The Natural Environment and Natural Resources of the Earth: Methodological Guidelines for Maps of a Comprehensive Atlas

Summary

The preface introduces a collection of theoretical and methodological studies associated with the preparation of the atlas Natural Environment and Natural Resources of the World, explaining its continuity with the 1983 collection Mapping the Natural Environment and Natural Resources. Contributions address the atlas’s objectives, structure, and content; medical-geographical maps relating natural prerequisites for disease to socioeconomic conditions; and maps assessing biological resource potential through vegetation productivity data. Other topics include satellite imagery, unified legends, and regionalization in geomorphological mapping, alongside matrix and graphical models for map design and coordination, scale construction, and logical problems in thematic map symbol systems. The volume also commemorates Academician Innokenty Petrovich Gerasimov, the scientific leader of the atlas project.