The content concept of the map “Land use and natural features” at 1:750,000 in the “Atlas of the GDR”

Summary

Hans Richter explains the design and interpretation of the 1:750,000 map “Flächennutzung und naturräumliche Ausstattung” in the natural-foundations section of the Atlas of the German Democratic Republic. Its aims are to depict natural conditions altered by use and to show selected relationships between natural conditions and social land use; Richter considers the first aim more directly represented, while the second requires substantial interpretation. Separate overview maps were combined through successive adjustments to their content and legend, developing a method tested in the 1974 1:500,000 draft “Landeskulturelle Gebietstypen der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik.” Land-use information came from maps at 1:200,000 and 1:25,000 and was reduced to stable major complexes, excluding pollution, recreation pressure and other fluctuating, linear or point-based influences. Comparisons with official statistics explain why these complexes differ from statistical land-use categories. Richter notes that atlas editors increased settlement density in some areas, limiting the applicability of measurements from the earlier draft. Natural conditions were generalized from atlas map 17, “Naturraumtypen,” by grouping geoecologically related categories and reducing its legend to one quarter of its original extent. Richter classifies the combined map as complex-analytical and warns that spatial coincidence does not establish causation. Regional examples illustrate land-use relationships with natural conditions, modified by historical development; the units also vary considerably in heterogeneity and have no uniform hierarchical rank. He discusses their interpretation as land-management territorial types or landscapes and proposes uses in assessing industrial problem areas, land conversion and landscape-protection areas. These applications require additional information, since the map represents stable components and cannot show all environmental effects or the social causes of settlement development.