Topographic Map Series Research Articles

Parametrization of the Hungarian Stereographic Map Sheets

Abstract. A topographic map series of Northern Transylvania was drawn in the 1940s. Georeferencing them needs information about their coordinate systems. These maps used two reference systems known as the Budapest and the Marosvásárhely Stereographic projections. The datum transformation parameters of the former had already been determined in previous studies, but they had to be adjusted slightly to use a common Ferro–Greenwich difference for both systems. Parameters of the Marosvásárhely system were only available as a Molodenskiy transformation determined with insufficient accuracy. In this study, we recalculate the Molodenskiy parameters with higher accuracy and determine six parameters from the usual 7-parameter Helmert (aka. Burša–Wolf) transformation. The ideas given in this paper can be useful in other similar cases when the information about base point coordinates on the old system is very limited: We had access only to the ellipsoidal coordinates of the origin and the projected coordinates of one single point. The accuracy of the resulting transformation was evaluated by aligning the old map sheets with recent base maps.

The city as precarious medium in granducal Tuscany

This paper focuses on the concept of infrastructural precariousness in early seventeenth-century administrative drawings that document urban and natural environments by the architect-engineer Gherardo Mechini. Each drawing responds to a report produced for the granducal administration on broken property: walls, streets, and banks crumbling due to floods, fires, storms, vandalism, or, more often, cumulative destruction over time. In addition to illustrating the textual descriptions of ruined architecture in lucid coloured washes, Mechini often pasted sheets picturing his proposed restoration directly above each image. A user could make, unmake, and remake virtually the built environment by flipping the paper up and down. He further collaborated on a series of topographic maps to picture Tuscan roads and land holdings. In what follows, I examine the innovative graphic solutions adopted by Mechini to visualise the legislative management of Tuscany’s precarious infrastructure and policies informed by nascent theories connecting architectural preservation to ethical rule. Drawing emerged as an expressive administrative instrument to probe how to maintain and improve the built environment and promote the perceived stability and unity of the centralised governing state.

IMPROVED METHODOLOGIES FOR THE REVISION OF A TRADITIONAL TOPOGRAPHIC MAP SERIES

Abstract. Conventional topographic maps are still important for many applications, such as land planning, but require frequent updates, which involve high costs and are not easy to accomplish. There are however many advances in Photogrammetry that are not always exploited to their full potential in a real map production environment. The traditional process involves aerial triangulation with ground control points, stereo restitution in digital photogrammetric workstations and field completion. The process is very time-consuming and expensive and map update is many times not done with the frequency required by users.This paper describes the implementation of an improved methodology for very frequent revision of the Portuguese map series of scale 1:25,000 making use of conventional digital aerial photography, which now is acquired on a regular basis for all the country. Vector features are digitised in monoscopic mode, in a GIS environment, over true orthophotos. These can be produced in a largely automated manner, using direct georeferencing data, and with minimal ground control only for vertical adjustments. Revision time and cost can be significantly reduced, keeping acceptable accuracy standards. That will satisfy the users that require the traditional high standards of the topographic map series for land panning.Additionally, for the task of field data collection of information that cannot be obtained from aerial photographs, a method is being applied to make use of video data collected in the field along roads with action cameras, with GPS. Operators can confirm or identify attributes of objects along, or near roads, such as power lines.

Advancements of Geodetic Activities in Nepal: A Review on Pre- and Post-2015 Gorkha Earthquake Eras with Future Directions

From celestial objects to every feature on Earth, geodesy provides a reference frame and is the foundation for surveying, mapping, and other geoscience activities. In Nepal, geodesy was officially introduced after 1924 to prepare the topographic map series. Although the previous geodetic project occurred with foreign assistance, Nepal is using national resources to conduct milestone projects such as the re-measurement of Mount Everest height in 2020 and the ongoing LiDAR survey of western Terai. Taking the 2015 Gorkha earthquake as a reference, this paper reviews the past and present geodetic activities in Nepal. It presents the history of conventional Nepal datum as a horizontal datum and Indian mean sea level-based vertical datum, and modern satellite geodesy works on the Himalayas. Considering recent earthquakes, continuous crustal motion, international and global compliance, and increasing demand for precise positional accuracy from the users and stakeholders, this paper discusses future directions to build, establish, maintain, and operate modern terrestrial, height, and gravity reference systems and frames. This paper consolidates many reports and experiences from Nepal and will serve as useful documentation for newcomers whose interests align in geodesy and Nepal.

