Proceedings of the Seminar on Electronic Atlases: Held at Eötvös Loránd University, Visegrád, Hungary, April 27-29, 1993

Summary

This paper is a collection of proceedings from the Seminar on Electronic Atlases, held at Visegrád, Hungary, from April 27 to 29, 1993. The seminar was jointly organized by three ICA commissions—Education and Training, Map and Spatial Data Use, and National and Regional Atlases—and published by the Cartographic Institute of Eötvös Loránd University. The aim was to explore the production, use, and teaching of electronic atlases, with 22 high-standard papers presented. The foreword highlights a shift from separate commission meetings to an integrated program, emphasizing software demonstrations and extensive discussions among participants. The introduction delves into the theoretical and practical challenges facing cartography. The authors argue that with the adoption of digital techniques, cartography is undergoing a decisive transformation, as traditional maps become inadequate as information carriers due to their limitations in handling dense, dynamic, and interrelated data. The definition of a map is revisited, proposing it as a reduced and organized structural model of spatial information, characterized by projection, reduction, and pragmatic features. The main challenge for cartography is not computer application per se, but developing systems capable of handling spatial data structures, increasing system capacity, and flexibly adapting cartographic models and computer-oriented thematic methods. The paper also discusses the expansion and specialization of map users, and the influence of computer graphics on cartographic aesthetics, stressing the need to balance scientific precision with personal aesthetic sense. The concluding sections review two pre-PC electronic atlas examples: the author's choropleth mapping system for Tennessee developed in the mid-1970s on a VAX terminal, and the U.S. government's Decision Information Display System (DIDS) from the late 1970s to early 1980s. These cases illustrate lessons about technological limitations, user engagement, and system sustainability. The paper finally suggests that electronic atlas use involves multiple dimensions—format, user types, and use environments—and proposes exploring a framework similar to the Anderson (1976) Land Use and Land Cover Classification to standardize spatial data use.