Military Maps Research Articles

Analysis of land stability and land-use change processes in the 19–20thcenturies: a case study in Gödöllő Hillside, Hungary

AbstractThe manuscript presents land-use change processes based on former military map analyses. Military maps were derived from the 1770s until the 1890s and later from the CORINE Land Cover map. I observed the transition direction of areal distribution of various land uses. Digitalized maps showed 19-20thcentury land-use conditions; besides them, we created a grouping system which is based on the intensity of land use. We distinguished six land-use types, ranking them according to the anthropogenic influence (1. built-up areas; 2. arable fields; 3. orchards and vineyards; 4. meadows and pastures; 5. forests; 6. wetlands).

Development of the Barr & Stroud ZD Range of Topographical Stereoscopes for Mapping Applications

This paper presents an account of the development of the range of stereoscopes produced by Barr & Stroud (Glasgow, UK) during the period between the two World Wars of the 20th century. These instruments were critical to the adoption of simple graphical procedures (such as the Arundel method) for the rapid production of huge numbers of military topographic maps from aerial photography during the Second World War, since they allowed elevation and contour data to be incorporated into these maps without the need for complex and expensive photogrammetric instrumentation. The pivotal roles played in this development by Professor Barr and the young Lieutenant Hotine are highlighted.

Drawing like a state: Maps, modernity and warfare in the art of Gert Jan Kocken

This article attends to the work of Dutch artist Gert Jan Kocken, one of the foremost arts practitioners to have drawn on geographical mapping for formal and thematic substance in recent years. Discussion focuses on his series the Depictions, in which found maps, made in pursuit of conflicting ideologies during the Second World War, are combined digitally into composite representations of cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin and Rome. Layering together hundreds of different cartographies, the artworks provide a concentrated exploration of the connections between maps, states and warfare. To grasp these connections, I read the Depictions in conjunction with Zygmunt Bauman’s conception of the modern state as a ‘gardener’ of society and space. In doing so, I highlight Kocken’s vivid demonstrations of not only the transformative potential released in state military mapping but also unevennesses and dialogic complexities with which even apparently totalising state gardening projects are fraught. My study of the Depictions builds an image of modernity as a contested garden; the article concludes by suggesting the commensurability of this vision with the social present.

The Kacchā-Pakkā Divide: Material, Space and Architecture in the Military Cantonments of British India (1765-1889)

This article will trace the historical passage of two fundamental Indian terms used in building: kacchā (inferior, flimsy, impermanent) and pakkā (superior, solid, durable), and how they became pivotal, conjoined concepts in the construction of the military- then civil-built environments of colonial India during the period under the governance of the Honourable East India Company (1757-1858). This journey is best illustrated in the construction of the Company’s army “cantonments” or permanent garrison camps. Truly original yet overlooked inventions of eighteenth-century colonial militarism in the subcontinent—with many growing into significant urban centers by the 19th century—these stations architecturally evolved from exclusively pakkā forms to arrangements significantly shaped by kacchā work. The article will look at how and why this came about.Permitted through an expansion yet clarity in the spatial organization of the army, kacchā and pakkā work began to be blended and graded, allowing a flexibility of responses to conditions. Such responsive practices helped the three presidency armies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay to observe, build and shape modern India. Nevertheless, once applied outside of their own operations, a more rigid dichotomy emerged. As civilian populations grew against cantonments, and municipal regulations began to dictate the terms of this integration, it was one short step from identifying army-built infrastructure as either kacchā or pakkā on military maps to dividing Indian society along similar lines.

THE STATUS OF TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING IN THE WORLD A UNGGIM–ISPRS PROJECT 2012–2015

Abstract. In December 2011, UNGGIM initiated a cooperative project with ISPRS to resume the former UN Secretariat studies on the status of topographic mapping in the world, conducted between 1968 and 1986. After the design of a questionnaire with 27 questions, the UNGGIM Secretariat sent the questionnaires to the UN member states. 115 replies were received from the 193 member states and regions thereof. Regarding the global data coverage and age, the UN questionnaire survey was supplemented by data from the Eastview database. For each of the 27 questions, an interactive viewer was programmed permitting the analysis of the results. The authoritative data coverage at the various scale ranges has greatly increased between 1986 and 2012. Now, a 30 % 1 : 25 000 map data coverage and a 75 % 1 : 50 000 map data coverage has been completed. Nevertheless, there is still an updating problem, as data for some countries is 10 to 30 years old. Private Industry, with Google, Microsoft and Navigation system providers, have undertaken huge efforts to supplement authoritative mapping. For critical areas on the globe, MGCP committed to military mapping at 1 : 50 000. ISPRS has decided to make such surveys a sustainable issue by establishing a working group.

