D. R. F. Taylor · 1993
D. R. F. Taylor reviews the National Economic Atlas of China and its compilation. Its 265 maps include 135 using counties and cities as basic units and 50 depicting industrial enterprises; more than 500 socioeconomic variables reveal regional disparities and industrial spatial relationships. Taylor highlights the economic center’s shift toward eastern and southern China. Under State Planning Commission leadership, more than twenty ministries and commissions supplied data, supplemented by annual statistics, the 1985–1986 industrial census, and the 1982 and 1990 population censuses. Security review enabled publication of sensitive material, which Taylor associates with greater openness. He details the industrial census’s multilevel manual and computerized quality controls and regards the two principal census sources as highly reliable. He also notes limited quality studies for other data, inconsistent reference dates, and possible error propagation from derived maps. Compilation involved database restructuring, computer-assisted classification, interactive editing of overlapping symbols, specialized indices, and computer-controlled printing. Ten sections of explanatory text, totaling over 200,000 Chinese characters, supplement maps referring to different dates in 1985–1990 and provide updated information. Taylor judges the atlas’s depiction broadly credible and not exaggerated, while advocating electronic atlases to accommodate continuing change. His acknowledgments document Canadian funding for English-edition production and collaboration with Chinese colleagues, editorial and administrative assistants, and Oxford University Press staff.
刘岳 · 1996
Liu Yue introduces the National Economic Atlas of the People’s Republic of China, its 1994 English edition, The National Economic Atlas of China, and its electronic edition. National-atlas compilation entered the national science plan in 1956, was interrupted during the Cultural Revolution and received renewed State Council approval in 1981. The economic-atlas project began in March 1987, led by the State Planning Commission and edited by the Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Nearly 30 institutions and over 100 specialists worked for six years; China Cartographic Publishing House published the Chinese edition in 1993, and Oxford University Press (Hong Kong) published the English edition in 1994. The project received the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ sole special science-and-technology progress award for 1995.
The print atlas contains 265 maps in ten groups and 250,000 Chinese characters of explanatory text, covering resources, population, economic sectors and provincial economies. Liu emphasizes its treatment of sectoral scale, structure, development, spatial distributions, regional differences and interdependencies. Compilation combined synthesis and analysis through content selection, indicator classification and grading, and mapping units at several levels. The article reports favorable assessments by the appraisal committee and ICA president D. R. F. Taylor, particularly of its coverage and cartographic methods.
The electronic atlas used updated data and independently developed EA-ward software, taking one year and two months from software development to completion. Its editorial committee praised its visualization, ease of use and comparative analysis, judging it world-leading. The committee proposed audience-specific editions and biennial updates. Liu also reports favorable responses to its demonstration at the 1995 ICA meeting in Barcelona.
廖克 · 2001
Liao Ke describes the contents, sources and production of China's national general, physical, economic and agricultural atlases. The General Atlas draws on topographic surveys and the national place-name survey, covering regions, provinces, cities and seas. The Physical Atlas synthesizes scientific surveys and long-term observations in sections on the natural environment, resources, hazards, and the use and protection of nature; Liao emphasizes its treatment of human–nature relationships. The Economic Atlas uses censuses and economic statistics to map sectoral structures and regional differences, including foreign investment and pollution management. The Agricultural Atlas combines natural conditions, agricultural economics and production technology to depict agricultural distribution, production levels and regional inequalities. Liao describes satellite imagery and computer processing in the physical, economic and agricultural volumes, a statistical-mapping expert system for the Economic Atlas, and fully digital design, editing and automated plate-making for the Physical Atlas. He records Chinese and English publication of the economic and physical atlases and reports the Physical Atlas's outstanding-atlas award at the 2001 International Cartographic Conference exhibition.
