Cartographic Sources Research Articles

Urban Green Space and the Blitz: Constructing New Parks and Gardens in Post-War Southwark

This article illustrates how historical cartographic sources can be analysed using a Geographical Information System to identify green spaces in London with a bombsite genesis in order to enhance the understanding of how the Blitz acted as a catalyst for greening the capital. It describes how temporary wartime green space creation and a desire to memorialise using parks and gardens gave way to ambitious plans to weave hundreds of acres of new green space into London’s urban fabric after the Second World War. The policies of London’s local government show how bomb-damaged land was specifically earmarked as the nuclei around which new green spaces could be assembled to address long-standing deficiencies in open space provision. The analysis of post-war green spaces in the present-day London Borough of Southwark using a Geographical Information System, alongside case studies of Leathermarket Gardens and Burgess Park, illustrates how digital mapping combined with archival research can reveal the processes and policies used by the municipal authorities to assemble new green spaces.

Cartographic sources in the immersive geovisualization of a medieval stronghold

Cartographic sources in the immersive geovisualization of a medieval stronghold

Human Tales on the Pathless Sea? Imperial Subjectivities and Exploration Ship Tracks in European Maritime Mapping, c.1500–c.1800

Abstract During the Renaissance, Europeans began to mark sea journeys on maps and charts as lines or dotted lines—‘ship tracks’. This new graphical depiction of voyages, which flanked and often replaced verbal itinerary descriptions, ultimately lies behind present-day route-marking devices, but it has not been much investigated by historians. Tracing its development between the sixteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, through cartographic sources, hydrographical manuals and voyage accounts, this article argues that ship tracks constituted a fundamental turning point in European understandings of human movement and influence in the world. In particular, the tracks of late eighteenth-century imperial explorers, built through novel accuracy claims, established a unique cognitive and ontological link between representation and reality and between human agency and the natural world, and explicitly embedded the perspectival subjectivity of storytelling into the alleged objectivity of ‘scientific’ geometrisations of the globe. As such, tracks are useful tools with which to understand and deconstruct the roots of ‘modernity/coloniality’. They also reveal the extent to which maritime history holds important keys to the past: as a representational and directional device, the modern journey track owes much of its ancestry to confrontation with the liquid and supposedly ‘pathless’ sea.

Gorodni in Siberia and the Far East in the late XVI–XVII centuries

There is a confusion in the use of the terms “gorodni” and “tarasa”, related to the construction of walls, in written sources and historiography on the architecture of the fortifications of the Russian state in Siberia and the Far East. The purpose of the study, the results of which are presented in the article, was to clarify the meaning of the term “gorodni” in written sources. The factual base consists of written, archaeological and cartographic sources. It is established that the term “gorodni” is earlier in relation to the term “tarasa”. The change of terminology did not reflect changes in the wall structure. Such a structure of defensive walls as a gorodni was not used in the region under study. Both of these terms imply a tarasa structure, which were called “gorodni” in written sources until the middle of the XVII century, and from the second half of the XVII century mainly “tarasa”.

The “Topographic Map of 1857”: Uses of an Image and the Construction of Cartographic Sources

Este artículo reseña el proceso de creación del documento cartográfico al que se le ha llamado genéricamente “Plano topográfico de 1857”. Al comprobar que existen ejemplares distintos a los que se les ha considerado como un mismo plano, se procede a describir los contextos de manufactura de los diferentes objetos cartográficos. En ese desarrollo se recuperan los objetivos hidrográficos del proyecto con los que el plano fue concebido y se realiza un recuento de las interpretaciones que ha tenido su publicación.

Practical use of drawing in research on the historical space of the city

Various research methods and techniques are popularised in the literature on the theory of research on the historical space of cities. However, less attention is paid to their tools. The aim of the article is to use drawing as a tool showing the historical space of the city, which is the subject of further research. There are many drawing motives and they depend on research needs. These may be objects, streets, squares and city panoramas. By analysing historical iconographic and cartographic sources, it is possible to create an image of an unpreserved object or place using a drawing, by reconstructing their form, and present them in a wider frame by adding the surroundings. In the case of streets, these may be drawings of frontages or their perspectives seen from two directions, while for squares, they may be in the form of internal and external views. Depending on how you look at it, you can draw from a human level or from above. The article presents a documentary drawing drawn with a pen as a drawing tool to be used in the graphic method of researching the historical space of cities. Especially places that have not survived to the present day. Drawing can be an alternative to digital visualisation, which requires computer equipment and specialised software

Accuracy Evaluation for Plan-Reliefs and Historical Maps Created during WWI in Northern Italy

