Maplines Summer 2010 by The British Cartographic Society

Streetmuseum 9

BCS Symposium 2010 10-12

Elephants on Parade See pages 12 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 13

Roman Cartography 16-17

Summer 2010

Editorial

From the Editors elcome to our Summer edition. I guess the first thing to explain, and one that you are undoubtedly pondering over your morning croissant, is the elephant. You might notice a few more elephants scattered throughout the issue. The answer is in a new Corporate Members’ feature (p1213), where we take an in depth look at the recent Elephant Parade in London. The images are simply stunning; our only regret is we couldn’t show more within our pages! Even Mark’s new daughter, Jessica Megan, couldn’t stay away from them as you can see!

Elephants aside, we have another excellent selection of feature articles for you – media mapping, Roman cartography and Martian projections! Something for everyone it would seem. All will be revealed if you read on.

June’s annual BCS Symposium, Talking with Maps (p8-10) was a very successful event. Thanks to everyone who helped to bring the event alive and a big well done to those who scooped one of our prestigious awards. There is plenty more to catch up with between these hallowed pages, so put your feet up, prop yourself up with a few pillows and enjoy! As always, we would welcome your comments, news and events, so please get in touch using the details on this page. And next time you hear from us, it will be Christmas! How time flies... Adam on behalf of Lynda, Adam, Martin and Mark Maplines Editors Spring Quiz winner Congratulations to David Sherren, your prize is on its way!

Spring Issue’s Quiz Answers 1. City Hall 2. Royal Albert Hall 3. 30 St Mary Axe 4. The National Gallery 5. Kings Cross Station 6. The Globe Theatre 7. Houses of Parliament 8. Centre Point 9. St Paul's Cathedral see page 20 for this issue’s Quiz

Editors Contact details: Senior Editor Lynda Bailey: lynda.bailey2@virgin.net Senior Editor, Design & Production Martin Lubikowski: mldesign@btclick.com tel: 020 8778 4429 Editor Adam King: amadking2@yahoo.co.uk Editor, Design & Production Mark Sansom: m.sansom@tayloryoung.co.uk Tel: 01625 542 200 Deadline for copy for the Winter 2010 edition is 19 October The comments in Maplines are those of the Editors and Contributors and not necessarily those of the BCS. If you would like to sponsor the Maplines Quiz please contact the Editors

Why not display your shop window in Maplines? From January 2011, Maplines will be accepting advertising with the first adverts appearing in our Spring 2011 issue in April. So advertise your company, event, course or publication to the mapping community! For more details please contact Maplines Editors, Lynda Bailey or Martin Lubikowski

Volume 16, 2nd Issue, Summer 2010 Registered Charity No. 240034

2 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

illustrations in this issue Front Cover: With many thanks to Lovell Johns; Concept – Elaine Camroux McLean; Artwork and design – Mark Sansom Photography – Lynda Bailey

p4-5: Views of the World Peter Vujakovic and John Hills Canterbury Christ Church University

All other photography copyright: Martin Lubikowski, Lynda Bailey or the British Cartographic Society

p16-17: Streetmuseum – with kind thanks to the Museum of London

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President

Notes from our President irst a well deserved plaudit. I have to express my thanks to Peter Jones and his Programme team for a terrific job organising and managing the hugely successful Annual Symposium ‘Talking with Maps’ in Nottingham in June. We were treated to some fascinating talks and workshops that attracted an impressively wide range of representatives related to the geographic industry. It really was a great event and I’m already looking forward to the 2011 Symposium to be held at Shrigley Hall in Cheshire. A great job! Well done everyone.

cartography was not viewed as a core competency for the national mapping agency. They withdrew into what appeared to be the last bastion of traditional cartographic skills deployment – derived paper mapping and here they effectively became isolated from the development of geographical data. It has taken years of effort to convince the policy makers of the importance of cartography in the digital age and that good cartography should be viewed as the language that ensures the map, whatever the delivery technology, is an efficient and effective tool.

As we move into my final few months as President it was my honour to give the President’s Address at the Symposium, where I took the opportunity to expand a little on my last Maplines notes in which I briefly reflected on some of the changes currently facing us. One of the anticipated changes was what we now know as OS OpenData™, a range of Ordnance Survey products available for free and without restriction of use to support the Government’s Making Public Data Public initiative and to encourage innovation and greater use of geographic information. Ordnance Survey are particularly interested in innovative use of these datasets and consequently plan to give an award to those making best use of OS OpenData in the GeoVation Challenge, www.geovation.org.uk. The current challenge in the 2010/2011 programme is “How can Britain feed itself?” and runs until 3rd September 2010. It would be great to see some of you give it a go.

BCS is also responding and the changes in hand since our recent review are well documented. We’ve also seen some success in reaching out to those map-makers using the new technologies to demonstrate how their maps could be better in achieving their aims more effectively and we should continue to collaborate with other organisations to further develop that success. However, this is only the beginning of a journey, not the solution, and we must continue to build on these foundations if we are to ensure cartography is a respected discipline integral to the rapidly expanding location economy.

The address was an opportunity to explore, not too seriously, some of the other major changes I’ve experienced at Ordnance Survey and observed in the wider cartographic industry over a 40 year career. Of course the most significant change started slowly in the early 1970’s with the digitisation of some 230,000 Ordnance Survey large scale maps of Great Britain, aiming to introduce efficiency savings to map production. It soon became clear that production costs were higher but by then some of the consequential advantages of digital geographical data were becoming clearer. As this and other data became more widely available, cartographers at Ordnance Survey, and I believe the general cartographic industry, failed to respond adequately to what was becoming a seismic shift in the world of geography. At Ordnance Survey the cartographers’ response was almost catastrophic; for many years

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In doing so…. • We must not be too precious over our own traditional beliefs; we must be prepared to adapt to new ways of looking at the role of mapping and technology. • We should sell the concept of good cartographic principles but not rules; rules can and will change according to the technology and map usage. • We must proactively track associated technologies and collaborate with progressive geographical industries. We cannot afford to sit back and be by-passed by more technological revolution; who knows what the next decade will bring. Those at the cutting edge of innovation may not invite us to the table; we need to be already there. These are purely my personal thoughts and I’d be delighted to hear others’ thoughts on what the Society should do to ensure growth and sustainability over the next few years. As ever, best wishes, and always feel free to contact me. Bob Lilley BCS President bob.lilley@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Maplines / Summer 2010 • 3

Media mapping

Views of the World comprehensive knowledge of geography is important to understanding our increasingly ‘globalised’ society, especially as public opinion increasingly influences politicians as they have to grapple with such issues as environmental change or the use of armed forces to intervene in other states. The role of the news media, including their representation of critical issues through maps, is crucial to developing this knowledge. This article describes a longitudinal survey of maps in the UK ‘quality press’ covering Jan-July 1999 and Jan-June 2009.

