History Of Cartography Research Articles

Traditional Thoughts and Modern Development of the Historical Urban Landscape in China: Lessons Learned from the Example of Pingyao Historical City

In the past 40 years, China has undergone a rapid urbanization process which has led to a significant contradiction between the desire to develop modern urban spaces and the need to protect historic urban sites. Urban construction has brought not only the destruction of the physical space of the historic urban sites, but also the fragmentation of the natural landscape and its structural disconnection to the historic urban landscape. Ancient Chinese planners had their own thoughts regarding urban construction and the specific patterns of the urban landscape. The urban landscape of Chinese historic cities focuses predominantly on the structural relationship to its neighborhood. This paper aims to explore the value and character of the historic landscape of the ancient city, finding the key causes of its decline in the process of urbanization. The World Cultural Heritage city Pingyao is taken as a case study. Firstly, an analysis of its historical spatial structure and urban planning ideas of the ancient city of Pingyao using ancient maps and historical documents is presented. Then, a quantitative analysis of the urban space expansion in Pingyao city from 1989 to 2016 is conducted and its land use structure further analyzed. Additionally, four editions of the urban master plan in Pingyao have comprehensively shown that modern urban construction and planning tend to focus more on urban economic functions and social needs. In contrast, ancient urban planning relied on the spatial connection between urban space and its natural environment to construct a higher urban cultural connotation. As a result, the different development mode between modern urbanization and construction of ancient cities could be the key reason for the decline of spatial structure and landscape fragmentation of historical cities in China. With respect to the experience and thoughts of Pingyao’s ancient urban planning and construction, technical ideas and suggestions are put forward as reference in future spatial planning for Pingyao’s urban development and cultural protection. Our findings have been incorporated into the relevant sections of the spatial planning of Pingyao.

Promoting the heritage of the city of San Cristobal de La Laguna through a temporal link with a 16th century map

There is an increasing interest in the conservation of historical cities since they provide a link to the roots of their communities and bring cultural and economic benefits to their inhabitants. In this paper, we present an approach to promote the knowledge of the UNESCO World Heritage city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna in the Canary Islands, Spain. The city was founded in 1496 and has a unique value due to its urban design. In this work, we present a web application that allows a user to locate places and addresses of the current city in its first known map authored by Leonardo Torriani in the 16th century. To build this application we have georeferenced the ancient map in the current cartography. The georeferencing process needs the identification of homologous ground control points in the coordinate systems of both the old map and the current cartography, and the definition of a transform between them. Best results were obtained with the non-parametric natural transform interpolation leading to a global mean error of 4.9 m that reduces to 3.2 m in the historical city centre. To provide a fast response to the user of the web application, a technique to precompute offline the natural transform is presented. The web application has a simple front-end where the user fills the current city address in a form. This activates a query to obtain the geographical coordinates of the address that are transformed to map coordinates using the pre-computed transformation. These map coordinates are used by a map viewer in the front end that locates the user address in the ancient map. To test the performance of the web application, the load of the system has been analysed obtaining a latency of 1.4 s in 50 concurrent users. Results show that the web application provides accurate results in the historical centre while providing satisfactory response times.Highlights:- This study investigates the issue of georeferencing the first historic map (16th century) of San Cristóbal de La Laguna and the possibility to geolocate current city addresses.- By using the natural interpolation method, the georeferencing errors were diminished below 4 m in most of the historic city.- A user-friendly web application has been designed which precisely locates current directions in the old map providing a valuable tool for the promotion of the heritage of the city.

Anchoring the Image of the Sea: Copying Coastlines on Manuscript Nautical Charts from the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

ABSTRACT The birth of the nautical chart in the late medieval period is seen as a watershed moment in the history of cartography. So far, however, the artisanal practices that permitted the proliferation of sea charts have remained poorly understood and little evidence has been recovered from extant charts on which to base the production history of the surviving charts. This article describes a systematic exploration of the techniques employed in the copying of coastlines on manuscript charts between the fourteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Attention is drawn to the ways different processes shaped contemporary late-medieval and early-modern understanding of the Mediterranean and what the techniques may reveal of that thinking. By reframing the charts in terms of their characteristics as drawings and placing map making in the broader context of two-dimensional graphic art, and by making use of the ever-growing corpus of high-resolution digital reproductions, we gain new insights into the chartmakers’ changing approaches to the transmission of geographical information. At the same time, a number of directions for further research are opened up.