The availability of digital copies of historical artifacts modeling the territory through the so-called “plan-reliefs” is important for many reasons: the preservation of the artifact if the physical object is damaged or destroyed, the possibility of creating virtual showrooms and providing researchers a tool to study the object combining information from different sources. For these reasons, a set of plan-reliefs created during World War I on the Italian front and kept by the Italian Historical War Museum of Rovereto (Italy) was surveyed to create digital models of the surfaces, which were georeferenced in the ETRS89 datum. A set of historical military maps of the same period was georeferenced to overlay the sets to the surface in the digital representation and to try to infer clues about the cartographic sources used in the historical artifact creation. The best transformation for georeferencing the maps is different depending on the map scale, map origin, conservation status and number of Ground Control Points. The georeferencing process precision and accuracy were evaluated. The digital models created in this study were compared to the official Digital Terrain Model (DTM) provided by the Regions or the autonomous provinces. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, and the combination of the models with the georeferenced maps is used by historians to describe the process used in the creation of plan-reliefs.

O sursă cartografică pentru Brăila anului 1828 – Planul Petuhov

This study aims to present a Russian plan of Braila from 1828, a plan created by officer Petuhov. It is a precious and detailed cartographic source for the history of Ottoman Braila, containing a lot of previously unknown toponyms, mainly names of streets, mosques, gates and roads. Throughout this study, the context for the appearance of the cartographic source, as well as the details found in it, are discussed. Moreover, the legend is translated and a copy of the plan it is published towards the end of the study.

Two eighteenth century cartographic sources used for the construction of a historical GIS database dedicated to Transylvania

Beyond these inadequacies, it represents an important source, which mentions the motto of the institution, the first visitors on 25 June 1899, headed by the mayor of the city, Friedrich Walbaum and a number of other local personalities of that time. We have signatures of anonymous and famous visitors who crossed the threshold of the institution between 1899 and 1918. Among these signatures we find those of Professor Friedrich Brewerth, the future scientist Hermann Oberth, the collector Karl Haldenwang or the scientist Alexander Tzigara-Samurcaș. The presence of signatures from 1914–1918 also shows that the institution functioned during the difficult years of the First World War.

From Surveying to Surveillance: Maritime Cartography and Naval (Self-)Tracking in the Long Nineteenth Century

Abstract In the eighteenth century, ‘ship tracks’, lines recording vessels’ movements on charts, facilitated wayfinding, hydrographical surveys and territorial claims. During the long nineteenth century, however, their main function shifted from surveying of the marine environment to surveillance of officers’ movements and actions. Using textual and cartographical sources produced by British naval officers, this article argues that geosurveillance and the continuous visual tracking of individuals with reference to mapping systems were developed at sea, long before the aerial and digital revolutions, and independently of panoptical models. In the nineteenth century, most cartographical tracking was disciplined self-tracking, actively performed by the surveilled themselves. This required their employers (notably the state) to emphasize honour, training, conscientiousness and procedure. The Admiralty used tracks for testing performance, verifying accounts, establishing responsibilities and co-ordinating movement. Monitoring individuals through their record was the natural inverse of a pattern discussed by historians of science: data verification through authorial ‘credibility’. The two-way bond between the surveilled and their track was eventually broken in the twentieth century by technological innovations that allowed external and non-consensual geo-tracking. This changed the import of surveillance, discipline and the sea itself, no longer a space where human movement would be inevitably lost from sight.

Selected cartographic sources from the late 18th century to 1939 for the research of Josephine colonization in the Austrian sector of the first partition of Poland

Abstract The article presents a selected base of cartographic sources enabling analyses on Josephine settlements in the Austrian partition from the late 18th century to 1939. The purpose of the article is to present the cartographic source base on Josephine colonization collected in Poland and Ukraine. The research covered all settlements created during the Josephine colonization (1781–1789). The text discusses cartographic source materials (available on-site and online) acquired through queries. The analyses included village plans, large--scale maps of Galicia, the Galician cadastre (Austrian land cadastre) and maps from the interwar period.