The quality press was chosen as a key information source for decision makers and educationists, as well as the general public. The importance of broadcast news sources is acknowledged, but these are more ephemeral, complementing rather than replacing print news sources. It is also important to note that web-versions of newspaper items often omit graphic materials accompanying print versions (photos, graphs or maps). The survey included all maps accompanying home, international and business news stories (1128 maps in 1999, and 1248 in 2009) and provided information on map design and on thematic and geographical coverage – this article focuses on the latter. What in the World? Thematic context is fundamental to the study of the role of news maps. Map coverage of specific themes will have an impact on public understanding of key issues. The results of the 1999 survey confirmed earlier studies that recorded military conflicts and geopolitics as key themes dominating maps in the news, for example, Monmonier’s study of US news in 1980s, and Perkins and Parry’s UK study in the early 1990s. The single highest scoring category in this survey in 1999 was international conflicts (28.4% of all published maps, rising to 41.2% if combined with internal conflicts). This figure was inflated by 4 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

the number of maps devoted to the Kosovo crisis which represented 25.3% of all news maps published between January and July, rising to 54.7% of all maps in April at the height of NATO bombardment. The 2009 survey yielded a combined figure of 29.6% for these two categories (18.3 and 11.3% respectively). This may represent more ‘normal’ conditions (similar to the findings of Perkins and Parry), although UK and US forces were actively engaged in Iran and Afghanistan during this period. The importance of these maps is emphasised when their specific use is addressed. News maps generally vary from simple locator maps (30.7% of all maps in 2009) to more complex uses involving representation of dynamic spatial processes, or complex political boundaries. Maps devoted to conflict represent 58% of all maps of dynamic spatial processes and 84.6% of maps of special regions. Such information is critical to understanding conflicts and other geopolitical issues, an example being control zone and troop movement maps during the Sri Lankan government’s successful campaign against Tamil Tiger forces (May 2009). Other geopolitical issues, represented by a few maps only, were also highly significant in terms of public awareness of global developments; an example being Russia’s territorial claims in the Arctic as this has long term significance for command and control of resources such as oil. Most other themes were represented by a relatively small number of maps. The proportions did not vary greatly from 1999 to 2009. Maps accompanying stories on environmental issues remained a surprisingly small part of the cartographic output in the press. Although there was a rise from 3.9% in 1999 to 5.9% in 2009, this remains a small proportion given the importance of global climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. A decade ago this seemed to represent an inherent conservatism, with a single paper, The

Guardian, producing almost half (47.7%) of all the maps on this topic. In 2009, the spread was more even, with The Times producing the highest number of maps on this theme (28.4%) and The Guardian in second place, followed by The Sunday Times and the FT. Where in the World? Geographical coverage Understanding geographical relationships is important to contemporary geopolitics. The World regions (see figs 1 and 2) used to classify the maps were adapted from Saul Cohen’s ‘geopolitical realms’. Cohen’s realms were based on the bi-polar geopolitics of the Cold War, but his basic regional framework remains effective. In 1999 ‘Maritime Europe’ and the ‘Eastern European Gateway’ (EEG) were the most mapped regions, with 36.3% and 27.7% of all maps respectively. The result for Maritime Europe was swollen by UK stories representing 61.9% of the maps. The EEG was heavily represented due to the Kosovo crisis - 91.3% of all maps for the region (fig. 1). The EEG represents a zone of economic transition and political tension between Maritime Europe and Russia, so conflict in the region is likely to attract considerable news interest. Other regions of geopolitical instability were well represented, with the ‘Middle East’ (7.7%) the next highest scoring region. 2009 shows a similar result for Maritime Europe (37.3%) with UK news again representing a high proportion of the total for that region (66.7%). The significant difference is the low figure for the ‘EEG’, only 4.3% of all maps. During 2009, this region was reasonably quiescent in geopolitical terms. In 2009 the ‘Middle East’ (15.1%) and ‘South Asia’ (12.5%) dominated the results (fig. 2) due to conflicts in Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. World maps nearly doubled their share (9.8%) due in part to the world-wide swine flu pandemic and the global

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Media mapping

economic down-turn. World maps were also an important source of geopolitical information related to missile defense issues in both 1999 and 2009 (see Maplines, Winter 2009). Ocean and polar regions represented only 1.8% of the total in 2009 but covered important territorial and resource issues, for example Russian claims in the Arctic, and disputes over sovereignty in the Antarctic region. This short article has been able to do little more than describe the basic findings of the survey. These do, however, provide some evidence of the role of maps in propagating information and how they influence both decision makers and the public about geopolitical issues.

Figure 1: News map coverage in UK quality press by geopolitical region, January-July 1999.

NOTE: This article is based on Vujakovic, P. (2010) New Views of the World: Maps in the United Kingdom 'Quality' Press in 1999 and 2009, Bulletin of the Society of Cartographers, 43 (1/2), pp.31-40. Other research based on the survey can be viewed at: http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/ social-applied-sciences/geographical-and-lifesciences/staff/Peter-Vujakovic/Home.aspx

Peter Vujaković Professor of Geography, Dept. of Geographical and Life Sciences Canterbury Christ Church University, UK Themes

Figure 2: News map coverage in UK quality press (daily and Sunday papers) by geopolitical region, January-June 2009.