The Danube River and its mouths area and coast line (delta) in documents and maps from the ancient times to the present.

The Danube River and its mouths area and coast line (delta) in documents and maps from the ancient times to the present. The Danube mouth as reported in documents and maps from the Antiquity to date.This mouth of the Danube and its Delta in particular, where a topic interest for many classical scholars (Herodotus, Erathostenes, Polybus, Ptolemey, Strabo etc) and recent scientific researchers who focused their attention on the number of Danube arms and the evolution of the Delta realm from the moment of its formation to the present configuration. The second half of the 19th century witnessed the publication of Sir Ch. Hartley’s map under the aegis of the Danube European Commission. The map was intended to help the selection of and correction works to one the arms in order to facilitate maritime navigation on it. Several other maps were printed in the 20th century by I.Vidraşcu, 1909-1911, the State Water Committee, 1964 and the Institute of Geography, 1983. In addition a series of topographical maps of Romania territory have also been produced. This sector was created as a result of accumulation processes, the north-south coastal marine currents, moving the river alluvia blocked the river mouth forming the Danube Delta and Halmyris lagoon, the whole becoming Razim Sinoie Lake Complex. This marine shore sector, due to the contribution of river alluvia, is characterized generally by the advance in the marine space, but the current conditions (reducing the volume of sediments from the Danube, marine minitransgression and anthropogenic interventions (by the dams raised at the mouth of the Sulina branch and Cape Midia) generate shoreline retreat in some areas. To identify portions of advancement and retreat, and setting the corresponding annual rates, existing topographic map series for a period of over 150 years, hydrographic measurements for 30 years and series of satellite images starting from 1975 were used.

The place names of the Aragonese maps. Interpretative hypotheses, landscape readings and methodological proposals

ABSTRACT Aragonese Maps’ is the name of the remaining sheets of the large-scale topographic map series attributed to the Aragonese administration of Southern Italy (1282–1516). These maps are one of the ‘mysteries’ of the history of Europe for the layered wealth of geographical information and the technical perfection of the drawing, cartography. They offer innumerable possibilities of territorial investigation and for this reason they are at the centre of the recent research of geographers, historians and scholars of the territory tout court. The visible and invisible landscapes they depict, of which the toponyms are privileged indicators, offer the opportunity for a geographical-historical investigation in a diachronic perspective: in fact, they contain numerous details linked to previous or subsequent contexts and as many questions about their origin and historical provenance. The contribution therefore proposes a geo-cartographic reading of the material and immaterial landscape elements of the Aragonese maps, starting from three objectives: the comment of some ‘enigmatic’ details of the depicted territory; the dynamic and functional reading of the landscapes obtained from an examination of the most explanatory toponyms; a methodological proposal for the realization of a Geotoponomastic Atlas based on the semantic web.

Automatic content‐based georeferencing of historical topographic maps

AbstractOld maps are more than a cultural artefact: they are data. Data about the past still hold value for science and decision‐making today. Libraries and archives have come a long way in digitising their inventories of thousands, sometimes millions, of historical maps using high‐resolution scanning. Unfortunately, even with digital images the rich spatial and semantic information is inaccessible for people without a strong background in history and cartography. Only with georeferencing can historical maps be used in GIS and thus processed and compared with modern geospatial data. We introduce content‐based image retrieval to automatically localise and georeference map images from topographic map series. We align the maps by extracting a subset of their symbols and cross‐referencing them with online reference data from OpenStreetMap. We demonstrate our method with the Karte des Deutschen Reiches at 1: 100,000 scale, obtaining 96% correct location predictions and a median georeferencing error of 101 m.

A provisional guide to German military topographic map series of Ottoman Asia in the First World War

Abstract. In acknowledgment that no war can be fought without maps, German military cartography between 1915 and 1918 gradually extended its cartographic involvement in the Ottoman theaters of Sinai, Mesopotamia and Palestine. By the end of the Great War, six topographical map series had been specially produced: Operationskarte in 1:800,000, Karte des türkisch-ägyptischen Grenzgebietes in 1:250,000, Karte von Mesopotamien (und Syrien) in 1:400,000, Karte von Nordbabylonien in 1:200,000, and Karte von Palästina in three scales 1:100,000, 1:50,000, and 1:25,000. The paper makes the first attempt on a carto-bibliographical appraisal of these map series.