Mapping the anthropic occupation of the territory. Tracing dynamics of human settlement from archaeological records and historic cartographies

ABSTRACT The dynamics of anthropic occupation of a territory over time play a central role in shaping the cultural landscape we see today. This paper presents a methodology for visually representing this phenomenon. The method consists of transforming data from archaeological records and historic cartography into a series of maps that allow historic settlement patterns to be interpreted and the historic depth of contemporary urban areas to be revealed. To create these maps, a series of geospatial analyses were carried out, including density analysis and weighted overlay. The methodology was applied to the peri-urban area of Seville in southern Spain, although it may be extrapolated to other regions.

The main directions in the process of studying the principles of settlement and localization of small and medium-sized settlements on the territory of the Middle Ob region.

The hydrographic conditions of the territory of the Middle Ob region determined the unique characteristics of the settlement system formed within its borders. Settlements are located on landscape manes formed by alluvium and having the form of elongated elevations of the middle and high floodplain of the river. During the spring flood, only small areas of land remain not flooded, and transport communication is carried out exclusively by water and air. The determining influence of the hydrographic characteristics of this territory presupposes the presence of marker signs of the settlement system, identified in the process of its formation and development, which means that it requires in-depth study by specialists of the urban planning profile. The relevance of the stated problems is added by the strategy of spatial development of the Russian Federation adopted by the government for the period up to 2025. This strategy assumes the concentration of economic growth in a limited number of centers and supports the socio-economic role of cities. However, on the territory of the Middle Ob region, which has significant spatial boundaries, there are no land plots that allow developing a large administrative and territorial center from an average settlement. National trends in urban planning policy do not imply variability for this territory and in recent decades there has been a rapid degradation of the historically established form of settlement of small and medium-sized settlements. In this article, based on the analysis of the main research directions, a small study of the unique historically established system of settlement of small and medium-sized settlements is proved. Historical cartography, notes dating from the end of the XVII – XIX centuries, studies of the XX century, as well as the results of a full–scale survey of the territory collected in scientific expeditions 2018 - 2021 are used as a scientific basis for analysis. For the first time, the question is raised about the need for a special in-depth study of the principles of settlement and localization of small and medium-sized settlements on the territory of the Middle Ob region by urban planning specialists.

Пути развития исторической картографии

The article is devoted to the review of the historical cartography development periods in the past and its current state. The study examines the development of historical cartography from traditional meth-ods of creating maps to digital ones. For this purpose, domestic and foreign publications of different years have been collected and studied, publications devoted to analytical reviews of the development of certain areas of historical cartography or the development of historical cartography for certain periods of time, individual historical cartographic works of different years, as well as such works them-selves. The article pays special attention to the current state of digital historical cartography, and also identifies specific examples of the use of GIS technologies in historical cartographic studies of socio-economic phenomena. In the course of the study, the authors applied comparative-historical and analytical-synthetic research methods. As a result, it is concluded that traditional paper maps and atlases were considered as means of providing information and were used in historical research mainly for visualization of historical data. And the use of GIS technologies makes it possible to display historical phenomena in layers, conduct spatial analysis, create derivative maps of geospatial knowledge that display the dynamics of state borders, population migration, etc.

КОМПЛЕКС ПАЛАЦУ ПОТОЦЬКИХ В ІВАНО-ФРАНКІВСЬКУ: ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ АРХІТЕКТУРНИХ ФРАГМЕНТІВ СПОРУДИ ПРИ ПІВНІЧНОМУ МУРІ

The Potocki Palace complex has been an integral part of the Stanislawow city fortress since its reconstruction in the end of XVIth century. The functional and the spatial structure of the complex was formed over two sequential phases: the residence (1680s-1802) and the military hospital (1802-2004). The preserved buildings of the palace period have many layers of different historical development stages and require the application of the restoration methods for its identification. The paper aims to identify the architectural fragments detected on the main façade of the building at the northern wall (building K) and to make an attempt to prove the hypothesis regarding the reconstruction of the complex northern wall and installation the gate in the 1740s during the residence period (1680s - 1802). The existing planning structure was compared to the historical cartography in order to identify the building with the underground chambers below. The findings single out two main construction periods, which correspond to the complex periods of functioning. The first period is the residence of the Potocki family (1680s - 1802), when underground chambers and a portal in the castle wall for access to the terrace probably existed on the same composite axis. The second period - the military hospital (1802 - 2004), during which the building was constructed on the wall, in correspondence to the layout of the underground chambers. The results cast new light on the planning structure of the complex and the city fortress itself and reveal a valuable part of historical heritage. However these architectural fragments require further archaeological research and examination with a ground-penetrating radar. The research was carried out within the framework of the scientific research program of the municipal enterprise Space of Innovative Creativity PALACE, which was created for the scientific research, protection, preservation and revitalization of the complex.