Sub-themes

Total 1999

A. Politics:

1. Government, legislation, electoral, parties, non-violent protests/strikes

internal

2. Riots, terrorism, civil conflict/war, secession movements, coupes

B. Politics:

3. International relations, negotiations, agreements (non-trade)

international

4. Military conflict/war, defense issues, territorial/resource disputes

2009

7.4%

7.6%

12.8%

18.3%

2.2%

4.4%

28.4%

11.3% 3.8%

C. Disasters/

5. Large-scale disasters (earthquakes, floods, etc.), epidemics

1.3%

accidents

6. Accidents (transport, etc.), explosions & fires, industrial disasters, weather problems (e.g. avalanches)

6.6%

5.1%

3.3%

2.7%

D. Environment 7. General science, natural science, engineering, medical and Science

E. Society

F. Cultural

G. Economics

8. Environmental problems/impacts, pollution

3.9%

5.9%

9. Transport systems, development and planning

2.3%

3.6%

10. Land use/resource planning and conservation, public works, neighbourhoods

3.6%

3.2%

11. Demography/social trends, housing, employment, education

2.7%

4.2%

12. Crime, courts/judicial, police, missing persons

7.4%

7.8%

13. Social disasters (famine, refugees)

0.7%

1.4%

14. History & archaeology, heritage, the arts and ‘media’

2.5%

2.2%

15. Travel, tourism, recreation and sport

3.1%

1.2%

16. Human interest/‘odd events’, religion, VIPs/Royals, scandals (non-political), minor accidents (few people)

5.0%

5.8%

17. Business and finance, industry

3.8%

7.3%

18. Macro-economics, trade agreements, international monetary issues, aid and economic development

3.0%

4.0%

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Maplines / Summer 2010 • 5

Projections

The Wright Map... magine that a young lad arrives from Mars. He has never seen a flat world map. He has no preconceptions: names such as Mercator or Peters mean nothing to him and the conflicts over different types of world map are totally unknown. Furthermore, this person has no distant memories of complex courses on ‘Map Projections’ – in fact the very word ‘projection’ means nothing to him. Nor is he aware that other people possess complex wisdom over the mathematics of globes, or that cosines and spherical geometry even exist.

On his journey to Earth, he sees our planet from space and soon after he arrives he sees a globe. He recognises

Using the lines of longitude he starts placing the biggest pieces. It only takes a few minutes to get the hot areas in the correct order. He notices that each of these 12 ‘nearly square’ pieces is slightly shorter along the 30° N line than the 0° line. On measuring them, he finds to his surprise that they are only one-eighth shorter at 30° N than at the Equator. Once joined together, the pieces form an arc-shape. However, on the globe the Equator is not arcshaped, so he decides to try to keep the Equator as a straight line. He achieves this by allowing ‘gaps’ to appear in sea areas, and allowing small amounts of ‘slanting’ of some of the ‘hot’ pieces which show land areas.

exaggerations in scale that have been perpetrated by Mercator, Miller, Robinson, et al. He never even considered enlarging the scale: that would be too unfair. He soon realises that there is a lot of ocean and that very few people live on the land areas. This is by far the smallest and least inhabited part of the hemisphere and so he leaves big gaps in the oceans and some gaps in Siberia and with that he finds his problems solved. His hemisphere map is complete! Finally, our map-maker tackles the Southern Hemisphere, working from Equator to Pole once again. Problems seem fewer because there is so little land and so much sea. South America

The [W]Right World Map This is a new equal-area World map, with extra ‘cuts’: the result is that land areas have smaller distortions of shapes. The [W]RIGHT WORLD MAP is copyright, but may be freely reproduced by schools and churches, for use within these institutions. For other uses, please make prior contact via this website: www.dandjwright.co.uk © David R Wright, 2007 Cartography by Cox Cartographic Ltd.

it as ‘truth’ in miniature, a representation of Planet Earth in space. Now imagine that the skin of the globe falls apart at 30° intervals of latitude and longitude, into 72 separate pieces. Fascinated by this, he starts to try to make a World map by reassembling the 72 pieces. Each piece is slightly curved but each is flat enough to lie on a table. First our Martian collects the 36 pieces of the northern hemisphere and sorts them into three groups of 12 pieces. There are 12 ‘almost square’ pieces for the ‘hot’ areas, the tropics and sub-tropics (0° – 30° N). There are 12 pieces which resemble a trapezium which are the temperate areas (30° – 60° N) and finally, 12 small ‘triangles’ for the cold areas (60° – 90° N). 6 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

Brilliant! Our Martian, without reducing the size of areas, has created a very good map of tropical and subtropical areas, with remarkably little distortion of shape and at true scale. The problems are bigger when he tries to attach the temperate lands to the tropics but he overcomes this by adopting the principle of bigger gaps in the oceans. He slopes the edges of the land areas in North America to keep them joined together and he solves the problem of Eurasia by allowing some gaps in remote parts of Asia. Problem solved! He then tries to add the areas north of 60° N. Our map-maker is unaware of the big problems these areas have caused to cartographers and of the

and Africa fit in with virtually no problems as does Australia. Antarctica is severely split in several places but it is all there and all at the correct scale. He doesn’t know that many world maps omit Antarctica completely or show Antarctica as if it is as long as the Equator. The map is finished! Our Martian has created a World map which has true scale and very nearly true shapes for the land, the two ideals that are so often compromised on other maps. Without the use of mathematics or knowledge of the accumulated cartographic wisdom of the centuries and without use of a computer he has created an excellent world map by using a practical ‘hands-on’ approach. Furthermore, the method of

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Projections

construction can make sense to everyone and the globe belongs to everyone. Everyone deserves access to a World map which is clearly based on the truth of the globe, rather than on the whim of a cartographer. Of course, a computer literate cartographer and some tidying up will be needed. For example, Greenland needs ‘reuniting’ and dozens of other details need adjusting but the basic concept of the map remains sound. Let’s now return to the real World and evaluate our Martian’s map. How does this new map compare with other World maps? The numerous non-equal-area maps can be rejected on the grounds that they are ‘not fair’. Equal-area maps with huge distortions of shape, such as Peters, can be rejected as soon as people realise that there are other equal-area maps available. In fact ALL uninterrupted equal-area World maps have quite serious shapedistortion in parts or all of the map. So we can commend the new map in terms of shapes of land. Our mapmaker is unaware of the competition but we could tell him that the best comparison to his new map would be the Interrupted Mollweide, the Interrupted Sanson-Flamsteed and Goode. But those three have quite severe shape-distortions in two crucial, highly-populated areas namely western

David Wright 1939 – 2009

Publication of ‘The New Flat Earthers’ by Peter Vujakovic and John Hills in Maplines sadly coincided with the death of David Wright at home in Norfolk after a long illness. Like them, David was a campaigner for the sensible use of map projections.

