Jörg Stadelbauer · 2015
Jörg Stadelbauer reviews Andreas Dittmann’s National Atlas of Afghanistan (2014), produced through longstanding German–Afghan cooperation involving Kabul University, the Afghan Agency for Geodesy and Cartography, and Gießen University. Maps and accompanying explanations cover the natural environment, socio-economic conditions, and six major cities. Compilation involved reviewing and standardizing existing studies and maps, tracing dispersed data and research literature, and conducting field surveys for the city overviews. Stadelbauer highlights distribution maps for 83 animal species. Socio-economic maps occupy about two-thirds of the atlas and raise greater concerns about data availability and reliability: informal trade is difficult to quantify, agricultural statistics require regional data collection, and maps of public services offer limited qualitative information. Satellite imagery can supply some agricultural data. The reviewer notes unequal healthcare provision and women’s educational disadvantage, alongside gaps in coverage of industry, crafts as economic activities, and history. He also identifies missing reference years and minor editorial shortcomings, while praising the layout and cartographic design as a benchmark. He regards the atlas as a foundation for comprehensive, spatially differentiated regional geography and an aid to planning. Particularly if a Dari edition follows the English edition, he argues that it could strengthen national self-confidence, identity, governance, and nation-building.
Eckart Ehlers · 2015
Eckart Ehlers gives a strongly positive review of the National Atlas of Afghanistan, assessing its compilation against decades of warfare, contested ethnic identities and limited access to reliable data. Cooperation with Sardar Kohistani and Kabul University facilitated access to the Afghan Geodesy and Cartography Head Office and other data providers; DAAD support and the German “Stability Pact Afghanistan” helped enable production. The atlas has 43 large-format map pages with facing explanatory texts, often supplemented by maps, diagrams and statistics. Its six sections cover natural conditions and resources, economy and agriculture, services, culture and history, the human dimension, and major cities. Ehlers highlights persistent agricultural patterns, informative health and education surveys, and city plans comparing contemporary urbanisation with earlier development. He praises the compilation and legible cartography while noting uneven explanatory texts, insufficient use of French-language and pre-war anthropological research, crude animal-distribution maps, and the absence of a map of nomadic groups and migration routes. He regards these limitations as minor. Ehlers presents the atlas as a reference for planning and education and, through its representation of Afghan identities, as a highly political contribution to state-building.
