Nemzetközi térképészeti konferencia Budapesten

Summary

This article reports on the plenary session of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on National Atlases, held in Budapest on 7–11 September 1962. As the first major international geographical meeting hosted in Hungary, the conference was significant both scientifically and institutionally. It brought together twenty-four representatives from fifteen foreign countries, including commission members, corresponding members, invited experts, and observers from diverse political and geographical regions. Organized by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with support from the State Office of Surveying and Cartography, the meeting reviewed progress since the commission’s 1960 Stockholm session and assessed national-atlas projects in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and Australia. The discussions focused on five principal tasks: harmonizing the content and legends of key atlas maps; analyzing complex regional atlases and their relationship to national atlases; facilitating the use of national-atlas data in international cartographic works; ensuring systematic updating; and supporting the preparation of new national atlases. Country reports demonstrated substantial progress, including ongoing or redesigned atlas programs in Belgium, India, Morocco, Austria, Britain, the United States, Poland, Spain, Hungary, France, Sweden, the Soviet Union, Switzerland, Australia, and several socialist and West African states. For the first time, the commission also examined regional atlases as a distinct field, emphasizing their value for economic planning, administrative management, and territorial development. Specialized presentations addressed the standardization of demographic symbols, the cartographic representation of industry, computer-assisted atlas compilation, and the bibliography of national atlases. The adopted resolutions refined the commission’s program by recommending a flexible common atlas structure, standardized symbols and color scales, coordinated statistical documentation, norms for explanatory texts, wider international exchange, regular revision mechanisms, and support for complex regional atlases. Particular attention was given to minimum atlas programs for developing countries, cooperation with other international cartographic bodies, the establishment of national documentation centers, and the formation of thematic working groups. An accompanying exhibition displayed atlases and related publications from seventy countries. The Budapest session thus advanced methodological coordination and international exchange in atlas cartography, strengthened Hungary’s role in global geographical scholarship, and illustrated how scientific cooperation across political divisions could contribute to professional development, mutual understanding, and peaceful international relations.