Historical Context for Abandoned lands and land use in the area of Luvic Greyzemic Phaeozems of the Northern Pritomye (West Siberia)

The aim of the study was to investigate the historical land use and identify abandoned land aras of different ages within the area occupied by the dark-grey forest soils (according to the USSR Soil Classification of 1977), or as Luvic Greyzemic Phaeozems (according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources of 2022) in one of the oldest agricultural areas of the southern forest zone in the south-east of West Siberia (Northern Pritomye). Location and time of the study. The field research was conducted in the south of Tomsk region (Tomsk district) and in the north of Kemerovo region (Yashkinsky district). The work with archival materials was carried out using remote access to archives and databases covering the south-eastern part of West Siberia. Methods. The search for ecosystems abundant for different time spans, as well as soils that had not been ploughed, was carried out by analyzing historical cartographic sources located in various regional and state archives, as well as in the public domain on the Internet. The found archival information went back for more than 250 years. Space images obtained over the last 60 years were also used for analysis. Historical sources were used to assess the history of land management in the area of the Luvic Greyzem Phaeozems in the Northern Pritomye. The field studies of the ecosystems confirmed the conclusions about their successional status based on the analysis of cartographic sources, for which a morphogenetic analysis of the signs of previous ploughing and the determination of the oldest trees age were carried out. Results. The history of the development of Luvic Greyzemic Phaeozems in the Northern Pritomye, in the right-bank part of the Tom River, between the valleys of the Kirgizka and Sosnovka, dates back 420 years. The first arable land appeared almost immediately after the foundation of Tomsk in 1604. By the middle of the 17th century, depletion and abandonment of some soils in the vicinity of Tomsk and the village of Spasskoye were observed. Then the development of Luvic Greyzem Phaeozems began in the area of the mouth of the Sosnovka River. To the east of the Tom River, agricultural settlements of military people on Luvisols emerged in the valleys of the Ushaika and Basandaika Rivers. The first abandoned lands in the area of the soils in question appeared in the first half of the 17th century. In the 19th century, arable farming became less significant, and a belt of predominantly deciduous forests formed around Tomsk. Forests, including cedar forests on th abandoned lands, formed near the villages. At that time, most of the area of dark-gray forest typical soils consisted of post-agrogenic ecosystems used as dry hay meadows and firewood forests. A mosaic picture of the distribution of lands was formed: small arable lands and meadows were adjacent to isolated trees and birch groves. Arable fields were used for up to ten years, after which they were abandoned lands. With the beginning of the mechanization of agriculture, arable lands became larger, the area of arable land reached its maximum. In the 21st century, newly abandoned lands appeared. Conclusions. Luvic Greyzemic Phaeozems that were not affected by plowing, as well as lands abandoned for varying time spans, were identified. The information will be used in further comparative historical genetic studies of soils.

Vilinska ljut na Širokom Brigu: An In-depth Study of the Toponymy of an Area in Western Herzegovina. Review of the book: Šimić, M., & Dugandžić, I. (2022). Mistopisi na jugozapadu Širokoga Briga. Toponimi katastarske općine Rasno iz 1891. godine (Sela Rasna, Dužica, Privalja i Čerigaja) [Place Names in the South-West of Široki Brijeg: Toponyms of Rasno Cadastral District in 1891

The reviewed book Place Names in the South-West of Široki Brig: Toponyms of the Rasno Cadastral District in 1891 (Villages of Rasno, Dužice, Privalj and Čerigaj), authored by Marinka Šimić and Ivan Dugandžić, presents a comprehensive analysis of the toponymy within a specific area of Western Herzegovina. The authors meticulously examined over 18 thousand names of land plots documented in cadastral records, identifying more than 2 thousand distinct names, which are introduced here for the first time into scholarly discussion. Alongside etymological insights and analyses of toponymic motivations and microtoponyms, the study provides detailed descriptions of referents. Primary sources used for this investigation include census records of the Turkish conquerors, various cartographic sources such as maps from the Venetian Republic and Austro-Hungarian maps, as well as land registers from 1891 and 1961, cadastral maps, and information gathered from informants during fieldwork in the villages of Rasno, Dužice, Privalj, and Čerigaj. Additionally, the authors incorporate their own knowledge, personal experiences, and memories. The review highlights the pioneering work of M. Šimić and I. Dugandžić in documenting the toponymy of the southwestern region of Široki Brijeg, laying the groundwork for further in-depth studies of the entire area’s toponymy. This book is a valuable resource for linguists, historians, folklorists, ethnographers, anthropologists, and scholars in related disciplines.

УРОВНИ ЗАЛЕГАНИЯ, УСЛОВИЯ ПИТАНИЯ И ГИДРОХИМИЯ ВОДОНОСНЫХ ГОРИЗОНТОВ БЕССТОЧНОЙ ОБЛАСТИ ОБЬ-ИРТЫШСКОГО МЕЖДУРЕЧЬЯ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ СТЕПНОЙ ЧАСТИ АЛТАЙСКОГО КРАЯ)