THE STATUS OF TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING IN THE WORLD A UNGGIM–ISPRS PROJECT 2012–2015

In December 2011, UNGGIM initiated a cooperative project with ISPRS to resume the former UN Secretariat studies on the status of topographic mapping in the world, conducted between 1968 and 1986. After the design of a questionnaire with 27 questions, the UNGGIM Secretariat sent the questionnaires to the UN member states. 115 replies were received from the 193 member states and regions thereof. Regarding the global data coverage and age, the UN questionnaire survey was supplemented by data from the Eastview database. For each of the 27 questions, an interactive viewer was programmed permitting the analysis of the results. The authoritative data coverage at the various scale ranges has greatly increased between 1986 and 2012. Now, a 30 % 1 : 25 000 map data coverage and a 75 % 1 : 50 000 map data coverage has been completed. Nevertheless, there is still an updating problem, as data for some countries is 10 to 30 years old. Private Industry, with Google, Microsoft and Navigation system providers, have undertaken huge efforts to supplement authoritative mapping. For critical areas on the globe, MGCP committed to military mapping at 1 : 50 000. ISPRS has decided to make such surveys a sustainable issue by establishing a working group.

Mapping the Nation for War: Landscape in Danish Military Cartography 1800–2000

The focus in this article is on the way the post eighteenth-century cartographic turn in military practices developed into a particular military perception of landscape that continues to set the standard of Danish topographical mapping. My argument is that the development of modern topographical maps is the result of a long process of military comprehension and measurement of the terrain in order to conduct field operations. The demand for spatial data for actual or potential military operations had a direct impact on the specifications of maps produced by the military, as landscape representation was adapted to meet operational demands and as lessons learned from war experience were incorporated. In this and other respects, the development of Danish topographical maps in and after the nineteenth century followed the general trend of European military mapping as regards methods and standards.

The Kacchā-Pakkā Divide: Material, Space and Architecture in the Military Cantonments of British India (1765-1889)

This article will trace the historical passage of two fundamental Indian terms used in building: kacchā (inferior, flimsy, impermanent) and pakkā (superior, solid, durable), and how they became pivotal, conjoined concepts in the construction of the military- then civil-built environments of colonial India during the period under the governance of the Honourable East India Company (1757-1858). This journey is best illustrated in the construction of the Company’s army “cantonments” or permanent garrison camps. Truly original yet overlooked inventions of eighteenth-century colonial militarism in the subcontinent—with many growing into significant urban centers by the 19th century—these stations architecturally evolved from exclusively pakkā forms to arrangements significantly shaped by kacchā work. The article will look at how and why this came about.Permitted through an expansion yet clarity in the spatial organization of the army, kacchā and pakkā work began to be blended and graded, allowing a flexibility of responses to conditions. Such responsive practices helped the three presidency armies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay to observe, build and shape modern India. Nevertheless, once applied outside of their own operations, a more rigid dichotomy emerged. As civilian populations grew against cantonments, and municipal regulations began to dictate the terms of this integration, it was one short step from identifying army-built infrastructure as either kacchā or pakkā on military maps to dividing Indian society along similar lines.

Atestarea arheologică a celei de a patra linii de fortificații a cetății de epoca bronzului de la Cornești – Iarcuri (jud. Timiș) / Archaeological evidence for the fourth line of fortification of the Bronze Age fortress from Cornești – Iarcuri (Timiş County)

The first attestation of the fortification at Cornești – Iarcuri is given by a 1720 military map (“Mappa vom der Temesvaer District”) and the fortification continued to be more or less schematically marked, on the later maps from the 18th and 19th centuries. Initially, only three ramparts were mentioned at Iarcuri. Because of their concentric layout, the fortification was assigned to the Avar period. The archaeological excavations from the first half of the 20th century dated the fortification at Cornești – Iarcuri to the Bronze Age. Interrupted by WWII, the archaeological excavations were resumed in the autumn of 2007, and they have continued until present within an international research project. The new archaeological excavations based on modern methods of research confirmed the previous proposals for a Late Bronze Age dating. At the same time, the LiDAR scanning and the magnetic prospections confirmed the observations made on the aerial photos from 1959 and 1973, which revealed the existence of a forth enclosure. The rampart of Enclosure IV, situated to the exterior of the fortification, covered an area of 1,765 ha. The 2011 archaeological investigations aimed at obtaining the archaeological evidence that would confirm the existence of the rampart of Enclosure IV. In the area where the archaeological excavation was conducted, investigations concerning the Spontaneous Potential of the ground were also carried out, parallel to the magnetic prospection. Area T. IV/ 2011 was situated ca. 500 m east of the north-eastern corner of Cornești village, and ca. 35 m west from the access gate into Enclosure IV, as revealed by the magnetic prospections. The rampart of Enclosure IV was made of clay lentils and battered soil. It was defended by a ditch over 9 m in width and 2.50 m in depth at the moment of its usage. The role of the fourth enclosure is difficult to determine, since the length of the rampart would not allow for an efficient defense. Thus, the interpretation of the Cornești – Iarcuri fortification cannot be reduced only to that of a construction with a military role. Very probably, this huge Bronze Age fortification emphasized the economic power (and, implicitly, the military one) of a group of communities. Behind them, one can see the existence of the warrior elite whose leaders were able to control and coordinate both the huge construction effort necessary for the four enclosures, and, the long-term maintenance of the ramparts and the defensive ditches.