Europe and eastern Asia. Furthermore, the new map recognises that tropical and sub-tropical lands should be the starting-point for creating a new World map. There are two good reasons for this. Firstly, these areas can be mapped with few problems and little distortion because the 30° N line is fully seven-eighths of the length of the Equator. Secondly, these areas occupy fully half the surface area of the globe (a vital yet little known fact) so they deserve as much attention as the remainder.

You too can build your own World map! Take a good-quality inflatable globe and cut it at 30° intervals of latitude and longitude to get 72 separate pieces. Reassemble following the ‘map-maker’ in this article – or design your own World map. Almost all other World maps are designed by people who lived in temperate lands. Many of these maps enlarge cool lands and print tropical areas at reduced size. The new map should commend itself to tropical countries and also to those who are keen on development education, even if they live in temperate countries. It is ideal for showing world distributions of any product from asbestos to zinc and

for the distribution of people too. I would even suggest it is the right map for the 21st century. Professor Goode named his map the ‘Goode Map’. This new map is arguably better than the Goode Map but it will need a NAME! It is time to be honest. The work was not done by a Martian, nor by someone who had never seen a flat World map, it was done by me. I have become increasingly dissatisfied both with the enlarged Arctic and downsized tropic World maps and with the gross distortions of the Peters map. How could I cut through the verbiage, the errors, the false assumptions? It seemed impossible until I realised that we all have access to objective truth: the GLOBE. This became my startingpoint and from there all became clear. But to express it in an interesting way I felt I had to invent the unlikely scenario of a visiting Martian. May I be forgiven? If so, I christen this map: ‘The (W)Right World Map for International Understanding’. David R Wright, MA is co-author of Philips Childrens Atlas (11th edition Summer 2005) and author of Maps with Latitude (GA). He was formerly a lecturer at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

He struggled to have correct proportions, shapes and distances taught in schools. He lectured geographical teachers on many occasions on the distorted knowledge that students have. With his wife Jill he authored ‘Philips Children’s Atlas’ which has run into twelve editions and published worldwide. For this he received the Royal Geographical Society Patrick Ness Award.

retirement in 1994 thereafter working as a consultant, inspector and author. Being a geographical polymath his interests and writings extended to climate change, Christmas hymns, railway journeys, most recently the use of Rail Rover tickets, steam trains, and stamp collecting, particularly on their geographical and cartographical contents.

A Cambridge Geography graduate he began his teaching career in Stevenage before moving to Keswick Hall College to train teachers. This became part of the University of East Anglia from which he took early

David’s last articles were written whilst in hospital undergoing treatments. To Jill and the two children, we extend our sympathies.

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David Cooper Maplines / Summer 2010 • 7

Symposium 2010

Talking With Maps erving as a tasty appetiser for the other big event in June, the FIFA World Cup, the BCS Annual Symposium was held from 9th – 12th June in Nottingham. Once again delegate numbers rose as a full programme of lectures, workshops, networking opportunities and some new and fun activities relating to the theme of Talking with Maps got underway. With all the recent media coverage of maps and cartography on both television and radio, we came to the Symposium with the topic very much in the forefront of our minds.

This year we opened with a new venture for the BCS: a free to attend workshop for Year 10 secondary school students. The ‘Restless Earth’ workshop, entitled to fit in with the National Curriculum theme and kindly sponsored by ESRI and Global Mapping, was aimed at communicating the importance of maps. Based on a scenario of providing support to the Haiti earthquake disaster relief, each student was given a specific role to play: • the Military • Search and Rescue • Humanitarian aid • Medical care • Coordination team.

Group (UK Map). Technical presentations from Star Apic and an impromptu presentation by James Buckland of ESRI UK, discussed how the data can be used in two GIS packages. These discussions were expertly complemented by Mary Spence looking at how design considerations are essential for the production of good mapping from GIS. Wednesday evening saw the official opening of the Exhibition and the ‘Mystery Quiz’, with the winner really ‘taking it all’ as the ‘Sugar Plum Faeries’ emerged triumphant mainly due to their success in identifying country outlines, flags and capital cities. The next day’s sessions began by concentrating on a range of thematic mapping topics as diverse as unexploded ordnance to off-piste skiing. Full details are available on the BCS website as are a number of the presentations.

Through consultation and compromise between the students, each school produced a briefing map that combined the needs of all roles. As one student commented, ‘overall I thought the day was very useful indeed and that maps are more than just a pretty drawing, they have meaning and useful qualities’. Special mention goes to Parkside Community School who have placed an excellent summary of the session on their school website www.parkside.derbyshire.sch.uk.

Then followed another first for the BCS with the introduction of an icebreaker session. Delegates were assigned to groups to compete in an ‘International Modelling Competition’ which involved creating artefacts or objects from Play-Doh to represent a given country. We had some very creative delegates with models including sumo wrestlers, clogs, croissants, telephone boxes and kangaroos. The name of the game was for each team to score as many points as possible by guessing the other teams’ works of art. As all the models were so good, we had to resort to a devious tie breaker question to decide the winning team. A subsequent panel of Play-Doh experts judged Team 1 to have produced the best model with their Australia entry.

