# THE NEW NATIONAL ATLAS OF SWEDEN Staffan Helmfrid and Leif Wastenson The National Atlas of Sweden Departments of Geography Stockholm University S-10691 Stockholm Sweden ## ABSTRACT The three first volumes of the new National Atlas of Sweden have been published. The volumes are devoted to the themes "Maps and Mapping", "The Forests", and "The Population". When the National Atlas is completed in 1996 it will comprise a geographical and cartographical description in seventeen volumes, each containing about 170 pages and 100 thematic maps. The books are published simultaneously in a Swedish and an English edition. The manuscripts are produced at seventeen thematic editorial offices spread out over the country. The government-financed project is led by a small editorial board at Stockholm University. The National Land Survey, Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography are responsible for the project. Production of the thematic maps is carried out by modern computerised graphic methods at LM Maps in Kiruna. The maps are stored in a data base. Apart from the book version the atlas will be produced and distributed in computerised form on diskettes and CD-ROM. Software for this purpose has been developed within the project. The first version of the PC-Atlas has just been produced. This paper will describe the new National Atlas of Sweden with the emphasis on the design, the aim and the use of the atlas in comparison to the first Swedish National Atlas "Atlas över Sverige"(1953-1971). The data sources, the technical production, and a brief description of the contents of the three first volumes are also given. ## 1. DESIGN The new Swedish national atlas project was briefly presented by Margareta Elg on the occasion of the 14th World Conference of the International Cartographic Association in Budapest, August 1989. Since then three out of 17 thematic volumes have been published and distributed. The first volume, "Maps and Mapping", appeared in April 1990, the second, "The Forests", in November 1990 and the third, "The Population", appeared recently, in September 1991. The plan foresees a complete set of 17 volumes before the end of the tenyear project starting 1st July 1987. The volumes published so far are exhibited at this conference and can be ordered at the exhibition. The concept of the new national atlas of Sweden, SNA, is very different from the classic first one, "Atlas över Sverige" (AöS), which appeared in separate map sheets 1953 - 1971. By the 1970s the publisher was out of stock, the total edition of 5 000 copies having been distributed and sold. At that time the question of a new edition was raised now and then, but not until the middle of the 1980s could real planning for a new national atlas could begin. The story of the preparatory work, the creation of a consortium of The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, Statistics Sweden and The Land Survey Board as well as the successful efforts to solve the financial problems will not be repeated here. It has been told briefly on various occasions in international fora. Instead some comments should be made on the concept of the new atlas, because it differs so much not only from "Atlas över Sverige" but from traditional national atlases in general. Some comparisons between the two Swedish National Atlases may well serve to illustrate the new concept, its strengths and its weaknesses. "Atlas över Sverige" was conceived in the first post-World War II period when Sweden, undamaged by the war, prepared itself for the promises of economic growth, affluence and welfare, based on efficient use of modern technology, science, education and "social engineering". Work on the atlas engaged a generation of cartographers, geographers and other experts, in all 66 contributors, for a period of 25 years. In the long course of production Sweden as a society experienced the most rapid and fundamental change ever. This could only very marginally be reflected in the atlas, the statistical sources of which were from the 1940s and 1950s. (Climate 1901 - 1930, Population 1950, Agriculture 1944, 1950, 1956, Forests 1952, Maufacturing industry 1951, Commerce 1954.) Ongoing research even changed important facts in the more "static" aspects of the geosphere, like geology. Important developments in human geography research could not easily be fitted into the framework of the atlas. A few topics were added to the original concept to meet some of these needs. The former atlas is a masterpiece of traditional cartography, made by creative, competent cartographers and skilled mapdrawers. The above remarks are made merely to illustrate the problems of traditional cartography dealing with a rapidly changing reality. It should be clearly stated that "Atlas över Sverige" well deserved the very high international acclaim it received in spite of its limited relevance to contemporary human geography research. The new computer-based cartographic techniques were one fundamental prerequisite for launching a new atlas project. Another was public funding to make efficient time-and budget planning possible and a third was the need in broad sectors of administration, economic life and educational system for a modern and renewable source of information about all relevant aspects of the country, its resources and development. The considerations of those, who, in the middle of the 1980s, defined the concept of the new Swedish national atlas can be described by comparing them with the concept from the 1940s, realised in the old atlas. ## 2. SCIENTIFIC OR EDUCATIONAL USE? "AöS", like other national atlases at the time, was made by cartographers and scientists for scientists and higher education - and as a national show-piece. It was a fundamental demand from public authorities and geographers as well as a wish from geographers in general that the new atlas should be conceived to meet the needs of upper secondary teaching and adult education as well. This has certainly had an impact on ways of writing, on the selection of explanatory figures and the use of statistics and mathematical models. ## 3. CARTOGRAPHIC OR GEOGRAPHIC? "AōS" was primarily cartographic and, as