Area-based historical modeling of the effects of the river bank regulation on the potential abundance of eleven mosquito species in the River Danube between Hungary and Slovakia

The construction of reservoirs and hydropower plants was accelerated in the past century due to the increasing aridity in many parts of the world. The effect of water regulations on the abundance of mosquito vectors is controversial. In this paper, the habitat preference of mosquitoes was investigated based on a 30-years long collection of the mosquito data in Hungary and military maps and satellite images. Three time phases of the analyzed section in the Danube River were analyzed in order to characterize the impact of human influence on mosquito habitats: the semi-natural phase, the post channelization phase and the post hydropower dam state. Geographical data referring to the years 1790, 1820, 1830, 1870, 1946 and 1955 were based on military maps, whereas the years 2004 and 2013 were analyzed by satellite imagery. The Amoros-like eupotamon A - plesiopotamon line represents an increasing gradient of habitat-suitability for mosquitoes. The habitat-preference of different mosquitoes to the Amoros-classified water habitats was based on a monographic collection data. This dataset contains the collecting and trapping results from the 1960s to the early 2000s in Hungary. We found that human-induced changes had prolonged impact on mosquito-suitable habitats, although the effect can be different for diverse mosquito species. The increase of the evenness of the mosquito fauna was seen since the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century, after the primary river regulation. The increasing areal extension of relatively warm and nutrient-rich water habitats had positive effects on the more rare members of the mosquito fauna, such as the potential malaria vector mosquito <em>Anopheles algeriensis</em> according to the model results.<em> </em>Summarizing, we found a strong, positive link between anthropogenic interventions and the mosquito diversity in water ecosystems.

Using the Right Tool: David Woodward's Suggested Framework and the Study of Military Cartography

In 1974 David Woodward suggested a framework for organizing the study of the history of cartography that unified on one hand the process and the output of cartographic production, and on the other hand the four sequential phases of cartographic production, from information gathering through document use. In a survey of scholars who have cited Woodward’s model I note that, while this framework has influenced the conceptual development of map history, it has rarely been applied rigorously to specific instances of mapping. I argue that this model is an underutilized tool in cartographic scholarship, and that Woodward’s matrix is ideally suited to examining how military units carry out mapping. Because military units, particularly large ones, are in effect self-contained systems that cyclically produce, use, and reproduce their own maps, I contend that scholars can modify Woodward’s original model in content, though not in structure, to study military mapping activities. To illustrate this point, I present as a case study the British military’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) during the Gaza Campaign of late 1917. This force performed a broad range of mapping activity, much of it innovative. A modification of the Woodward framework that brings together the specific elements of the EEF’s information gatherers, information processors, and map users into a single cohesive cartographic system illustrates the value and utility of this framework for studying the history of military cartography.

Geography and Great Victory: A Story from Military Life of Quiet Academic Geography

The contribution of geographers in the military-geographical provision of the army and the rear is shown from the analysis of “The list of works of the Institute of Geography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, made during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945)”; archival materials (maps, descriptions, and reports of 1941–1945), handed over to the Museum of the history of the Institute in 2014 with the participation of the author; and numerous publications in the geographical editions to the 40th and the 50th anniversaries of the Great Victory. Quantitative and qualitative estimations of cartographic and reference materials prepared in the Institute of Geography during the Great Patriotic War are presented. Inter alia, direct participation of I.P. Gerasimov and K.K. Markov in these works is mapped. It is supposed that due to the refusal from the ideological struggle with Alfred Hettner’s direction in geography in war years, the national geography returned to regional studies, landscape approach, and sectoral-statistic approach in economic geography. All this helped to quickly generate the required for the front and the rear military mapping and reference materials, including maps: landscapes of the territories of the fronts and the rear, trafficability, distribution of population, productive forces, natural resources, the mobilization potential of the territories, and etc. It is shown that each of scientific directions of the Institute of Geography during the War received its innovative development in the postwar years.