The Medieval Origins of the Carthusian Landscape in Piedmont (Twelfth-Fourteenth Centuries)

From analysis of the cartari of the monasteries of Casotto and Montebenedetto - the first Carthusian monasteries of twelfth-century Piedmont - this article examines the close link between the Monastery of the Grande-Chartreuse and the two Italian Carthusian monasteries. These ties become especially apparent in the ways in which territorial matters are dealt with in the Consuetudines Cartusiae. Reading monastic sources against historical cartography yields the analytic means to reconstruct, graphically, the shifting possession of land areas between the two Italian monasteries. This, in turn, leads to improved understanding of the Carthusian landscape heritage from the twelfth century to the fourteenth, as well as the pre-existing structures still present in the territory.

Historical Cartography Analysis for a Design of Cultural Itineraries in the Lower Guadalquivir

Historical Cartography Analysis for a Design of Cultural Itineraries in the Lower Guadalquivir

Analysis of historical cartography and data presentation for an educational purpose: The case of the historical centre of Vimercate

Abstract. Founded by Romans, Vimercate had an important geographical position in Lombardy. Layers of history are visible throughout the town, yet there is the inconsistency of historical data and neglect of the historical centre in the past decades. Only recently researchers and professors from Politecnico di Milano pointed out the importance of studying layers of history in the built environment. In the past years, Vimercate was used as an example for students from masters and bachelor courses in preservation studios. This is where the idea for the master’s thesis was developed which focuses on the collection, digitalisation and investigation of primary historical cartography and then other historical documents. Historical cartography can offer extensive knowledge about the past of this town and it is one of the main sources of information. For the creation of the project was selected free and open-source software QGIS where the selected historical maps were vectorised, compared and investigated. A new understanding of the development of the city was studied and some discoveries appeared. Effective application of the thesis project started in the courses of Architectural preservation studio at Politecnico di Milano. This was followed by the interest of citizens in the project who were actively participated in the creation of the same. Other stakeholders showed interest in involving in future developments. The thesis found its application in didactic activities of students and pupils.

Historical Cartography and Sustainable Tourism Development. Reconnecting Trento and the Fersina Stream through the Retrieval of Environmental and Cultural Heritage

Abstract. Within the context of postmodern tourism, the importance of preserving and enhancing environmental and cultural assets of destinations is increasingly being recognised as one of the keys to sustainable long-term development of territories. The paper focuses on the complex diachronic relationship between the town of Trento, in the Trentino- Alto Adige region, and its watercourses, and, in particular, on its connection with the Fersina stream. The aim is to raise locals’ and visitors’ awareness of a largely forgotten urban water landscape, and to implement the town’s existing cultural and environmental tourist offer. This is achieved through the revival of collective memory of the fundamental role of water for the development of Trento and through the requalification of the stream and its network of canals, which once brought water to different parts of the city-centre. For such purpose, the validity of cartography and other geo-historical sources has been acknowledged; maps are particularly useful sources for retracing territorialisation processes, and rediscovering past territorialities and related landscapes. Accordingly, we have carried out a geo-historical analysis of cartographic representations of the town, shedding light on the past widespread presence of water within urban space and making some proposals for the enhancement and communication of such heritage.

Geomorphological Changes of a Migrating Sandbank: Multidecadal Analysis as a Tool for Managing Conflicts in Coastal Use

While beach erosion and sand loss are typically of great concern to the tourism industry, managing rapid morphological changes linked to large amounts of moving sediments is the challenge facing Grado, an important seaside resort in the northern Adriatic, Italy. The cause of the unusual management conflict is the presence of the Mula di Muggia Bank, a nearshore depositional system made up of relict and active migrating sandbanks extending up to 2 km seawards from the touristic beachfront. A reconstruction of the morpho-sedimentary evolution of the coastal system over a 200-year period was done using a large dataset which includes historical cartography, topographic maps, aerial photos and topo-bathymetric surveys. The results show the growth of a significant urban development aimed at creating a tourist destination by occupying the waterfront along fetch-limited coastal tracts with very shallow water and scarce hydrodynamics. Furthermore, a number of sandy dynamic landforms (longshore migrating bars, a bypass corridor, an ebb-tidal delta) and accumulation zones attest to a sediment excess which can be mostly attributed to the eastern river supplies. The progressive constant migration rate of 12.6 my−1 allowed the bank to induce the expansion of the low-energy silty backbarrier environment, characterised by abundant seagrass meadows a short distance directly in front of the tourist beaches of Grado. As a result of historical analysis and more current observations, areas with diverse morphosedimentary features and with varying tourist/recreational, ecological, and conservation values have been identified. These can be considered as basic units for future accurate planning and re-evaluation of coastal management choices to balance environmental protection and tourist use. A soft coastal defence approach is proposed which includes either the preservation of specific environments or the proper use of excess sand for beach nourishment via periodic dredging or sediment bypassing.