already mentioned, a masterly concept, only partly conceived by geographers. In contrast, the new atlas was fundamentally designed by geographers. What difference does that make? One difference is the thematic coverage. The geographic concept tries to give a balanced, organised explanatory description of the country from a geographic point of view. Maps are designed to cope with geographic topics, problems and theories. The cartographer considers more to the "cartographic" possibilities of available data. Selection of topics and cartographic design is then often determined by the availability of spatially organised data. The thematic coverage may, as a result, be partial and unbalanced. In contrast a geographic design meets with many problems: lack of relevant data, "wrong" definition and stratification of data, and last but not least problems in finding proper cartographic expressions for the geographically relevant patterns and processes. Some of these points may be illustrated by the following comparisons: The new national atlas will comprise approximately 2 800 pages of maps, photos, drawings, diagrams, tables and text. The general design specifies 30% text and 50% maps. The size of the book is 245 x 330 mm. All pages can be used for colour printing. The thematic maps are published at four different standard scales: 1:1.25 million, 1:2.5 million, 1:5 million, and 1:10 million. "AōS" had the equivalent of 1,128 pages of the same size in the new atlas. Of course a broader coverage of themes is possible today. If we compare the thematic distribution as a percentage of the total volume, we find the following differences (defined in accordance with the thematic division of SNA), the figures in brackets refer to AōS:

Maps and Mapping	8.4 % (0 %)
Geology	8.4 % (15.2 %)
Sea and Coast	5.0 % ( 1.4%)
Climate, Lakes & Rivers	7.0 % ( 9.7 %)
The Population	7.0 % (13.1 %)
The Forests	5.7 % ( 6.2 %)
The Agriculture	5.0 % (14.2 %)
The Environment	5.0 % ( 2.8 %)
Plants and Animals	6.4 % ( 4.7 %)
The Infrastructure	5.7 % ( 5.9 %)
Industry and Services	7.0 % ( 7.4 %)
Work and Leisure	5.9 % ( 4.3 %)
Cultural Life, Recreation and Tourism	5.0 % ( 1.9 %)
Landscape and Settlements	5.7 % ( 2.8 %)
Cultural Heritage and Preservation	7.0 % ( 1.9 %)
Sweden in the world	6.4 % ( 1,9 %)

Beside the broadening in scope represented by the new comprehensive volume on Swedish maps and mapping, past, present and future, there is a remarkable shift in emphasis. The relative reduction of the theme of Agriculture reflects of course reflects the dramatic shift in the economy, as does the expansion of the themes of Cultural Life and Cultural Heritage. The full treatment of the Environment in SNA reflects of course reflects public concern and scientific discovery. Landscape and settlement were really neglected in AöS, and growing international integration is mirrored in Sweden in the World. The reduction of Geology gives a better balance between physical and human geography, but would in any event have been necessary for financial reasons. Regrettably the reduction hits geomorphology. Finally the theme Population deserves some comment. No theme except Agriculture is better covered by data of all kinds and more readily broken down into the smallest territorial units. The data are even available in a coordinate grid. The relative reduction of this important theme reflects a new problem-oriented and theoretically based approach to population geography. This theme could easily have produced a wealth of additional maps! Contrary to the impressions of many professional users of SNA, who see it as a text book rather than an atlas, it is worthwhile stating that text makes up approximately 60 % of the old atlas "Atlas över Sverige", whereas the design of the new SNA aims at 30%! It was from the beginning decided that the thematic volumes should "stand on their own feet". That means that each volume should include also all background information even if it primarily belongs to another theme. So have the volume "The Forests" as well as "The Agriculture" each a chapter on geology and climate, specially designed for the theme. Each volume is separately sold to its specific sector of the market and is at the same time part of the National Atlas as a whole. ## 4. THE DATA SOURCES The manuscripts are produced at seventeen thematic editorial offices spread out over the country. Eight of them are at university departments and the others are established at governmental authorities. The basal data are delivered free of charge, but the manuscript work is paid within the frame of the project budget. The manuscripts for the maps are delivered as digital data on discettes in a format acceptable at the production unit or as drawn manuscripts which are scanned in a Scitex System or digitized manually. The original data and the produced digital maps are stored in a data base, which makes it possible to update in the future and to produce the printing films direct from a computerized cartographic system. ## 5. FROM MANUSCRIPT TO PRINTING FILMS Production of the thematic maps is carried out by modern computerized graphic methods at LM-Maps in Kiruna. A vector system using Auto-Ka, ArcInfo and Intergraph is combined with raster-based systems. One of the raster/vector systems used at LM Maps is a Scitex 280 system. A high resolution drum scanner is used for black and white line originals. The scanned manuscripts are transformed into vector format in the Scitex 280 system. After the information has been vectorized it is transferred to one of the vector systems which is used in co-operation with the Scitex system and the ArcInfo or the Uniras system. All of them have their specific functions in the process. In those systems information is corrected and added before being converted into raster data and transferred back to the Scitex system, where it is plotted. In connection with this conversion the map receives its design, i.e. lines, symbols and text get their final shape and areas their right colours and patterns. All colours, patterns, text and line fontes and symbols are stored in a library. Sometimes the vector information is imported from external systems