The afternoon was dedicated to the Special Interest Groups. This year the Design Group and GIS Group joined forces to provide a session focussed on the new datasets available to cartographers from Ordnance Survey (VectorMap) and The GeoInformation

Back to the formal sessions, we moved to the first workshop where delegates had a choice to look at different software packages, cartographic design, mapping techniques or applications. The workshop on the cartographic challenges for mapping

8 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

human geography delivered by DGC was particularly well received. The afternoon session of talks, this time under the theme of cartographic representation, investigated a number of different and innovative ways of portraying cartographic data. This year’s outgoing President’s Address from Bob Lilley, proved to be a tour de force of his career at Ordnance Survey and some of the major changes he has seen over the years. It proved to be a fascinating insight into how OS has operated over the years, particularly pertinent given the recent changes to access to OS mapping. Through this year’s Awards, the BCS recognised excellence in cartography; congratulations go to all this year’s Awards winners. The Society also conferred Honorary Fellowship on Ken Atherton, recognising many years of devoted service to the Society, fulfilling many roles; he remains heavily involved with the Symposium as a key member of the Programme Committee. Our last full day opened with a fascinating session on maps in the media covering how the UK quality press uses and misuses maps to get points across and the latest phenomenon of ‘Cartoblography’ a term coined for the spatial context of internet blog sites. The second workshop session consisted of practical sessions, for the first time introducing a discussion session ‘engaging the new cartographers’. Friday afternoon’s session built on a theme from last year’s AGI conference, the visualisation of space. Here we discussed a variety of high profile topics within the industry including 3D modeling, maps in motion and the role of the cartographer in the mash up age. The Symposium closed with a ‘Cartographic Surgery’ aiming to provide positive critique of styles and design in a number of examples of Continued on page 18...

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BCS Award Winners 2010 • The BCS Award and The Ordnance Survey MasterMap Award for Better Mapping – Inverness City Main Developments 2010, The Highland Council • The Stanfords Awards for Printed Mapping Products – XYZ’s Postcode Sector Map – Sheet 22. • The Avenza Award for Electronic Mapping Products – Polarview – Antarctic Node by the British Antarctic Survey. • The John C. Bartholomew Award for Small Scale Mapping - Geo-Genealogy Irish Surnames Map., Dr Kenneth Field and Dr Linda Beale, Kingston University, London. • The Henry Johns Award, presented to the author of the best article published in The Cartographic Journal during the year – Stylistic Diversity in European 1:50 000 State Topographic Maps by Alexander Kent of Southampton University and Peter Vujakovic of Canterbury Christ Church University.

Symposium 2010

Observations of a Carto Guru... his was the third year that I was asked to present workshops at the BCS Symposium. Twice before, Mary Spence and I have presented a workshop designed to look at (or look again at!) some of the basic aspects of successful map design. Part of the BCS’s aim is to communicate the message about good map design to the growing number of mapmakers who have been given the remit to produce maps, but have no formal training in cartography. Workshops such as this year’s Better Mapping for the Terrified are aimed at just such an audience and it has been a pleasure to see conference delegates from local and central government at the Symposium and attending the workshops. But we’ve also had several practising cartographers coming along, and their input which reflects years of experience, has been highly welcomed.

The highlight of each workshop has been Mary’s practical session when she takes delegates through a range of real-world examples of maps which pose design challenges. Looking at examples of maps before and after improvement, it’s gratifying to hear perceptive observations on the problems of designing good maps; it’s easy to identify a map with poor design, but much harder to identify what to do to put it right. It’s really by looking at different approaches to design that you can tease out ways to present geographical data well and aim for the best map possible. And, as Mary’s fond of pointing out, there’s no such thing as a finished map, only an improved one. This year, as well as looking at basic design, I was asked to lead a new workshop on approaches to good statistical maps. It’s an area that’s long been of interest to me, not as a statistician (which I’m definitely not!) but as a geographer seeing misleading statistical maps frequently published. I gave a short talk on statistical maps at the BCS’s Better 10 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

Mapping seminars, last October and I based this workshop on that. My aim was to look at the variety of different forms of statistical mapping, choropleth, dot maps and the like, but more importantly to illustrate that the way in which you classify and divide a set of data fundamentally affects the map that’s produced and the message conveyed. In statistical mapping, perhaps more so than in any other area of cartography, the honesty and integrity of the cartographer is of fundamental importance. Most of the time statistical maps don’t intend to mislead, and if they do, it may be for understandable reasons. As with choosing the wrong projection, it’s usually done out of ignorance, but the consequences can be considerable. But if misleading an audience is the result of not knowing about techniques of data division, then it’s a situation which ought to be remedied. Ideally, everyone looking at a statistical map should have some training in how to read it, but that’s unlikely to happen! For a workshop on stats mapping, it’s a good idea to illustrate your session with real data, and indeed to use real data for the delegates to have a go at producing a statistical map. Here lies a difficulty: have you ever tried to find sets of data which are realistic, mappable and usable by a group of willing volunteers in a workshop session? We know that we’re drowning in data, but you’d be surprised what a challenge it is to find statistics that are typical, mappable and meaningful. I hit upon two sets of appropriate data: consumption of coffee per capita, per annum, and the number of MacDonald’s restaurants in 39 countries of the World! The task was to work out the method of dividing and grouping the data which best reflected the data and then devising a scheme to map it. This involved a lot of experimentation on my part to give the participants some guidance. In the event, the six people at the

workshop came up with very good schemes, some using more scientific methods and others adopting a ‘suck it and see’ approach! Attending a Symposium and hearing a range of presentations is always a good time to reflect on how different approaches to mapping and presenting data can work, but it also reinforces my belief that mapped information should be meaningful information. Cartography is the business of presenting spatial information in a graphic way, and at its heart is useful geographical information. I was struck by the fact that some of the contemporary research in cartography seems to be dealing with mapping information (especially multivariate data) which is so complex that it becomes impossible to map in a meaningful way. The fact that it is possible to map multivariate information does not mean to say that it should be mapped, if the graphic that results does not clarify the data. I also noted that some of the techniques of smoothing data to make them look more ‘natural’ may at heart be dishonest, since you’re not enhancing the quality of the data, only the method of presenting it. Since we all, whether it’s right or not, judge the quality of mapped data by the quality of the presentation, it is perhaps of dubious value to present a set of data as if it had been gathered on a smaller areal basis than is the reality. I tend to judge the success of a presentation by the amount of discussion it sparks off, and specifically by the number of questions asked. It was interesting to see that the best discussions this year followed presentations on areas of mapping which are perhaps more meaningful to fellow cartographers, and I suspect to the wider world. Giles Darkes

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Apps in Focus

Streetmuseum of London groundbreaking iPhone app, launched by the Museum of London, brings the museum’s extensive art and photographic collections to the streets of the capital. Streetmuseum, developed with creative agency Brothers and Sisters, guides users to sites across London, where hidden histories of the city dramatically appear.

