廖克 · 2000
Liao Ke describes the compilation and innovations of the 1999 National Physical Atlas of China (《中华人民共和国国家自然地图集》), published simultaneously in Chinese and English. More than 300 specialists worked for twelve years to produce 540 maps in five parts and eighteen map groups. Compilation drew on multidisciplinary surveys, long-term observations, research results and existing thematic maps. Common base maps, technical standards, coordinated legends and boundaries, satellite imagery and computer cartography supported consistency and revision. Liao emphasizes the atlas’s expanded scientific coverage, its biodiversity maps and its presentation of new earth-science research. Separate sections on resources, disasters, and the use and protection of nature connect this coverage to planning and conservation. He identifies fully digital computer-assisted design, editing and automated plate-making as a major technical innovation, supported by experiments and databases of thematic-map colors, symbols and Chinese characters.
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.
Ke Liao · 2001
Editor-in-chief Liao Ke describes the compilation, contents, technical innovations, and reception of The National Physical Atlas of China, published in Chinese and English in August 1999. He traces the national atlas project from the 1956 science plan and the start of work in 1958 through the earlier physical atlas, completed in 1965 and issued on a restricted basis in 1967, the Cultural Revolution's disruption of the series, and approval to resume compilation in 1981. The 1999 recompilation involved more than 300 specialists from 40 institutions under the supervision of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.
The atlas contains 540 maps in five sections covering introductory maps, physical environment, natural resources, natural disasters, and the use and conservation of nature. It synthesizes surveys, long-term observations, and historical records, emphasizing updated data, biodiversity, new geoscientific topics, and practical resource, disaster, and conservation maps, which account for 40 percent of its contents. Liao describes experiments in integrated, remote-sensing, and computer-aided mapping, harmonization of scientific content and representation, and a fully digital workflow for design, compilation, and automatic plate-making. He claims international leadership for these achievements and reports favorable assessments by Chinese and overseas specialists. The article closes with ongoing work on an atlas information system and plans for an electronic edition with dynamic and three-dimensional displays and analytical functions, alongside online publication of selected maps.
