Rezensionen: Atlas van Nederland

Summary

This article reviews the Dutch national atlas "Atlas van Nederland" (published from 1968 onwards), a comprehensive cartographic work planned to include over 100 map sheets. Its distinctive feature lies in the relatively large scales used for main maps (1:600,000). The review notes the atlas's high production quality but relatively low information density, with a dominance of analytical themes. Content is organized into 17 sections covering physical geography, population, economy, transport, historical geography, and more. The review specifically discusses the presentation methods of population distribution and density maps, the detailed soil maps (1:200,000), the seasonal presentation of climate data, and the excellent design of settlement morphology and urban development maps (based on 1:25,000 topographic maps). Several shortcomings are identified, including potentially misleading municipal-level statistical cartography and over-simplified topographic base maps. Overall, the atlas is regarded as a representative and well-executed national cartographic project.