Over 200 sites have been picked where users can look through their iPhones and see the past emerge, locked as an overlay across the present scene. These can be viewed as ghostly alignments, or the archive images can be brought up and explored in detail, along with information about Streetmuseum’s photographs and paintings. The museum recently opened spectacular new Galleries of Modern London on 28 May. The galleries transport visitors through London's tumultuous history from 1666 to the present day; a story alive with drama, triumph and near disaster. Over 7,000

Shoe Lane, London EC4 objects together with interactive exhibits, film and changing displays capture the ever-changing life of London and its people. Professor Jack Lohman, Director of the Museum of London, said: ‘The launch of the Streetmuseum app is an exciting development for the Museum of London, opening our unique collections to new audiences in a thoughtprovoking and creative manner. London’s stories are varied and

many-voiced. This app allows the present and the past to collide and share their secrets. Streetmuseum opens up the city in new and exciting ways.’ Streetmuseum is free to download for 3G and 3GS iPhones and is available on iTunes now. Visit: www.museumoflondon.org.uk/ streetmuseum for more info.

New Collins Geo Quiz Apps ollins Geo has just launched its first two apps, Collins Quiz Zone World and Collins Quiz Zone Europe. These geographical quizzes are easy to use, entertaining but also educational. They have been produced in conjunction with Aimer Education.

Collins Quiz Zone helps young geographers explore the world in an educational yet fun way, whether it's to test themselves, revise or just for fun. Collins Quiz Zone World Categories: • Cities • Countries • Flags • Landscapes • Mountains and Rivers • Where in the World

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Collins Quiz Zone Europe Categories: • Cities • Countries and Boundaries • Landscapes • Rivers and Lakes • Pot Luck These quizzes are ideal for children 7 years old and upwards. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. See iTunes to get more details, buy and download these apps, price: £1.79. Collins Quiz Zone World http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/collin s-quiz-zoneworld/id372270847?mt=8 Collins Quiz Zone Europe http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ collins-quiz-zoneeurope/ id372274376?mt=8

Maplines / Summer 2010 • 11

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Page 12 Corporate News People • Companies • Products

Elephants on Parade!

You may have seen in the media over the last couple of months that elephants have taken over London. No, it’s not a strange concept for a film, but the charity Elephant Family having their annual Elephant Parade.

The 2010 Annual BCS Symposium was a great success with over 100 attendees and 15 of our Corporate Members took advantage of the opportunity to have a free exhibition space. As always, our thanks must go to our Symposium sponsors this year: ESRI(UK), Ordnance Survey, Star-Apic, Victoria Litho, PV Publications and Global Mapping for their continued, valuable support. Prior to the main event, the GIS SIG had an afternoon session during which there were presentations on OS VectorMap Local, UK Map, How to Produce High Quality Mapping from such Datasets and Applying Cartographic Design using GIS. There were 39 attendees at the session of which 22 were from the Corporate Members Group which emphasises how important the GIS SIG is becoming to the Corporate Membership. Recently, Lovell Johns have been in the news for their mapping of the London Elephant Parade and now they feature as the first Corporate Member In-Focus. The Editors of Maplines would like to invite Corporate Members to highlight your interesting and unusual projects for this new Corporate Page feature. This is another opportunity for us all to advertise the work we are doing at no cost other than the time spent writing the article, so please get in touch and show the rest of us what you’re involved in! Peter Jolly Corporate Liaison Officer pjolly@esriuk.com 12 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

Elephant Parade is a conservation campaign that shines a multi-coloured spotlight on the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant. Brought to you by Elephant Family, www.elephantfamily.org, the event saw over 250 brightly painted life-size elephants located over central London this summer.

elephant with its relevant index number. The elephants were then styled depending on their category – indoor, outdoor and ‘happy herd’, and cartographically positioned to avoid clashes with map features and other elephants close by. Although we are a map making company, making the map isn’t all we did! Type setting of the index of elephants, company logos, sponsor logos and more was completed ensuring that the style of the finished map was consistent throughout. Finally, after approval from the charity, we managed the print and delivery of the A2 folded map for their launch.

This year the campaign is even bigger than before and to help visitors to London find all the elephants around the capital, Lovell Johns were asked to create a user-friendly map of all the elephant locations. The team planning the Elephant Parade wanted a map to reflect their fresh image, but also one that would be clear and easy to read. This project was completed in April and it was the first where we have used Ordnance Survey OpenData to create the map. To cope with the influx of visitors, in part due to the massive amount of publicity the Elephant Parade was getting, they printed 250,000 copies. Using OS OpenData gave them a huge saving in print royalties, which would have been considerable for that number of copies! The mapping was based on OS Streetview, then generalised to create the overview style mapping they wanted. This is a really good example of how OS OpenData mapping, now available freely to all, can be made into something really special for a specific project. The data was then styled to be bright, modern and fun. Illustrations were created for the major landmarks around London to make the map easier to navigate. The elephants weren’t added by hand, rather our expert GIS team georeferenced the postcodes to give our designer the exact geographical location of each

Lovell John’s MD, David Stephens with Kolkata Knight Riders We were proud to be involved in such a worthwhile campaign and to have created such a quality product for our client. No doubt we have helped thousands of people find some of the fabulous elephants around London. Their campaign has been a huge success and has certainly raised the profile of the endangered Asian elephant. Further information about the parade can be found at www.elephantparadelondon.org. If you missed the Elephant Parade this year, make sure you go next year; it’s bound to be even better. Liz Adams Marketing Manager Lovell Johns Ltd www.lovelljohns.com

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

The Elephant Parade turns London into Urban Jungle This Summer, Elephant Family, the only charity solely dedicated to ensuring the survival of the Asian elephant, teamed up with Britain’s leading art and design luminaries to launch London’s biggest ever public art event – The Elephant Parade. Fish and Chips

able to paint their elephants courtesy of eco friendly paint manufacturers and official Elephant Parade paint partner, Farrow and Ball, www.farrow-ball.com. A studio was set up in the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, courtesy of St. Modwen, where artists worked on their designs. Haulage Partner, Eco Movers, a specialist removals company committed to caring for the environment, have been delivering elephants to artists across London, on a completely sustainable and carbon neutral basis. Driven by eco-friendly ideals, Eco Movers invest in an Eco charity and their own Eco forest to offset the few unavoidable carbon generating aspects of their operations. See www.ecomovers.co.uk. The elephants, destined to become highly collectible works of art, graced a host of London landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Parliament Square and the South Bank, from May to July 2010, turning the capital into an urban jungle.