from the manuscript producer direct to the Scitex system. When the map has been built up in raster format, it can be plotted out as a print original. This is done with the raster plotter included in the Scitex system. The laser beam is controlled by the digital information of the map and illuminates a photographic film - a reverse operation to the the same unit earlier described for scanning. LM-Maps also makes use of a Scitex Eray plotter. The limitation of the Scitex 280 system is the lack of possibilities to work with continuous tone images, aerial or satellite images. LM-Map Company has installed a Scitex 300 system, originally designed for graphic applications. It allows map and image information to be integrated. In comparison with the Scitex 280 system the 300 system also provides advantages in the printouts. The two work stations are available which can be connected to a Presponse work station. A Calcomp electrostat plotter and an Iris ink-jet plotter are available for verification. Experience from the production of the three first volumes shows that the new methods are quite expensive and time-consuming. The quality of the maps is often quite good, but there are still some problems, owing to the costs, in working in an interactive manner and making changes based on "trial and error", which is the normal way to work in more conventional methods. In the future we will try to use a mixture of new and conventional map production methods in order to be more cost-effective. It is also of importance that the operators of the computer graphical systems are trained in conventional cartography and have some experience of editorial work. ## 6. THE FIRST VOLUMES OF THE ATLAS The first volume "Maps and Mapping" (208 pages) was published in April 1990. Apart from a short general description of Sweden, mapping from historical to present times is described and a variety of different types of maps are presented. A reference map at the scale of 1:700 000 for the whole of the Swedish National Atlas is included in the first volume. This map covers 26 pages and contains more than 10,000 place names. The terrain is hatched to reinforce the visual effect of the topography. The reference map is in total produced by computer cartography and based on the Swedish National Digit Elevation Model. The second volume "The Forests" (144 pages), published in November 1990, gives information about Sweden's forest resources in a global and historical perspective. A detailed map of eight land use classes has been produced at the scale of 1:1.25 million. The map has been produced by scanning information on land classes from the general Swedish map at 1:250 000 and digitising this information. The pixel size on the scanned map corresponds to 25 x 25 m on the ground. The volume includes a total of 104 maps showing, for example the distribution of tree species, history of forestry, climate, geology, forest ecology, timber production, forestry transport and industry, damage to the forests, forests as a resource for recreation and maps of ownership categories. The third volume "The Population" (176 pages) has just been published in August 1991. This volume of the National Atlas presents in the first place summarized information about average individuals in Sweden, how many children they have, when they leave home, when they form a family and how long they live. But behind every mean figure there is a distribution with individual exceptions. Information on the geographical distribution of health, education, income, dwelling and voting is also presented. Social conditions today are presented in a long-term perspective and international comparisons are made. In total this volume includes about 100 completely new maps. It gives a very accurate and up-to-date picture of the population geography of Sweden. ## 7. FUTURE UPDATING AND DISTRIBUTION ON PC-MEDIA The original proposal of the new Swedish National Atlas focused upon computer aided production in order to provide better up-dating possibilities and to create a digital archive of geographical and cartographic data for future distribution on CD-ROM. In 1989 the board of the project decided that a PCversion of the atlas should be produced in order to introduce the potentials of geographical analysis and digital cartographic data to a wider public, especially for schools, libraries and the general public - "A low cost GIS for the Swedish people". The concept of the Swedish PCatlas is to be presented by Wolter Arnberg in a special paper at this conference. The first version on diskettes has just been introduced on the Swedish market. ## 8. CONCLUSION As explained the SNA was deliberately given a more "popular" design than traditional national atlases. It was planned for computer cartography with losses in traditional cartographic standards but with gains in an interactive PC atlas version available at low cost for school, libraries etc. The storage of the atlas in a database provides a good basis for future updating. The result has been on the one hand criticism from professional traditional cartographers, on the other hand an amazing public success. No geographic publication has ever attained such large sales figures in Sweden as SNA. The very concept of a "National Atlas", earlier known only to professional geographers over the past hundred years, is about to become common property! The first volume, "Maps and Mapping", was printed in an edition of 70,000 copies and sold out within six months, so that another 10,000 copies had to be printed. We already have 9,000 subscribers for the whole set of atlas volumes. Besides the three volumes already published a further one will be published in 1991, "The Environment". The production plan is then three volumes per year. Next year "The Agriculture", "The Infrastructure" and "Sea and Coast" will be presented. The whole book series will be completed in 1996. The first CD-ROM version will be produced in 1992. The English version will soon have an international distributor. Until then, the books can be supplied direct from the Editorial Board of the Swedish National Atlas.

National Atlas of Sweden, Vol. 09: Sweden in the World

Comments