National Atlases: Their History, Analysis, and Ways to Improvement and Standardization

Summary

Edited by K. A. Salishchev, chairman of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on National Atlases, this volume offers a systematic historical review, comparative analysis, and methodological program for improving and standardizing national atlases. It defines a national atlas as a major, integrated cartographic work that synthesizes current scientific knowledge of a country’s physical, economic, population, and political geography. Because maps present complex information compactly, clearly, and accessibly, such atlases are treated not only as scholarly reference works but also as instruments for national planning, administration, education, public communication, and international geographical research. The study traces the idea from early proposals by Vauban and the eighteenth-century Russian cartographer Ivan Kirilov to the emergence of modern comprehensive atlases. It argues that their development depended on the expansion of topographic surveying, the rise of specialized geographical sciences, the growth of official statistics after the industrial and political transformations of the late eighteenth century, and advances in thematic cartography. Representative atlases and projects from Finland, Canada, Russia and the Soviet Union, Egypt, Czechoslovakia, Italy, France, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, India, Israel, Congo, Morocco, the United States, Australia, and other territories are examined with regard to organization, subject coverage, source materials, and cartographic practice. On the basis of this comparison, the book formulates general requirements of scientific reliability, comprehensiveness, systematic structure, currency, legibility, internal consistency, and practical usefulness. Particular attention is given to harmonizing atlas divisions, scales, page formats, map projections, coordinate grids, legends, statistical indicators, and methods of representation so that related maps within one atlas—and analogous maps from different countries—can be compared. The proposed thematic framework begins with introductory maps and proceeds through nature, population, economy, culture, and political-administrative organization. The natural section covers geology, geophysics, relief, climate, hydrology, soils, vegetation, forests, zoogeography, and physical-geographical regionalization. Population maps portray numbers, distribution, settlement, social characteristics, and ethnicity. Economic maps address industry, agriculture, transportation, communications, trade, finance, and integrated economic patterns, while cultural and social themes include education, science, arts, folklore, publishing, broadcasting, living conditions, health care, sport, tourism, protected areas, and cultural monuments. The volume also discusses the common geographical base of maps, explanatory texts, and a model list of atlas topics. It ultimately presents national atlas production as a coordinated interdisciplinary and governmental undertaking whose standardization can support cross-national comparison and provide dependable source material for future international maps of the world.