living in the Anglo Scottish Borders from the late 13th Century to the early 17th Century were collectively called?

3. Where was the TV series The Prisoner set?

4. Where in East Anglia was this helmet unearthed?

5. Who starred in ‘The Wickerman’ (1973) and where was the story supposedly set?

6. Which 1996 film tells of the decline of a Yorkshire mining community and the success of the local brass band in national competition?

7. Bridego Bridge, scene of the Great Train Robbery, is on the rail line from Euston to where?

8. Where is Stilton cheese made?