Book reviews: Atlas of the Netherlands

This review assesses the latest installments of the Atlas of the Netherlands, focusing on their thematic scope, cartographic methods, and scholarly value. The tenth installment is dominated by transportation maps covering aviation, maritime freight, road and rail traffic, inland navigation, public transport, and train frequency; it also includes an especially informative historical mapping of 21 farmstead types in 1550, 1700, and 1850. The eleventh and twelfth installments comprise ten sheets on tectonics, geology, biogeography, nature conservation, hydrogeology, water pollution, industry, and seaports, with explanatory texts in Dutch and English. The geological and tectonic maps extend beyond national boundaries and combine regional coverage with subsurface information, while the hydrogeological sheets integrate thematic maps and vertically exaggerated cross-sections. Particularly notable are the clearly differentiated geological units, the classification of water quality, and detailed topographic representations of eight major seaports, including infrastructure, basin depths, and nearby industries. Overall, the reviewer finds the subjects highly specialized yet illuminating when viewed comparatively within broader thematic groups. The atlas also demonstrates considerable methodological variety through adapted flow maps, proportional symbols, cartograms, profiles, and distribution maps, making it valuable both as a national reference work and as a source of cartographic inspiration. Completion was projected for 1977 with 98 map sheets, supplemented by 16 updating sheets.