Maps hiding in plain sight

Abstract. Early Chinese elites were defined by their aristocratic control of land. That control came directly from the emperor and was documented on bronze ritual vessels, which were handed down from generation to generation. The land grant boundaries were defined using decorative symbols inscribed on bronze, and Western Zhou vessels containing these symbols were used to resolve land disputes. Methodical analysis comparing the inscriptions and symbols, combined with an understanding of early Chinese cartography and etymology, allows the bronze vessel land grants to be decoded.

Petojo Enclek Traditional Market Building: Application of Technology Systems as Substantiation of Improving the Quality of Life and Landscape Transformation in Batavia

Abstract. Traditional markets are places and means of meeting sellers and buyers and are marked by direct buyer-seller transactions and usually there is a bargaining process. This research is a study of environmental changes and Petojo Enclek Market in the 20th - 21st Century. The purpose of this research is to see changes in Petojo Enclek Market based on archives, ancient maps, ancient photos, history, technology used in buildings, and market conditions in the past. recently. In this study using qualitative methods, the stages of this research include data collection, data processing, data analysis and data interpretation. The theory used in this study is the Core-Periphery by John Friedman and Weaver, where the Core-Periphery relationship can occur due to the expansion (development) of markets and other infrastructure. This research, it can be seen that there are significant changes in the Petojo Enclek Market building and its surroundings.

Schmidt hammer exposure-age dating of periglacial and glacial landforms in the Southern Swiss Alps based on <i>R</i>-value calibration using historical data

Abstract. As a contribution to the palaeoenvironmental history reconstruction of the Alpine periglacial domain, this study focuses on the Schmidt hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) of (peri-)glacial landforms using rebound-value (R-value) calibrations for 10 stations in the Scaradra glacier forefield (north-eastern part of the Ticino Canton, Lepontine Alps) and for 13 stations in the Splügenpass region (located between Switzerland and Italy, Rhaetian Alps). Linear calibration based on the known age of several moraines of the Scaradra glacier assessed by historical cartography allowed the reconstruction of the glacier fluctuations around the end of the Little Ice Age. Timing of deglaciation and of rock glacier development was defined in the Splügenpass region using the calibration of exposure ages based on two mule tracks built in 300 CE and 1250 CE, respectively. Discussion on R-value analysis and calibration improves the knowledge on the potential use of SHD for numerical-age dating in Alpine geomorphological studies.

Creating an Ethnographic Atlas of European Russia as Reflected in Peter von Köppen’s Correspondence with the Academy of Sciences

In the mid-nineteenth century, the development of ethnographic cartography was mostly driven by issues related to the classification and territorial distribution of ethnic groups. However, in the course of this work, cartographers, ethnographers, and statisticians faced economic and material challenges, which have often been overlooked in the scholarship. This article examines the ‘mapping processes’ (М. Edney) of the 1840s through an analysis of correspondence between Peter von Köppen and the Imperial St Petersburg Academy of Sciences about the preparation of the Ethnographic Atlas of European Russia (1848), one of the first ethnographic maps published in the Russian Empire. These sources held in the St Petersburg branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences are published here for the first time and provide detailed information about the circumstances behind the preparation of the atlas. The academy only published a short summary of these discussions, which omitted key financial and methodological details. The correspondence thus provides an alternative perspective on the history of cartography, revealing the difficulties of everyday scientific activity behind the scenes. The exchange vividly describes the relationship between the Academy of Sciences and the Russian Geographical Society during its early years, Köppen’s struggle to finance his various cartographic projects, and the material processes of producing an ethnographic map. The article focuses on how Köppen balanced his scientific vision with his limited material and practical circumstances and the goals of the various scientific organisations he was involved in.

