Bos atlas of the Netherlands

Trudo Dejonghe reviews the 2007 Bosatlas of the Netherlands, described as the 53rd edition: editors and cartographers spent over two years producing its 560 pages and more than 2,400 maps. He reports that the first printing sold out within a week and that maps of landscape attractiveness, carnival villages and football prompted public debate. He criticizes the atlas’s near-exclusive focus on the Netherlands outside its historical section; Barend Kobben’s example shows how omitting nearby Antwerp distorts the mapped accessibility of urban centres in Zeeuws Vlaanderen. Dejonghe nevertheless identifies useful material for Belgian readers on migration, drug offences and tourist destinations. He praises the maps’ legibility, achieved through colour choices and selective omission, and asks whether a comparable Belgian atlas could also become a commercial success and standard reference.