In London’s streets for they first time in May, this innovative fundraising campaign saw the capital taken over by beautifully hand painted life-size baby elephants, creating a dazzling and unique urban savannah. Previous Elephant Parades have already been held in Holland and Belgium, raising more than €1,600,000 towards the cause.

The display was followed by an auction by Henry Wyndham of Sotheby’s at a glittering event in July. Attracting a host of VIP supporters including Elephant Family founder Mark Shand, patron Tanaz Dizadji, Goldie Hawn, the Duchess of York and Joanna Lumley, this event was the party of the summer season. The whole parade raised over £4million,

benefitting more than 15 UK conservation charities working in Asia. As the project began, Mayor of London Boris Johnson said, ‘Elephant Parade is a brilliantly innovative way of using public art to benefit conservation. Not only will the parade brighten London’s streets and enhance our public spaces, it will play a vital role in building a new generation of conservationists’. Working with the Wildlife Trust of India, funds raised by the Elephant Parade will be used to buy and manage vital wildlife habitat across Asia, giving Asian elephants a safer and more sustainable future. Elephant Family will also invest funds in community education projects across Asia, highlighting the commercial, cultural and ecological significance of Asian elephants. In just 100 years the elephant population has shrunk by over 90%, dropping from 250,000 to an estimated 25,000, placing this valuable species dangerously close to extinction. If current trends continue the Asian elephant will cease to exist in the wild by 2050. For more information and the chance to sign the online petition which aims to lobby the government to support the cause of the endangered Asian elephant, please visit: www.elephantfamily.org.

Map of Old London

The London parade featured 250 life-size baby elephants, all handpainted by an assortment of established and emerging talent from the art and design world. Each elephant proudly bearing a creative or fun name such as Cubelephant, Ladybird, Tigerphant, Spotty or simply Frank, who was appropriately covered in postage stamps! Artists include Marc Quinn, Diane Von Furstenberg, Alice Temperley, Lulu Guinness, Julien Macdonald, Issa, John Rocha, Alberta Ferretti, Jonathan Yeo, Jack Vettriano, Nina Campbell and Nicky Haslam. Artists involved in the Parade were Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Maplines / Summer 2010 • 13

Omnium Gatherum a miscellaneous collection of people or things Charles Booth’s Map Descriptive of London Poverty, 1889 - 1891 Charles Booth’s survey was an ambitious attempt to assess the scale of poverty in London. Whereas artists and writers painted emotionally charged pictures of the poor, Booth wanted to map poverty scientifically. His researchers went out into London with the aim of assessing the social character of every street. A ‘rough’ working-class area was defined as one with open doors, broken windows, prostitutes, thieves and ‘a row always going on between warlike mothers’. Flowerpots, lace curtains, scrubbed doorsteps and hanging birdcages were the hallmarks of a respectable neighbourhood. Booth’s map provides an extraordinary snapshot of London at the end of the 19th century. Medals awarded The National Geographic Society has awarded two Alexander Graham Bell Medals to Dr. Roger Tomlinson and Jack Dangermond for their extraordinary achievement in geographic research. The medals were presented by National Geographic Society Chairman Gilbert M. Grosvenor at the ESRI

Visitors to the Museum of London searching the Booth Map and related photographic collections in the new interactive exhibit. www.museumoflondon.org.uk International User Conference.

Jack Dangermond

National Geographic’s Bell Medal has only been awarded once before. Bradford and Barbara Washburn, renowned explorers, mountaineers and mapmakers, received it in 1980 for their contributions to geography and cartography.

Dr Roger Tomlinson

Notes from the Carto-Guru Choosing the right colours Good use of colour on maps can really aid the communication of mapped detail, and enhance legibility and contrast. Colour can make the important elements of the map stand out from background material. Choosing colours depends on convention and context. • Important features need to stand out from the background and colour choice can help (especially using more saturated colours, not garish colours). • Where appropriate, use conventional colours (e.g. green for vegetation) and associative colours (e.g. blue for cool, red for warm). • Colours look different depending 14 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

on their backgrounds, so don’t choose them in isolation. You may have to experiment to find out what works best for your particular map. • Good maps often use subtle, balanced colours, and bold colours usually look inappropriate. However, a flat range of colours can also look bland.

yellow and black. • Background colour affects the legibility of coloured type. Q

Adding a fine keyline to symbols will enhance the visual contrast and aid interpretation

The most legible colour combinations for lettering are black, dark brown or blue on white. map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol

When it comes to using small symbols or coloured type, it’s worth taking into account the following: • Small symbols and small letters need more intense colours to show up. • The most legible colour combinations are black, dark brown or blue on white. • The greatest contrast is between

Small letters and small symbols need more intense colours to show. map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol

map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol

The greatest contrast is between yellow and black. map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol

Background colour affects the legibility of coloured type. map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol

map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol

Background colour affects the appearance of symbols too (squares are same top & bottom)

If you’re limited to black and white, then use no more than six shades of grey for fills, and don’t use a grey that’s more than 70% black, especially if you want to place type on top of them.

map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol map symbol 0% Q

15%

26%

41%

55%

68%

85%

100%

If you use more than 12 different colours on a map, it becomes very hard to interpret!

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

David Irvine – Travelling Cartographer David is now in Vietnam. Visit his blog below and read of his travels in SE Asia so far. The last entry has him in the Mekong Delta having been in the Himalayas, Tibet, China and traveled through Vietnam from the North. There are many beautiful photos to see on the blog and you get a sense of how beautiful our planet is. Follow his travels in every issue of Maplines or on his blog on: http://davetreks.blogspot.com

The Lost Rivers of London #7 Tyburn: originating in South Hampstead, flowing through St James’s Park and flowing into the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge in Pimlico, the Tyburn once branched to form Thorney Island, the site of Westminster Abbey.

