Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Commission on National Atlases of the International Geographical Union

Summary

This article reviews the sixth plenary meeting of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on National Atlases, held during the 21st International Geographical Congress in New Delhi in December 1968. The meeting approved the Commission’s 1965–1968 activity report, examined completed studies, compared national experiences in comprehensive atlas production, and formulated its programme for 1969–1972. Major outputs included methodological works on socioeconomic maps in regional atlases, the organization and production of atlases of natural conditions and resources—especially for developing countries—and an updated bibliography of national and regional atlases. Proposals were also discussed for standardizing agricultural and transport maps and automatically produced geographical-name indexes. Reports from Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas demonstrated diverse approaches to atlas design, practical use, revision, and publication. The Australian experience highlighted continuous updating and map-specific revision cycles, while early sales of United States atlas sheets revealed strong governmental and commercial demand and stimulated regional and thematic mapping. Joint sessions clarified the greater flexibility and practical orientation of regional atlases and emphasized the value of simplified world-region atlases for developing countries. However, an overloaded congress schedule restricted substantive discussion, suggesting that inter-congress plenary meetings were more productive. The adopted programme prioritized evaluative maps of natural resources, metropolitan atlases, atlas updating and republication, and systematic study of atlas use in research and practice.