Mapping From an Automated Display System∗

Abstract

This paper outlines recent developments in computer mapping and points out its importance for visualizing contents of geographic information systems. The authors present an integrated system of mapping packages and spatial-data files. Map examoles generated with this system are used to illustrate characteristics of various computer-mapping methods. The diversity of displays created from a single set of data demonstrates that mapping from automated display systems requires the user to take some decisions which have to be based on an understanding of the phenomena displayed, of cartographic communication, and of technical aspects of automated map processing. State U n i v e r s i t y of New Y o r k at BuffaloJack J. Utano U n i v e r s i t y of A k r o nMAPS have traditionally served the geographer in a variety of functions: for indicating the location of information in space, as data sources for research activities, for visually perceiving interrelationships among spatial concepts; and for communicating scientific results to h i audience. The growing importance of computer-assisted mapping in support of these functions is manifested by the increased use of automated maps in recent scientific literature. Since the inception of computer technology for application work in the late 1950'5, computer-assisted map production has been primarily equated with line-printer mapping, which was considered well below traditional cartographic standards 128, p. 2661. The past decade, however, has witnessed substantial advances in the development of both the hardware and software necessary for the successful realization of high-quality automated maps. Line printers have given way to pen-and-ink plotters of the drum and flatbed variety, to microfilm and laser plotters, and to a multitude of cathode ray tube terminals, matrix plotters, and the like. During this time a wealth of computer-mapping packages has evolved for undertaking a breadth of geographic applications 12, 10, 16, 29, 331.Paralleling this development has been the large-scale creation of automated geographic information systems of all kinds; information pertaining to socio-economic characteristics, land use structure, climatology, and criminal activity, to name a few, has been collected and maintained in computer-readable form and made available for a variety of purposes in science and public life. The integration of computer mapping into a geographic information system environment provides an important tool for scientific and administrative endeavors. The significance of automated mapping systems linking comprehensive COIL lections of information to arrays of mapping packages is being recognized by planners and decision makers on all levels. Given a complex body of space-time data stored in computer-readable form, a systematic representation of these data provides an important medium for the perception of latent interrelationships and the detection of structural properties in the data. This initial exploration may be used for subsequent hypothesis definition and modeli...

Cartography: uncertainty, interventions, and dynamic display

“…Although geographers were early contributors to the expeditious generation of the push-pin maps used for decades by detectives (eg, Brassel and Utano, 1979), and geographer Keith Harries (1999) authored the widely circulated how-to manual Mapping crime: principle andpractice, crime mapping is now largely the province of niche disciplines like police science and criminal justice, which are more closely involved in training practitioners, and enjoy easier access to grants and data. Even so, the geographic literature includes critical assessments as wide-ranging as Bob Sharpe' (2000) finding that vulnerability mapping tends to ignore less affluent victims as well as deviant behaviors not routinely reported to the police, Jeremy Crampton's (2003) Foucauldian interpretation ofcrime mapping as yet another government technology for social control, and Jerry Ratcliffe' (2004) theoretical and empirical examination of the 'geocoding hit rate', that is, the percentage of addresses instantaneously matched with an electronic streetaddress database and thus immediately mappable.…”