Information about the groundwater of the drainless region of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve within the boundaries of the Altai Territory has been collected and summarized. The paper describes in detail ground waters of this area, which are currently gaining increasing importance in the water supply of rural settlements. The study used literary, stock, cartographic sources of information, and the results of expedition research. In Soviet times, large-scale works were performed for the steppe part of the region to search for and explore underground waters for the purposes of national economic consumption and irrigation, and monitoring was carried out. The Kulundinsky lowland and part of the Priobsky plateau are located in the drainless region. Groundwater has a diverse chemical composition which depends on the depth of the horizon, the lithological composition of the rocks, and other local features. Groundwater is replenished due to winter precipitation: in the warm period, precipitation is rare and almost all evaporate. During the year, the fluctuation of the groundwater level is one to two meters, for a long-term period – from two to three meters, depending on the natural features of the territory. Based on the studied data, a map-diagram of the depth of groundwater occurrence within the boundaries of landscape zoning areas has been compiled.

Генеральная карта Вятской губернии с планами и видами губернского, уездных и безуездных городов 1806 г.

Publication of the General Map of the Vyatka province introduces a unique cartographic source on the history of Russian urban planning into scientific circulation. The peculiarity of the map is that, in addition to having a general map of the province and plans of its thirteen towns, there are drawn general views of the towns. Most of the views represent the first illustrative images of the towns of the Vyatka province. The general map was compiled by the provincial surveyor, collegiate assessor Evstafy Rodionov in 1806. The scientific value of his work lies in particular in the fact that the images of Vyatka towns on the General Map are imprinted at the time of their restructuring began at the end of the 18th century. At the same time, town plans show both the parts planned for development in the future and the districts built up in the 17th — first half of the 18th centuries. The map shows the views of the provincial, 9 uezd and 3 uezd-less (supernumerary) towns of the Vyatka province.

Wayside shrines as forms of religiosity as illustrated by the parish of Szczepanów in the 19th century

The article discusses the role of wayside chapels, statues, and crosses in the religious life of the parish in Szczepanów. By utilizing manuscript sources from the parish archives, cartographic sources, and detached structures, the author was able to determine the number, distribution, and functions of small sacral architecture. In the 19th century, dozens of structures were recorded, funded by the local residents and communities as expressions of gratitude for graces received and as memorials to places associated with the cult of St. Stanislaus. Among the prevalent religious motifs were the Passion of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and various saints, including the patron saints of the benefactors and St. Stanislaus of Szczepanów, portrayed as a bishop performing the miracle of resurrecting the deceased knight Peter (Piotrowin).

Historical Topography of Tsarevokokshaysk

The article deals with analysis of the historical topography of Tsarevokokshaysk on the basis of cartographic, written and archaeological sources. The most informative cartographic source on the historical topography of Tsarevokokshaysk is the city plan of 1795, which depicts the main elements of the urban landscape. Written sources provide the most detailed descriptions of the city in 1728, 1795 and 1837. The results of archaeological research of the historical center of Yoshkar-Ola significantly refine and supplement the data of archival sources, allowing us to localize historical and topographic objects on the modern map of the city. The author describes the objects of the urban planning of Tsarevokokshaysk, starting with its central part – the Kremlin, then the prison and Zaostrozhnaya territory. The description includes information from archival sources supported by archaeological research data. In conclusion, the author characterizes the change in the main features of the urban layout of Tsarevokokshaysk during the period from the founding of the city to the beginning of the 20th century, raises controversial issues of the historical topography of Tsarevokokshaysk and concludes that further archaeological research of the historical center of Yoshkar-Ola is necessary.

A spatial analysis of intra-regional transport accessibility using the GIS network analysis: the case of Anabar and Nizhnekolymsky districts)

A spatial analysis of intra-regional transport accessibility of settlements in the Arctic districts of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) by GIS is an urgent task and can become a necessary support for the processes of decision-making and planning of sustainable development of these territories. The purpose of the study is to perform a spatial analysis of intra– regional transport accessibility of settlements in remote Arctic regions of Yakutia on the example of Anabarsky and Nizhnekolymsky districts. On the basis of the GIS network analysis and calculated coefficients of density of the transport network, the assessment of transport accessibility of the study areas according to winter and summer scenarios was carried out. The automobile and river networks were built on the basis of data from open cartographic sources: OpenStreetMaps and Google Earth Engine, the atlas of highways of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). On the basis of satellite images of Landsat 5, 8 and Sentinel 2, non-official (informal) roads that play an important role in communications between settlements were decrypted and digitized. QGIS and ArcGIS programs were used to perform network analysis and build a map of time availability of the settlements using isochronous method. The created maps clearly show the availability of settlements by time interval. The conducted research made it possible to determine that remote sensing and geoinformation systems are key tools for a spatial analysis of transport infrastructure. Using this tools, it is possible to conduct network analysis of various levels of complexity, as well as build graphs of the transport network, greatly simplifying the counting procedure. The paper tested a method that allows to identify unofficial roads in the Arctic, and the presented methods of GIS analysis and modeling that can be used for further deeper network analytics and graph theory to improve the methodology for studying the transport accessibility of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

