Der Atlas der Republik Österreich

Summary

THE NATIONAL ATLAS OF AUSTRIA The Commission on Regional Research of the Austrian Academy of Science is the official agency in charge of the Austrian National Atlas project. The Kartographische Anstalt Freytag–Berndt & Artaria, Vienna, are printing and publishing the atlas. Thus far, 43 map sheets, i.e. one third of the planned total, have been published in two fascicles. Governmental research agencies and scientific institutes are contributing to the compilation of maps. The editorial staff is rather small, consisting of the author as chairman and a few other members (H. HELCZMANOVSZKI, E. ARNBERGER, H. TRIMMEL) who are assisted in their work by some helpers and a cartographic draftsman. The basic principles and concepts underlying the atlas project are outlined. Basically the atlas is designed to be a geography of Austria in maps, its contents logically arranged and featuring a considerable number of complex and synthetic maps. The standard map scale of 1:1,000,000 has been selected because at this scale the planimetric position of a certain phenomenon can still be given with a tolerable degree of accuracy, a decisive advantage over diagrammatic methods of representation. The contents are grouped into 12 chapters, each dealing with a special topic: The situation of Austria in Central Europe; the physical environment; land occupancy and land use in the past up to recent times; settlements; population distribution, structure, and trends; economy; transportation; administration; culture; and, finally, complex functions involving socio-economic and political structure, and problems of regional development control. After some comments on analytical, complex, and synthetical maps there follows a final discussion of cartographic problems encountered in the preparation of the atlas sheets published so far.