Some remarks about national atlases

Summary

This article aims to explore the definition, characteristics, and key issues in the compilation of national atlases. The author first reviews the background of the establishment of the Commission on National Atlases of the International Geographical Union and the outcomes of its Moscow meeting, noting that the compilation of national atlases, as representative cartographic publications providing scientific, multilateral characteristics of a country, has significantly increased worldwide in recent years. The article proposes that a national atlas should possess several typical features: first, it should cover a single state within its current boundaries; second, its content should comprehensively reflect the country's geographical environment, population and settlements, economic development, and cultural life. The author emphasizes that national atlases differ from general informational atlases or special atlases, the latter focusing only on certain elements of the geographic environment or specific economic sectors, and thus should be classified as special atlases. Furthermore, the author discusses the classification of atlases for individual states within federal countries, arguing that atlases of large federal entities (e.g., republics of the USSR, states of the USA) can be considered national atlases, while those of small federal states (e.g., states of Germany or Austria) should be classified as regional atlases. The article also criticizes atlases burdened with excessive generalization and tendentiousness, categorizing them as popular-propaganda atlases. In terms of compilation methods, the author advocates that a national atlas should be a geographical rather than encyclopedic atlas, problem-oriented rather than statistical, dynamic rather than static, and should serve as a tool for spatial planning of the country's development. Finally, the article discusses the potential for international standardization, including map scales, layout of maps on the plate, atlas format, minimum content scope, multilingual legends and titles, citation of sources, standardization of base maps, unification of cartographic methods, printing techniques, and covers, aiming to stimulate international discussion and exchange.