Capturing the Complex Histories of German World War II Captured Maps

Following the end of World War II the U.S. Army Map Service distributed maps captured from the German military to research libraries across the United States, where they have remained largely hidden collections. One focus of the University of California Berkeley’s German World War II captured maps digitization project has been the creation of detailed metadata for the German military map series. Data-rich catalog records with information about source maps and the need to do authority work for related corporate bodies provided entry points for exploring issues of provenance. The topographic map series that make up the bulk of this collection reflect the fragmentary nature of German cartographic history, with varying contributing corporate bodies, diverse source material, and a range of sophistication and technique. All of these characteristics evolved between 1936 and 1945 when the Nazi regime ramped up production of military maps. The authors make the case that it is worth the time and effort for libraries to invest in creating rich bibliographic descriptions for these map series.

Cartographic Relief Shading with Neural Networks.

Shaded relief is an effective method for visualising terrain on topographic maps, especially when the direction of illumination is adapted locally to emphasise individual terrain features. However, digital shading algorithms are unable to fully match the expressiveness of hand-crafted masterpieces, which are created through a laborious process by highly specialised cartographers. We replicate hand-drawn relief shading using U-Net neural networks. The deep neural networks are trained with manual shaded relief images of the Swiss topographic map series and terrain models of the same area. The networks generate shaded relief that closely resemble hand-drawn shaded relief art. The networks learn essential design principles from manual relief shading such as removing unnecessary terrain details, locally adjusting the illumination direction to accentuate individual terrain features, and varying brightness to emphasise larger landforms. Neural network shadings are generated from digital elevation models in a few seconds, and a study with 18 relief shading experts found that they are of high quality.

A GIS-Based Methodology for Extracting Historical Land Cover Data from Topographical Maps: Illustration with the Nigerian Topographical Map Series

The availability of historical land cover data is a major challenge to long term land change analysis. This is more so in developing countries like Nigeria with weak land information systems and poor inventories of long term land cover data. This situation is to some extent ameliorated by the existence of topographic maps which represent encryptions of historical snapshots of land condition based on primary sources like aerial and land surveys. Topographic maps are however not easily amenable to analysis for land cover data extraction, given their inherent characteristics. This paper presents a GIS-based digitization, symbols analysis, pattern recognition, and polygonization methodology for the extraction of land cover information from topographic maps. The methodology is demonstrated with sheets in the Nigerian topographic map series covering the Idemili River basin. Results show that indigenous settlement types, derived Savanna, and residual forests occupied 27%, 35% and 24% of the basin area, respectively, during the period. An internal data validation approach showed a significant correlation (p = 0.000; r = 0.975) between base topographical map and extracted cover data. There is a need to apply the methodology to other topographical sheets in country’s inventory to build up a national digital database of historical land cover.

Soviet Cold War Maps: Examining the Organization and Practices of Production Through the Case of Denmark

ABSTRACT During the Cold War, the Soviet military carried out an ambitious mapping programme, which resulted in a global series of topographic maps. Although recent advances in scholarship have increased our knowledge of the production of these maps, we still know little about the organization behind them. Based on information from a set of 466 1:50 000-scale Soviet military topographic maps of Denmark, this article examines the Soviet mapping practices related to the large-scale mapping of Denmark. Results show that the Soviet military compiled large-scale topographic maps of Denmark between the 1950s and the 1980s. The maps were initially based on Danish maps, but later the Soviets began to prefer remote-sensed data from satellite imagery. This allowed the Soviets to capture information about concealed military infrastructure. The article also shows the potential for using information from the map sheets in a transnational analysis of the Soviet mapping during the Cold War.

