Cartographic Perspectives

A Low-Distortion Oblique Map Projection of the World’s Landmasses

2023-11-07T11:29:45-08:00

This study presents the development of a world map projection intended to minimize distortion of all continents. I begin by reviewing a very similar map projection developed by Canters (2002), and address its shortcomings by carefully fine-tuning the initial constraints and the method of optimization, while retaining the most useful ideas of this earlier map. Most notably, the method described in this paper puts a great emphasis on the outline of the map, so that its aesthetics make it more suitable for atlases; the method also exclusively uses reproducible, deterministic methods. Finally, I compare the resulting world map to the original one of Canters in terms of map distortions and practical usefulness. The method presented here should work without changes if a low-distortion map of any other global-scale area is needed.

Dating Maps with Sir Francis Drake’s Route of Circumnavigation

2023-11-27T13:52:08-08:00

This paper describes the nine sixteenth-century maps, texts, and globes that showed Sir Francis Drake’s route of circumnavigation of the world. It shows the relationships between these nine artifacts and suggests the year of disclosure for each. The oldest of these is the Whitehall map, which was the direct or indirect precursor of the Drake-Mellon map, the French-Drake Van Sype map, the Dutch-Drake map, and the Hondius Broadside map. Most world maps published between 1561 and 1588 have a huge bulge on the coast of Chile. However, eight of the maps discussed in this paper shrank the bulge and moved it to the southern tip of Chile, using updated information from Drake’s voyage.

US Navy Aerial Photography Squadrons in Türkiye: American Interests in Cold War Cartography

2024-01-23T14:47:52-08:00

This article explores a little-known archive of historical aerial photographs curated by the General Directorate of Mapping of the Republic of Türkiye’s Ministry of Defense and discusses the historical context of their production by US Navy aerial photography squadrons in the 1950s. While the images themselves enable a technical analysis of the method of their collection, contemporary military manuals, domain-specific magazines and newsletters, and eyewitness accounts of how similar photographs were captured fill out the contexts of their production for cartographic purposes, with information about the aircraft involved, their cameras and camera configurations, and mission characteristics. Continuing sections situate the aerial surveys within the framework of US-led initiatives in mapping NATO territories following World War II. As one example of what must have been many special mapping agreements made between NATO countries at this time, the US cartographic surveys over Türkiye discussed here are an expression of postwar realignments of global power, put to the purposes of containment-based security preparations and infrastructure development, and neatly intertwining American military and commercial interests early in the Cold War.

Ambient Occlusion for Terrain Shading

2024-02-19T04:41:09-08:00

Ambient occlusion is widely used in computer graphics to accentuate areas in a three-dimensional scene that are hidden from bright lighting. On maps, ambient occlusion adds spatial depth and nuanced texture to shaded relief images. Ambient occlusion images for maps can be calculated from digital elevation models using the Eduard relief shading application. This paper illustrates the use of ambient occlusion for cartographic terrain shading and introduces two extensions: (1) oriented ambient occlusion for modulation with a direction of illumination, and (2) reduced ambient occlusion for valley bottoms with consistent brightness.

Review of Women and GIS Volume 2: Stars of Spatial Science; and Women and GIS Volume 3: Champions of a Sustainable World

2024-01-04T09:51:26-08:00

Review of Airline Maps: A Century of Art and Design

2024-01-11T10:20:15-08:00

Review of The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been

2024-04-23T14:52:44-07:00

Review of Thematic Cartography and Geovisualization, fourth edition

2024-05-20T09:13:08-07:00

A Synesthete's Atlas: Real Time Cartography in Performance

2024-06-04T13:45:41-07:00

Instructions to Authors

2024-07-19T09:17:21-07:00

About the Cover

2024-07-19T09:12:21-07:00

Masthead

2024-07-19T09:14:56-07:00

Letter from the Editor

2024-07-19T09:19:49-07:00