Hungary匈牙利

Л. Г. Каманин; Н. Ф. Леонтьев; Г.А. Правоторова

This article reviews the publication and scientific value of the National Atlas of the Hungarian People's Republic. The atlas contains 273 maps and cartograms organized into seven sections: natural conditions, population, agriculture, industry, transportation and communication, trade, and culture with social aspects. The authors emphasize that the atlas demonstrates innovative cartographic approaches, including the rational use of multiple scales and the synthesis of industrial indicators to characterize socialist industry. New themes such as surface-water pollution and geomorphological mapping are introduced. The agriculture and industry sections provide rich and practically oriented information, facilitating comparison and assessment. The article concludes that the atlas reflects a high level of Hungarian cartography and geography, serving both economic planning and scientific research, and offers valuable experience for international cartographic collaboration.

Wolf Tietze

This is a review of the National Atlas of Hungary, edited by Prof. Sándor Radó and published in 1967 by Cartographia, Budapest. Produced under the aegis of the IGU Commission on National Atlases, the atlas applies the latest geographical survey methods and refined cartographic techniques to a comprehensive range of themes including physical geography, geology, climate, hydrology, population, settlement, economy, and transport. The reviewer highlights its vivid representation of SW–NE structural lineaments, large-scale geomorphological maps, detailed climatic and hydrological analyses, and population maps reflecting the Tanya settlement pattern of the Alföld. At the same time, it criticizes methodological flaws in the language maps, incomplete information in settlement map excerpts, the lack of historical perspectives, and proposes a mechanism for continuous updating.

László Bassa

This review by László Bassa, a member of the editorial board, assesses the second edition of the National Atlas of Hungary (1989) compared with its 1967 predecessor. The purpose is to highlight innovations in cartographic representation and content that reflect the socio-economic and environmental changes over two decades. The atlas integrates traditional physical geography chapters with new sections on nature and environmental protection, social infrastructure, production, and regional planning. The author notes a shift from quantitative to qualitative mapping, including evaluative and typological maps. However, he identifies significant limitations: unreliable statistical data (e.g., commuters and agricultural employment), lack of representation of the emerging private sector, and insufficient synthesis of water resources and environmental issues. He argues that future national atlases should be connected to geographic information systems and more openly address critical problems. The review concludes that national atlases must adapt to changing economic structures and geographic paradigms.

Peter Jordan

This review assesses Kocsis et al.'s National Atlas of Hungary Vol. 2: Natural Environment, the first published part of a new four-volume national atlas series. It outlines the atlas's organizational structure, cartographic design, multilingual naming approach, and thematic breadth across 13 chapters covering geology, geophysics, relief, climate, waters, soils, vegetation, animals, landscapes, environmental protection, nature conservation, and natural hazards. The reviewer highlights the atlas's success in embedding Hungary in the wider Carpathian-Pannonian context, integrating explanatory texts and photos with maps, and applying innovative cartographic methods. Minor criticisms concern occasional typographic choices, map author attribution, and naming consistency. Overall, the atlas is praised as an outstanding scientific and national symbol that effectively replaces traditional written regional geography.

Károly Kocsis; Zsombor Nemerkényi; László Zentai; Gábor Gercsák

This paper presents the conceptual framework, historical antecedents, and practical outcomes of the new edition of the National Atlas of Hungary, with special emphasis on its second volume, Natural Environment, published in 2018. The atlas project was coordinated by the Geographical Institute of the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University and numerous other institutions. Unlike previous Hungarian national atlases, which covered only the state territory, the new edition extends its spatial scope to the entire Carpatho–Pannonian Area (approximately 500,000 km², including 34,000 settlements in twelve countries), aiming to present the dynamic spatial structure of nature, society, and economy wherever data are available. The atlas is being published in four volumes—The Hungarian State and its Place in the World, Natural Environment, Society, and Economy—in both Hungarian and English, accompanied by a digital version (e-MNA). The paper traces the development of Hungarian national atlases from Chavanne's 1887 physical-statistical atlas of Austria-Hungary, through the 1920 economic atlas, Rónai's 1945 Atlas of Central Europe, to the first official national atlases of 1967 and 1989, analyzing their historical contexts and scholarly significance. The Natural Environment volume comprises 183 pages and thirteen chapters covering geology, geophysics, relief, climate, waters, soils, vegetation, animals, landscapes, environmental protection, nature conservation, and natural hazards. Compared with the 1989 edition, the length and number of maps have doubled, the share of explanatory texts, tables, graphs, and photographs has increased from 25% to 50%, and new features include large-scale case-study maps of the Carpathian Basin, small-scale overview maps of Europe, and a synthesizing chapter on natural hazards. Special attention is paid to the international treatment of geographical names: English versions prioritize English names, and minority-language names are added where ethnic minorities exceed 10% of the population. The authors emphasize that producing three national atlases within just over fifty years is almost unparalleled, demonstrating the enduring commitment of Hungarian cartographers and geographers to cultivating the image of the country at home and abroad. The new atlas is intended not only for academic research but also for raising awareness and informing the broader public, making it an authoritative yet accessible reference on the natural environment of Hungary and the wider Carpatho–Pannonian region.

Peter Jordan

This review assesses Volume 3 (Society) of the English edition of the new National Atlas of Hungary, published by the Geographical Institute in Budapest in 2021. The reviewer places the atlas in the context of declining map use and emphasizes its role as a demonstration of the communicative efficiency of maps. The volume has twelve chapters, each dedicated to a major theme: Hungary at a glance, history of population, population number and density, natural population change, migration, population structures (including age, ethnicity, religion, education, and economic activity), settlement history, settlement system, urban settlements, Budapest and its region, rural areas, and living conditions. A major strength is the coverage of the entire Carpathian Basin, which permits cross-border comparisons and highlights the historical continuity of Hungarian settlement and minority populations. The maps combine thematic areal colors with relief shading, facilitating spatial interpretation. Particularly innovative are presentations of Roma population distribution comparing self-identification with external estimates, and time-series maps revealing historical stability of suicide rates and religious patterns. The reviewer also notes some methodological difficulties, such as varying administrative aggregation levels across countries and occasional naming inconsistencies in landscape classification. Despite these caveats, the volume is praised as an ideal combination of maps, tables, diagrams, concise texts, and photographs, and as a highlight of modern atlas cartography that sets high expectations for the remaining volumes on the state and economy.

Gábor Gercsák; Károly Kocsis; Zsombor Nemerkényi; László Zentai

The new volume Society of the National Atlas of Hungary, published in 2021, is Part 3 of the four-volume series. It presents the spatial structure and regional diversity of demographic and social processes in Hungary and, wherever data permit, the Carpatho–Pannonian Area, from a historical perspective. Combining statistics, geography and cartography, the 194-page atlas contains twelve chapters covering population history, population number and density, natural population change, migration, population structures, settlement history, settlement systems, cities, Budapest and its agglomeration, rural areas, and living conditions and quality of life. Compared with the previous edition, the number of maps has increased fourfold; 92 maps (30% of all maps) focus on the Carpathian Basin, explanatory texts, figures, tables and photographs now account for half of the content, and a wholly new synthesizing chapter examines living conditions and quality of life. Compiled by a large inter-institutional team, the atlas is also available in an interactive digital English version, making Hungarian society and its regional embeddedness accessible to international readers. It is a major reference not only for geographers but also for historians, economists and policymakers.