Automated Extraction of Human Settlement Patterns From Historical Topographic Map Series Using Weakly Supervised Convolutional Neural Networks

Information extraction from historical maps represents a persistent challenge due to inferior graphical quality and the large data volume of digital map archives, which can hold thousands of digitized map sheets. Traditional map processing techniques typically rely on manually collected templates of the symbol of interest, and thus are not suitable for large-scale information extraction. In order to digitally preserve such large amounts of valuable retrospective geographic information, high levels of automation are required. Herein, we propose an automated machine-learning based framework to extract human settlement symbols, such as buildings and urban areas from historical topographic maps in the absence of training data, employing contemporary geospatial data as ancillary data to guide the collection of training samples. These samples are then used to train a convolutional neural network for semantic image segmentation, allowing for the extraction of human settlement patterns in an analysis-ready geospatial vector data format. We test our method on United States Geological Survey historical topographic maps published between 1893 and 1954. The results are promising, indicating high degrees of completeness in the extracted settlement features (i.e., recall of up to 0.96, F-measure of up to 0.79) and will guide the next steps to provide a fully automated operational approach for large-scale geographic feature extraction from a variety of historical map series. Moreover, the proposed framework provides a robust approach for the recognition of objects which are small in size, generalizable to many kinds of visual documents.

Sharing Collections of Historical Maps Online

Abstract. Today’s expectations for historical maps are widely different from what they were ten or even five years ago. Today, maps are expected to be freely available online and viewed in easy-to-use, interactive web apps. Collections of maps, such as maps in atlases or in a map series, are no different. While there have been great strides in developing methods for scanning and sharing smaller collections of maps online, less effort has been directed toward sharing larger and more varied collections of historical maps. Even less energy has been focused on the development of common workflows and off-the-shelf resources that could be used by many who want to digitize and share their own collections.These deficiencies are complicated by the fact that different types of map collections require different solutions. There is wide variety in the types of map collections, including those with many maps of the same extent and map scale but varying themes (as in a thematic atlas), those with maps of varying scales and extents but a single theme (as in a topographic map series), and those with combinations of both. The workflows to convert the maps in these collections to digital format that can then be shred online must assure expediency and accuracy in the processing of the maps, despite their variations. For example, the workflow in figure 1 could be used for collections of maps with varying scales, extents, and themes.Another requirement for sharing historical map collections online is the ability to add new images or replace faulty images in the collection. The workflow in figure 1 allows for this by first updating the metadata, then adding new images to the mosaic dataset, and finally updating the image service. The view of the collection in the web app is updated automatically so no edits need be made to the app code.The web apps used to display the map collections must also vary in order to provide an optimal experience for viewers to interact with the collection. The app in figure 2 was developed to allow viewers to explore a very large set (over 186,000) of historical topographic maps of the United States. This collection includes maps of varying scales, dates, and sizes. The app allows viewers to find maps, compare maps using transparency sliders, download maps images that can be used in software applications such as ArcGIS, and share the current map view with others via social media or a hyperlink.Variations of this app could be used for other types of collections. We have explored modifications to support viewing more than 500 maps compiled by the U.S. Department of Defence during the Vietnam conflict (figure 3). The Vietnam map collection requires a slightly different app solution because there is no significant variation in the dates of the maps, although there are two map scales (1:50,000 and 1:250,000). Additionally, the marginalia on the maps contains information critical to reading the maps, such as the legend and a glossary of Vietnamese names.Our work to date provides solutions to sharing large collections of maps in a series or from atlases, even if the maps have different scales, dates, sizes, and themes. These collections can be shared via web apps that provide viewers with useful interactivity and functionality. We have also developed the means to update collections on a regular basis – for example, the USGS topographic map collection is now being updated quarterly. To support developers of these collections, we provide documentation on the workflow, share example datasets to allow them to test the methodology, and allow access to the web app which can be configured to conform to users’ requirements. In this presentation, we detail the workflows and resources we have developed, and we demonstrate solutions for map collections of different types.

