Proceedings: ICA National and Regional Atlases Commission Meeting, May 1992, Madrid

Summary

This volume documents the May 1992 meeting in Madrid of the International Cartographic Association’s newly renamed Commission on National and Regional Atlases, hosted by Spain’s National Geographic Institute. It presents the meeting as both an institutional renewal and a response to the rapid technological transformation of cartography. Taking the National Atlas of Spain—assigned to the Institute by the Spanish government in 1986—as a central case, the proceedings emphasize that contemporary atlases can no longer be conceived solely as printed collections of maps. Computer-assisted production, audiovisual media, databases, automated systems, electronic publishing, hypermedia and dynamic visualization were already creating new ways to compile, update, distribute and use geographic information. The contributions combine reports on atlas projects with methodological and technical discussions. Papers concerning Spain examine the current status and future development of its national atlas, demographic information, differences between the 1965 and contemporary editions, computer-supported cartographic editing, stereoscopic-image generation and landscape representation. Comparative reports describe national or regional atlas work in Mexico, Germany, Chile, Panama, Austria, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary and Sweden, as well as preparations for an atlas of Jalisco. These studies address the adaptation of cartography to territorial realities, synthetic mapping of economic organization, representation of social problems, maintenance of base maps and differing national concepts of atlas design. Thematic seminars focus on editorial organization, production management, cartographic information systems, publication and marketing policies, and the technical challenges of revision and standardization. Particular attention is devoted to databanks and automated map-production environments, including multiple production systems, the Intergraph–Optronics workflow used for the Spanish atlas and emerging forms of electronic map publishing. A major section explores electronic atlases through projects from Bizkaia, the Netherlands, the southern North Sea, Arkansas, Madrid and Canada. These examples illustrate desktop atlas systems, transport modelling, dynamic depictions of urban growth, hypermedia representations of territorial change, global-change encyclopedias and multimedia design philosophies. Educational applications are considered through Finnish national atlases, the new Swiss school atlas and comparisons between traditional and digital atlas structures. Overall, the proceedings portray atlas-making as an interdisciplinary, internationally collaborative activity linking geographic interpretation, editorial judgment, cartographic principles and information technology. The meeting’s multilingual discussions, simultaneous interpretation and advanced presentation facilities reinforced its central message: systematic exchange of knowledge can prevent duplicated effort, promote tested methods and help institutions solve common production and communication problems. The concluding acknowledgements and participant directory further reveal a broad professional network involving national mapping agencies, universities and atlas specialists from Europe and the Americas, united in seeking technologically innovative yet cartographically rigorous forms of geographic communication.