Moderne atlaskartographie im spiegel von national- und regionalatlanten - bestandesaufnahme und entwicklungslinien

Summary

This article, written by Prof. Ferjan Ormeling of Utrecht University, the Netherlands, aims to provide an inventory and analysis of development trends in modern national and regional atlas cartography. The article begins by noting that atlases, whether in print or digital form, are excellent tools for analyzing spatial phenomena, and that commercial and public atlas cartography is booming. The author observes that while outstanding national atlases are being published, their maintenance and updating are not always guaranteed. The article systematically reviews the contemporary development paths of atlases under the keywords of production, distribution, and use. Regarding production and distribution, the author identifies several parallel models: the continuation of traditional methods using digital data to produce printed national and regional atlases (e.g., the Atlas of Albania), a shift towards CD-ROM versions due to lower production and distribution costs (e.g., the view-only National Atlas of Ukraine and the interactive, analytical CD-Atlas of Sweden), and online atlases distributed via the internet (e.g., the Dutch National Health Atlas). Furthermore, the author emphasizes the strategy of combining all three platforms—paper, CD, and web—citing the National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany and the National Atlas of Russia as examples. The latter half of the article focuses on a critical review of the multi-volume project "National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany." The author highly praises the series' pioneering contribution to cultural visualization, arguing that it successfully demonstrates how culture and participation in cultural life can be satisfactorily represented cartographically. He describes in detail the socio-cultural insights obtainable from the atlas, such as regional differences in theatre attendance, book borrowing rates, museum visits, dialect usage, and even the integration of foreign residents, finding this visualization highly appealing. The author also commends the editors' excellent organizational skills in coordinating numerous authors to produce a unified product. He notes that reading the atlas volumes has greatly enriched his vocabulary and that the final volume, depicting life "from the cradle to the grave," serves as a successful portrayal of postmodern Germany. Overall, the article serves both as a macro-level survey of global atlas production and an in-depth analysis of the German national atlas as a case study, revealing the general trend of atlases evolving from traditional print media towards multimedia, web-based, and information system-oriented formats.