Developing and Evaluating Multi-Scale Map Styles: Creating a Multi-Scale Legend

Abstract. In recent years, the usage of zoomable maps strongly increased. The development of small and cheap electronic devices with wireless internet connection such as smartphones and tablets has made maps nowadays to a crucial part of everyday life. For the navigation and orientation, the user often uses zoomable maps (Muehlenhaus, 2014). Currently the technological development controls the map design and less cartographic design rules, which leads to the impress those current maps have a lower graphic quality. A sample for this trend is the new vector tile based maps, which offer the advantage of rotatable, multilingual maps build on one database (Martinelli and Roth, 2016). There is a need for the development of cartographic design guidelines to guarantee consistent map readability over all zoom levels. The infinitely zoomable maps especially vector maps intensify this development. Analog maps had one specific scale, while a series of topographic maps were offered in manageable number of scales in comparison to OpenStreetMaps 20 zoom levels for raster tiles (Anon, 2019). Raster web maps had a number of predefined zoom levels, while vector maps offer the possibility of continuous zooming. This fact clarifies the requirement of research and development of rules for such types of maps. A first important task for the fulfilment of this objective is the evaluation of a multi-scale map styles. For this task, we developed the concept of a multi-scale legend. This new tool should help cartographers and designer to create, modify and improve multi-scale map styles. It can help to explore existing map styles, identify inconsistencies and support the design process. We decided to use the legend due to the abstraction of the map style from map content. For visualization of the scale-dependencies for each feature in a row, the scale/zoom level changes in each column. In combination with other map features and zoom levels results a two-dimensional matrix showing the scale-dependent visualization. This legend matrix shows the map features in every zoom level, which allows reaching an overview of the symbolization of features over several scales. In this way, it is possible to check how consistent a map style is in one zoom level as well as over a set of zoom levels. Figure 1 shows an example for a legend matrix using the OpenStreetMap Carto style: the representation of selected water bodies depending on the scale is illustrated. Streams and springs always occur together within the same zoom levels. In contrast to the rivers, the width of the streams remains nearly constant across the different scales. It is also visible that the color for the spring differs from the other water features. A multi-scale legend offers the possibility of grouping feature classes by topics (e.g. water bodies, vegetation and road network) as in the example. Other possibilities are geometry, color or occurrence in similar zoom levels. This can help in the search for errors, in the identification of breaks in the symbolization and in the development of continuous symbolization. The result is similar but more illustrative than the ScaleMaster (Brewer and Buttenfield, 2007, 2010), which is a diagram describing how feature classes are visualized depending from scale. Benefits of this legend are clarification of scale depended visualizations and the graphic implementation of design guidelines. A challenge is the implementation for different map styles due to the associated effort and the resulting sometimes very large overviews. An on-going technological development takes place, wherefore cartographers should upgrade the design guidelines and methods for the production of current technological, well-looking maps. With the multi-scale legend, we provided a smart legend for a zoomable map. Nevertheless, these new ideas we have developed need more research and should always take the map purpose in account. Further, we would like to apply the multi-scale legend on existing map styles to reach more information about how these styles are working. In addition, we will further develop the multi-scale legend to a documentation of the creation of the map, showing how data is generalized and visualized.

Military Cartography of WWII: The British Geographical Section of the General Staff and the US Army Map Service and their Production of the Topographic Map Series of the Balkans (1939–1945)

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the methods and processes of the compilation of the British/US topographic maps of the Balkans created for the purpose of military operations during World War II. It presents the challenges that the cartographers of the British Geographical Section of the General Staff and the US Army Map Service faced during the compilation of their editions of the map of the Balkans. It discusses how they managed to homogenize different mathematical base data and geographical contents from the numerous source maps, how they sorted out the complications of name spellings, how they brought the maps up to date to make them reliable, and which specific features were maintained in some of the sheets of the topographic map series for the Balkans.

English

Continuing degradation of urban environments of developing economies results from failure to make decisions based on scientific methods that employ accurate digital elevation models (DEM) in modelling environmental phenomena such as flooding and erosion. Data dumping and wastage occur if fresh DEM are required for every new project ignoring existing data. Every DEM to be used for modelling may be accepted as is, updated or rejected for a new one based on outlier fitness tests. High cost DEM aged only a few months should also be tested since elevation changes could occur in very short periods. Older DEMs might still be useful if changes are only in limited areas which could be mapped to update the DEM, so saving cost. A DEM of Owerri, South East Nigeria created from a 1977 1/2500 topographic map series was evaluated using elevations of random Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) points resulting in a ±1.290 m root mean square error (RMSE). Outliers of the 99% certainty were traced to a heavily cut construction site and a topographical survey of the site was used to update the DEM improving RMSE to below the meter mark.   Key words: Digital elevation model (DEM), geographic information systems (GIS), outlier, DEM updating, root mean square error (RMSE).