Waterscape and Floods Management of Greek Selinus: The Cottone River Valley

Abstract This paper investigates water bodies in the Greek colony of Selinus, Western Sicily-Italy. It focuses especially on one of the two rivers of the city: the Cottone. The investigative strategy adopted in this study consists of an interdisciplinary approach based on the analysis of archaeological evidence, Earth Sciences data, and the study of historical cartography. Results indicate that the Cottone River was not a swampy and unhealthy intermittent stream as it was believed so far; it was instead a fully functional water body featuring an active floodplain. Most importantly, research presented in this article indicates several floods occurred in Selinus from the second or third quarter of the sixth century BC to the end of the fifth century BC. These floods, which occurred at the peak of Selinus’ cultural and economic life, were related to severe major events, rather than seasonal floods, as suggested by other scholars. The management of these floods and the waterscape was crucial to the city’s prosperity. This article also analyzes the relationship between the Cottone River and the fortification walls located at the Cottone River Valley. Results indicate that the fortification walls functioned not only as a defensive infrastructure, but also as a hydraulic engineering solution for flood retention. A better understanding of the environment in which Selinus was settled is now available, and knowledge on the importance of waterscapes and their management has been enhanced.

Evaluating historic preservation zoning using a landscape approach

Historic preservation is generally regarded as an important and appropriate way to exhibit the history of the city; however, the designation of preservation zones requires accurate mapping and is subject to restrictions on contemporary and historical cartography. This paper provides an approach to the evaluation of urban landscape assessment on the basis of geographical “big data”. Three components (city plans, the patterns of building forms, and urban land use) are included in the framework of the urban landscape. A three-level evaluation model based on t-tests is developed to determine the effectiveness of historic preservation zoning. The results of a case study of 12 Chinese cities show that, first, not all urban landscape indicators are appropriate for preservation zoning evaluation and, secondly, preservation zones have been designated both larger and smaller than is necessary, which may be explained by discontinuities in some protection policies. Developing a method of historic protection for urban landscapes based on big data is a novel approach, and this study provides meaningful insights into applications for urban design and conservation for decision-makers and academics.

Economic mapping and assessment of Cymodocea nodosa meadows as nursery grounds for commercially important fish species. A case study in the Canary Islands

Cymodocea nodosa seagrass meadows provide several socio-economically ecosystem services, including nurseries for numerous species of commercial interest. These seagrasses are experiencing a worldwide decline, with global loss rates approaching 5% per year, mainly related to coastal human activities. Cymodocea nodosa, the predominant seagrass in the Canary Archipelago (Spain), is also exposed to these threats, which could lead to habitat loss or even local disappearance. In this case study, we estimated the potential economic value of Cymodocea nodosa seagrass meadows for local fisheries at an archipelago scale. Habitat suitability maps were constructed using MAXENT 3.4.1, a software for modelling species distributions by applying a maximum entropy machine-learning method, from a set of environmental variables and presence and background records extracted from historical cartographies. This model allows characterising and assessing the C. nodosa habitat suitability, overcoming the implicit complexity derived from seasonal changes in this species highly dynamic meadows and using it as a first step for the mapping and assessment of ecosystem services. In a second step, value transfer methodologies were used, along with published economic valuations of commercially-interesting fish species related to C. nodosa meadows. We estimate that the potential monetary value of these species can add up to more than 3 million euros per year for the entire Archipelago. The simplicity of the proposed methodology facilitates its repeatability in other similar regions, using freely available data and hence, being suitable for data-scarce scenarios.

How Did Old Maps Become Valuable? On Map Collecting and the History of Cartography in the United States

An appreciation for old maps as culturally important documents came slowly in the United States. The first precondition for this shift was the reframing of history brought by political independence. The second was the growth of facsimile maps, which made these sources available to a wider audience. The third was a loose network of scholars, archivists, collectors, and federal actors—including Johann Georg Kohl—who gradually began to advocate for the cultural and political significance of old maps. Yet ongoing advocacy for a federal map collection did not produce results until the end of the Civil War, just as the trade in old maps coincided with the emergence of university-based historical and geographical research. The rapid growth of institutional map collections—including the Library of Congress Division of Maps—by the turn of the twentieth century bears out this shift. The idea that outdated maps might be valuable evidence of history and culture could only develop once maps were understood not simply as instruments of accuracy, but meaningful artifacts of history. Here we trace this complex story across multiple areas of American life from the early nineteenth century to the interwar period.