Military cartography of Serbian lands during the last Austro-Turkish war (1788–1791)

The Austro-Turkish War of 1788–1791 has not yet been properly reflected in scientific literature despite the fact that in a certain way this last conflict between the Ottomans and the Holy Roman Empire „awakened the Balkans” and became a catalyst for the national liberation movement of the Serbs, which gained strength at the beginning of the 19th century. The territory of modern Serbia became a central theater of military actions in this difficult positional war, and those were the Serbs who ensured the success of many military operations of the Austrian troops. The war of 1788–1791 belonged to those conflicts, the history of which was written, so to speak, „in real time”, and this in many ways created certain stereotypes in the reproduction of the pattern of military actions. The one-sidedness and stereotyped nature of the narrative sources can be compensated by using large cartographic material – both published and stored in the archives of Austria, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, etc. Serbia as a theater of military actions is depicted on most of these maps and military topographical plans developed in the last quarter of the 18th century, but, with the exception of the Josephinian Land Survey, none of them have become the object of even cataloging and classification, not to mention its careful studying. Therefore, the00 proposed article is the first comprehensive attempt to summarize the information about cartographic sources regarding Serbian lands during the Austro-Turkish War of 1788–1791. As additional sources, to verify historical and geographical information, military topographical descriptions of Serbian lands compiled by the Austrian administration and periodicals of the war period were used.

Cartographic sources of spatial data on the old cities of Torican and Vrbenac

Historical cartography has an important place among historical sources. Many researchers can have the opportunity to use many cartographic sources during their research. An important source in historical cartography is maps created during the reign of the Ottoman Empire on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the existence of cartographic representations of Bosnia and Herzegovina which are the results of the work of cartographers of the world should also be emphasized. Large-scale representations found in the form of cadastral plans of various scales are of particular importance in research. However, small-scale cartographic representations also offer great help to researchers. The first large-scale representations of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina were made during the reign of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. This short period of rule on the soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina resulted in the surveying and representing of the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina on cadastral plans at the scale 1:6250, 1:3125, 1:1562.5 and 1:781.25. On the basis of these large-scale representations, many small-scale representations of different topics, purposes and scales were created. Small-scale representations were made in different scales, which also dictated the detail of the representation. The maps, i.e. small-scale graphic representations, were produced at the scales of 1:12500, 1:25000, 1:75000, and 1:150000. With the end of the First World War, a new period of cartography of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina was born. During this time, topographical maps were made at the scales of 1:25,000, 1:50,000, and smaller scales. Of course, the authors of the maps monitored the situation on the ground and tried to ensure that all the details that could be shown were shown on them in terms of content and according to the possibility of the display. After the end of the Second World War, a completely new period was started in the production of graphic representations of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A special place is occupied by large-scale representations views - cadastral plans that were prepared at the scales of 1:5000, 1:2500, 1:2000, 1:1000 and 1:500. On the basis of cadastral plans, small-scale graphic representations of Bosnia and Herzegovina - maps were created. The map scales were 1:2500, 1:50000 and smaller. Maps with different purposes and themes were created. Topographic maps have a special significance. The completeness of the presentation is an important determinant of all the previously mentioned presentations. The completeness of the cartographic display is reflected in the display of all significant objects, depending on the scale of the display. The area of Bosnia and Herzegovina has many sights. Most of these sights have been measured and shown on large-scale geodetic bases - cadastral plans as well as small-scale geodetic bases - maps. Graphic representations of Bosnia and Herzegovina were created by many cartographers. Taking this as important data, Bosnia and Herzegovina or its individual parts are shown on maps of different scales related to different authors. This is precisely what results in graphic representations on which different signs, display methods, letters, and languages are represented. Cartographic representations in Bosnia and Herzegovina were created in different time periods. The depictions of Bosnia and Herzegovina go back several centuries. Cartographic representations show details that are interesting to many researchers. At the time of the creation of cartographic representations, it was not even imagined how important the representations would be for research in today's time. Historical cartography through cartographic representations offers a lot of information about many objects on the soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The depictions of the Travnik's old towns Toričan and Vrbenac, are especially important for the research. In the paper, the depictions of the aforementioned remnants of Travnik's old towns were investigated. They were shown on many cartographic sources of different purposes and different scales, which were made by different authors in different time periods. The paper analyzes the depiction of old cities in historical cartographic sources from the 17th to the 20th centuries.