Mapa józefińska Galicji (1779–1783) w przededniu edycji. Przedmiot i założenia programu wydawniczego

As a result of the first partition of Poland (1772) Austria occupied two big districts, namely the southern part of Lesser Poland and Red Ruthenia. Th e newly incorporated crownland, called the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, was mapped within Josephine survey already a few years after annexation. The name of Josephine survey (or the first military survey) refers to a series of topographic maps made in the years 1763–1787, which covered the successive territories under the rule of the Habsburg dynasty (fi g. 1). In the case of the map of Galicia, the same principles were adopted as those for the whole Josephine survey. Th e map was prepared in a 1:28 800 scale model on the basis of field measurements but also using the „a la vue” method, with a plane table and other instruments. Th e Josephine map of Galicia, initially made secret due to its military importance, was never published and remains in a manuscript till now, kept in the War Archives in Vienna. It consists of 413 sheets in the format of 24 × 16 inches (63.2 × 42.1 cm) and additional sheets of varying formats. Its total surface is about 115 m2. Two sets of hand-written copies (fi g. 3) have been preserved besides the original (an example in fi g. 2). Th e map is accompanied by six bulky volumes including descriptions of the mapped area (one of the sheets is presented in fi g. 4). Due to the value of the map as a source and its usefulness for historical as well as geographical studies and studies conducted within other disciplines, postulates were put forward for this relic to be made available in print. Those intentions were made specific in 2008, when work was begun on preparing a full edition of Galicia’s map which would include both the cartographic material and the text (topographic descriptions). Four editorial groups are concerned with this and they are headed by Waldemar Bukowski (Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow), Zdzislaw Noga (Institute of History, Pedagogical University of Cracow), Andrzej Janeczek (Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) and Zdzislaw Budzynski (Institute of History of the University of Rzeszow). Th e material was divided into fifteen volumes of a similar size (fi g. 5). Each volume will be composed of two volumes. One will include facsimiles of the sheets of the map, from 20 to 46. Th e other volume will contain texts of descriptions in German with a parallel translation into Polish, commentaries to the descriptions, an inventory of names included in the map, a joint index of maps and descriptions and, finally, explanations to the symbols and the map captions. Further plans provide for a digital version on the basis of the prepared material of the printed version.

Interplay between river dynamics and international borders: The Hirmand River between Iran and Afghanistan.

Fluvial dynamics in riverine borders can play an important role in political relationships between countries. Rivers move and evolve under the influence of natural processes and external drivers (e.g. land use change in river catchments). The Hirmand River is an important riverine border between Iran and Afghanistan. The present study shows the evolution and lateral shifting of the Hirmand River along the international border (25.6km) over a period of 6 decades (1955-2015). Seven data series of aerial photos, topographic maps and Landsat images were used to analyze land cover and channel changes in the study reach. The land cover has changed dramatically on both sides of the border during the last 6 decades, especially in the Afghan part. Overall, 49% of all land surface changed its cover type, especially the area of agriculture and residential land contributed to that, with an increase in surface area of about 4931ha and 561ha, respectively. On the other hand, the natural cover and water bodies decreased to 38% and 63%, respectively. The impact of these land use changes on the morphological evolution of Hirmand River was investigated in 5 sub-reaches. We found an average decrease of the active channel width of 53% during 60years and the average River Network Change Index for the whole study reach during 60years was -1.25m/year. Deposition and narrowing turned out to be the main processes occurring within the study reach. Furthermore, due to natural riverine processes the Hirmand River has moved towards Afghanistan (37m on average) and lateral shifting was found to be up to 1900m in some sections.

From village to city through maps: historical cartographic materials as an information source on 20th century environmental changes due to urbanisation in Poland

Abstract The article presents the use of historical Polish post-war topographic maps and their usefulness in the detection and assessment of environmental changes caused by 20th century urbanisation. The case study area is the Polish city of Lublin. Two main research questions are defined and answered. The first is what kinds of maps can be used to trace environmental changes as well as to find the present-day remains of past environments and what is the reliability of these maps? Several series of topographic maps are used here together with aerial photography. The second research question is what changes can be found by comparing spatial sources and what features can be found today with the help of early maps. The main features investigated in this section are linear (road networks) and areal (orchards) supplemented with point features of various kinds (trees, wells, shrines). The quality of cartographic information is assessed and remnants of the past environment are discovered.