Baja California in 1739: An Early Exploration by Ferdinand Konščak

Ferdinand Konsˇčak (Fernando Consag) was a renowned Jesuit missionary and explorer of Baja California. His 1746 map of the California peninsula represented a milestone in the history of the mapping of Baja California. Owing to Konsˇčak’s diaries, his activity in Baja California, from the period of his three famous expeditions (1746–54) to his death in 1759, is relatively well known. In contrast, the period 1732–46, after his arrival in Baja California, had remained practically unknown. This article, based on original research of the author at the Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid), Archivo General de Indias (Seville), Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico City), and Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (Rome), for the first time presents Konsˇčak’s early exploration and mapping work in the southern portion of the peninsula. His participation in the preparation of a hitherto unknown map compiled in the manner of the best military maps of the period in order to re-establish authority and control in El Sur after the Indian rebellion of 1734 has changed everything we have known about this cartographer. Collaboration with Spanish naval captain Rafael Villar del Val, which resulted in the map of Bahía de la Paz (1739), was a turning point for Konsˇčak’s future cartographic endeavors. The production of this first detailed hydrographic map represents a unique example of the association of military and Jesuit authorities during a period in which both parties conflicted over the southern part of Baja California.

Parallels of secondary grassland succession and soil regeneration in a chronosequence of central-Hungarian old fields

This study deals with spontaneous regeneration of fen and steppe meadows and corresponding soil properties on extensively managed ex-arable fields. Our first main aim was to analyse the nature of relations between various vegetation and soil parameters and time since abandonment and to determine the time needed for regeneration. Our second major goal was to determine the main environmental factors influencing regeneration success. Time since abandonment of the studied areas was determined with military maps, aerial photographs and the help of local rangers. Stands which were presumably not ploughed for over 150 years were taken as a reference. Vegetation surveys and soil sampling were carried out in 307 plots with different soil moisture conditions. The correlation with time was tested for relevant vegetation and soil parameters. The influence of different parameters on the species composition was tested with a generalized linear mixed model. We found that vegetation and soil parameters approach the level of long-term (permanent) grassland in a similar asymptotic curve. Numerous characteristic target vegetation species and legally protected species have colonized the old fields. The time frame needed for regeneration can be stated to be 20–40 years for the majority of sites, but the proportion of favourable species in the resulting grasslands is divergent. The most important finding among soil properties was a pronounced negative effect of plant available phosphorus on the species composition of regenerating grassland. We conclude that relying on spontaneous recolonization for grassland restoration in central Hungary is promising, particularly on sites which were not fertilized intensively with phosphorus prior to abandonment.

The Duc de Chaulnes Atlas: A Seventeenth-Century French Atlas of Manuscript Military Maps of British and Continental Towns and Cities in the British Library

ABSTRACTThis note concerns an atlas of military maps dating from the middle of the seventeenth century. Almost certainly compiled in France, it came into the possession of the British Museum (now Library) in the early nineteenth century but seems never to have been described at length. Although manuscript military atlases are not rare, this one unusually includes maps of twenty-nine British and Irish towns and cities that seem to be scarcely known.

Critique of Cartographic Reason: Tolstoj on the Media of War

The military efforts during the Napoleonic Wars gave rise to a large-scale cartographic enterprise across the European continent. As a medium of war, military maps served the purpose of orchestrating the “grand operations” of several distinct army corps in space. After the wars, however, the maps migrate into a different medium: the literary text. This article examines how Tolstoi's War and Peace grapples with a central problem for the 19th century novel, viz. the role of different media, literary and cartographic, in the representation and management of large-scale war. Tolstoi, the author argues, transposes the military conflict to the representational level and stages a struggle between the two media and the different military theories of the time that accompany them. Operating at this meta-level, War and Peace serves as a highly complex and self-conscious examination of the media of war.

