Conference Paper

Development, contents and design of the revised edition of the National Resources Atlas of Thailand

By Ulrich Freitag· 1980

Publication: Eighth United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Far East. Volume 2: Technical Papers
Pages: 247–250

Thailand · Version 3

1972

In its account of preparations for a fourth edition, the Royal Thai Survey Department describes the 1972 third edition of the National Resources Atlas of Thailand as comprising 19 map sheets and 60 pages of Thai and English text, grouped into physical resources, human resources, and social and economic infrastructure. It retained the preceding edition’s 54 × 77.5 cm format and introduced a uniform base for all maps at 1:2,500,000, derived from the US Army Map Service’s 1962–63 South-East Asia Road Map. Changes included a replacement geology map, a first hypsometric map, an added land-use map and a redesigned industry map. Maps were adapted from government mapping, compiled from multiple cartographic sources, or newly drawn from statistics. The department acknowledges weak correlation among maps arising from these varied sources, while describing them as presenting the best available regional data.

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This paper reviews thematic mapping by the Royal Thai Survey Department since 1961 and the successive editions of the National Resources Atlas of Thailand, then describes the fourth-edition revision begun in 1974. Political and economic constraints led the department to undertake a major revision of the resources atlas, under the short series title Atlas of Thailand, as a possible foundation for a future national atlas. Organized into natural, human, and economic resources, the revision expands thematic coverage and emphasizes relationships and comparability among maps. Most maps use two standardized bases at 1:2,500,000 and 1:4,000,000 on a newly calculated equal-area projection, supplemented by varied cartographic symbols, statistical graphics, cross-sections, drawings, and bilingual Thai–English labeling. Explanatory text pages are initially omitted because sufficient expert assistance is unavailable. A boxed loose-leaf format permits individual use, replacement, and subsequent additions. At the time of reporting, most drafts for the first 60 map pages were complete and undergoing reproduction processing; several maps had already been published.