National Atlas of Slovenia: Current Trends and Future Opportunities

Summary

Jerneja Fridl reviews the development, content and cartographic production of Slovenia’s national-atlas project, its published forms and plans for digital updating. Proposed in 1969 and implemented after independence in 1991, the project was undertaken by the Institute of Geography and the Anton Melik Geographical Institute, with 53 experts from 25 institutions and six editorial-board members. DZS published the Slovene-language Geografski atlas Slovenije in 1998. Intended for a broad readership, it surveys Slovenia’s natural, population, economic, settlement and environmental characteristics through popular-science texts, 190 thematic maps and accompanying illustrations. The publisher’s reduction from 700 to 360 pages required shorter texts, a change in main-map scale from 1:500,000 to 1:750,000, and substantial cartographic generalization. As map editor, Fridl describes coordinated page layouts, GIS-based presentations of spatial data, restrained topographical bases and symbol design using Bertin’s graphic variables. She emphasizes matching scale, generalization and symbols to the data while maintaining legibility. In 2001, Rokus published modified Slovene and English versions, including National Atlas of Slovenia. The English atlas condenses the material into 105 main thematic maps at 1:1,000,000 and adds “Facts about Slovenia” for foreign readers. Its coverage includes physical geography, population, Slovenes abroad, economic activities and the environment. Fridl describes its promotional and gift-oriented purpose and regrets its use of 1991 statistics because the next census followed publication. With 2002 census data available, Fridl outlines plans for an updated CD-ROM atlas with possible three-dimensional maps and supplementary multimedia. She discusses unresolved questions of symbol positioning, graphic variables, distance-dependent appearance, geographical names and database levels of detail. These proposals and partial answers still require practical testing.