Labels on the maps of the Third Military Survey of Austria-Hungary and on the survey maps of the Military Geographical Institute (Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny) in Warsaw in the light of survey manuals*

Abstract Materials from topographic surveys had a serious impact on the labels on the maps that were based on these surveys. Collecting toponyms and information that were to be placed as labels on a final map, was an additional duty the survey officers were tasked with. Regulations concerning labels were included in survey manuals issued by the Austro-Hungarian Militärgeographisches Institut in Vienna and the Polish Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny in Warsaw. The analyzed Austro-Hungarian regulations date from the years 1875, 1887, 1894, 1903 (2nd ed.). The oldest manual was issued during the Third Military Survey of Austria-Hungary (1:25,000) and regulated the way it was conducted (it is to be supposed that the issued manual was mainly a collection of regulations issued prior to the survey launch). The Third Survey was the basis for the 1:75,000 Spezialkarte map. The other manuals regulated the field revisions of the survey. The analyzed Polish manuals date from the years 1925, 1936, and 1937. The properties of the labels resulted from the military purpose of the maps. The geographical names’ function was to facilitate land navigation whereas other labels were meant to provide a military map user with information that could not be otherwise transmitted with standard map symbols. A concern for not overloading the maps with labels is to be observed in the manuals: a survey officer was supposed to conduct a preliminary generalization of geographical names. During a survey both an Austro-Hungarian and a Polish survey officer marked labels on a separate “label sheet”. The most important difference between the procedures in the two institutes was that in the last stage of work an Austro-Hungarian officer transferred the labels (that were to be placed on a printed map) from the “label sheet” to the hand-drawn survey map, which made a cartographer not responsible for placing them in the right places. In the case of the Polish institute the labels remained only on the “label sheets”.

Map of Archaeological Sites Tracts Adzhiel in the Eastern Crimea, According to Different Sources

Publication devoted to the study, by means of geo-information system, of one of the districts of the Kerch Peninsula - Tracts Adzhiel - the territory adjacent to the gully Adzhiel and her sleeves. The important ways of migration of the Scythians and other peoples from Europe to Asia, probably, passed there in ancient times. And also there are located one of the largest on the peninsula ancient fortified settlement “Belinskoye”, as well as many other monuments. The study of the territory was carried out on the squares of the graticule military topographic maps of the General Headquarters of the Soviet Union a scale of 1: 100,000. As the information sources, were used old topographic maps Russia of the end XIX century, scale 1: 42,000 (the so-called “verstovka” - 1 “versta” - 1066,8 m in one inch), maps of the General Headquarters of the Soviet Union, scale 1: 25,000, aerial photographs of the 70-es of XX century, space images of Google Earth, the data presented in scientific publications and reports. The results lead to the conclusion that on the survey area in the XIX century there were at least 150 barrows of which are currently on satellite images clearly visible only 22 and at least 12 other types of archaeological sites - settlements, ground necropols, fortifications, most of which were not previously the subject to archaeological excavations. The detailed study of these objects is planned already on the ground in the course of future work.

A One Century Record of Changes at Nenskra and Nakra River Basins Glaciers, Causasus Mountains, Georgia

The article considers the variability of Nenskra and Nakra River basins glaciers’ parameters in the years of 1911-2014. Nenskra and Nakra River basins are located on the southern slope of the Great Caucasus, between the Kharikhra, Shdavleri and Tsalgmili ranges, in Georgia, in particular in the Enguri River basin. In our research we used the catalogue of the glaciers of Georgia compiled by K. Podozerskiy in 1911. We also used the military topographic maps with the scale of 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 drawn up in 1960 (in former Soviet Union), where there are the glaciers mapped in detail and the ends of their ice tongues on the southern slope of Great Caucasus of those times. We also used the remote sensing method, which is the best modern way for the study of the dynamics of glaciers and this method is remarkable by a quick obtaining of results. The spectral images of the Landsat L8 OLI/TIRS (Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor) (USGS) received from the “Landsat” artificial satellite are the necessary materials for our study. We also used the field survey materials of 2014 (GPS data). The latest statistical information is also given about the glaciers located in the individual river basins; their morphological types, exposition and the dynamics are considered according to the individual years.

New data concerning the Late Quaternary drainage evolution on the Someş River alluvial fan

The study area is located in the north-eastern part of the Pannonian Basin, on the romanian teritory, with a surface of over 3,600 square kilometers. With elevations of 20-30 m above the Timis and Cris plains, is the highest low-western romanian plains (100 – 160 m absolute altitudes), the surface extending on both sides of Somes River. This study aims to report new information on Late Quaternary evolution of fluvial discharge on the surface of Somes alluvial fan. Numerous relict fluvial morphologies were recognized on the surface ofSomesRiveralluvial Plain, by analyzing mainly the fluvial morphologies visible on the second austro-hungarian military maps (reference moment: ca. 1860), and on recent ortophotoplans (reference moment: 2005). The identified palaeochannel types (braided, meandering) and morphometry (large scale meanders vs. small scale meanders), the concentration of these relict features on distinct palaeodrainage directions, the relation of them with the recent fluvial drainage of the area (intersected, partly/ totally used by present day misfit channels), suggest a complex Late Quaternary history of the lower course ofSomesRiver.