Chen Shupeng

Summary

This article reviews the career of Chen Shupeng (1920–2008), a leading Chinese cartographer and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasizing his role in the modernization of cartography and the emergence of geoinformation science in China. Beginning with land-use surveys, topographic analysis, and field mapping, Chen developed innovative techniques—including relief zoning, layer tinting, and contour reconstruction based on geotectonic structures—to improve the representation of China’s regional landforms. As a key participant in the National Atlas program, he helped formulate its overall design and directed the compilation of major works such as the Physical Atlas of the People’s Republic of China, which introduced numerous thematic map types and modernized important compilation and printing methods. From the 1960s onward, Chen organized aerial-photographic mapping experiments; in the 1970s, he pioneered Chinese applications of Landsat imagery, produced satellite-image and geoanalytical atlases, promoted remote-sensing education, supported university cartography programs, and encouraged the development of computer-assisted mapping equipment. He subsequently extended remote sensing to studies of resources, energy, urban environments, landscapes, and karst landforms. In the late 1990s, Chen advocated geoinformation science, grid mapping, and the methodological framework of geoinformation tupu, while promoting the network-based integration of remote sensing, GPS, and GIS. His scholarship and institution-building helped transform Chinese cartography from conventional map production into a digitally enabled, interdisciplinary field of Earth-information research. His influence was recognized through major national and international honors, including the O. M. Miller Cartographic Medal, the Tan Kah Kee Award in Earth Sciences, and the International Cartographic Association’s Mannerfelt Medal.