Mapping Portsmouth's Tudor Past An exhibition of international cartographic importance is being held at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard from 2nd July to 17th October 2010. ‘Mapping Portsmouth's Tudor Past’ brings together, for the first time, several important maps from The British Library, UK Hydrographic Office and the Admiralty Library. This is the first occasion on which these maps have been brought together for display to the public and may be the first return to Portsmouth for two Tudor maps of the town in over 400 years. For more information see: www.historicdockyard.co.uk and also page 19 of this Maplines. OS OpenData Following the recent announcement by the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the publication of the government’s response to the public consultation by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), The OS announced the launch of OS OpenData. The new online service allows users to view, develop, download and order selected Ordnance Survey mapping datasets with no restrictions on re-use. OS OpenData releases Ordnance Survey data as part of the drive to increase innovation across businesses, government, communities and individuals. The service supports the Making Public Data Public initiative. The following Ordnance Survey mapping datasets have been made available:

This chart of Portsmouth Harbour is one of the earliest in the collection of the Admiralty Hydrographic Office and dates from between 1585 and 1620. Sourced from the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk).

• • • • • • • • • • •

OS Street View® Code-Point® Open Meridian™ 2 Strategi® Boundary-Line™ Land-Form PANORAMA® 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster Miniscale® OS Locator™ OS VectorMap District

If you hold a contract in regards to any of these OS OpenData products, you will be receiving written confirmation of how this launch affects contracts. OS OpenData will continue to harness the world-class expertise that Ordnance Survey has in the production, maintenance and application of high-quality geospatial information. We will continue to collect and maintain the most accurate mapping data of Great Britain.

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

The service also supports further innovative use of public data enabling developers the opportunity to connect and link datasets, for example data.gov.uk, with geo spatial data from Ordnance Survey. Further Ordnance Survey mapping datasets will be made available and the OS will announce when these will be released. Any questions regarding OS OpenData, should first be referred to the Frequently Asked Questions section of the OS web site, www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk. If you can’t find the answer you are looking for, contact our customer services team via email or telephone 0845 4081895 (lines are open Monday – Friday: 8.30am to 5.30pm). James Brayshaw Director

Maplines / Summer 2010 • 15

Roman Cartography

Roman Mapping and Surveying hat the Roman Army and Administration produced and used maps, not just itineraries, is now regarded as given fact. Just how they went about obtaining the information and can we in the 21st century establish the facts is the challenge.

out to repetitive distances in sequential construction dating, the basic parameters for the construction of a map becomes available. Therefore we see an internal skeleton appearing for the map. That is the macro detail, the map skeleton, but the devil is in the micro detail.

The Roman Empire was a growing organism, ever expanding from its origins. The final flowering of the Empire was made possible by the invasion of most of Great Britain, Britannia. Recorded on each of the Ebstorf, Hereford and Cornwall Mappae Mundi, is a fascinating glimpse into map making history. Before his demise in 44BCE, Julius Caesar issued instructions for a ‘World Survey’. This was no doubt the Roman World and its peripheral countries. The Ebstorf Mappa Mundi, some 3 metres square, contains a poignant vignette of Julius Caesar issuing those instructions to the four surveyors, who were in all probability Greek specialists. The maps are thus a history of the world in pictures for the illiterate masses to learn by. The four surveyors would have had teams of Roman Agrimensors or Geometres to assist them. But even so this survey took some 32 years to complete by 18BCE. The resulting map was displayed in Rome. However, Britannia was not part of the Roman Empire until after the Claudian invasion of 44CE. In c150CE, Claudius Ptolemy, working in Alexandria, drew his map of Britannia including a large amount of data regarding the new Civitates, Roman Legionary Forts and the Legions dispositions. We can therefore assume that the Roman occupation of Britannia included a survey of this the last part of the Empire. It was perhaps to complete the map in Rome and most certainly to transmit data throughout the Empire and obviously to Alexandria. To produce a map it is necessary to ascertain fixed points for its construction. We tend to use a graticule as had Claudius Ptolemy. That 16 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

knowledge was probably unavailable in the period following 44CE and until the construction of Hadrian’s Wall circa 128CE. By studying the Roman landscape works we can fairly establish their fixed points by the accuracy of their location in the landscape juxta each other. Firstly, if we examine the Foss Way from Lindinis/Ilchester to Lindum/Lincoln, we find a precise alignment. The Foss Way crosses the landscape of Britannia on a line that is a 3:5 tangent ratio to North, and between the two node points the alignment is a precise 400 Centuriae or 284 Km.

The micro detail necessary to establish the accurate positions of rivers, mountains, valleys and other geographical features is obtained in a similar manner. By studying the location of the ordinary Roman forts built sequentially to a timescale, that of the Claudian invasion and particularly the final phase to subjugate what is now northern England, we can indicate the survey work required for the local geographical details to be appended to the map. From Deva/Chester and Eboracum/York the next conquest took place. In the landscape there are precisely located forts, forming a straight alignment along a river valley and across moor-land. From Newton Kyme to Ilkley, 23RM: from Ilkley to Elslack, 13RM: from Elslack to Bainbridge, 27.53RM: from Elslack to Overborough, 27.42RM: from Overborough to Ribchester, 27.54RM. This placement is across the Pennines from Yorkshire to Lancashire and could not have been so precisely established if prior geographical knowledge was not

At Ratae/Leicester, which is very close to the 300/100 Centuriae marker, we find a second alignment; it is the Gartree Road, a Roman road to Camulodunum/Colchester. This road is set precisely perpendicular to the Foss Way and is a direct alignment to Camulodunum, some 230 Centuriae or 163 KM. Camulodunum was the first Colonia and capital of this Roman province. In the landscape of Britannia is a very precise layout which could only be achieved with adequate geographical knowledge available beforehand to permit such precision. Add to this the fact that there are other parallel alignments and fort positions strictly set Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Roman Cartography

the survey line or design alignment at 45 degrees it is 13 Roman Miles, i.e. one third of 39RM. From Kirkby Thore to Voreda it is 13 RM and from Voreda to Carlisle it is 13RM. Brougham situated between Kirkby Thore and Voreda is precisely set at the mid point of the alignment, at 19.5 RM. In final confirmation of this survey, perpendicular to the line at Voreda is the fort at Troutbeck, distance 13 Roman Miles.

available. Thus it is fair to assume, as history tends to confirm, that a rather good preparatory survey and incursion took place prior to the final two Legion march northwards. Proceeding north towards Luguvalium/ Carlisle, we can establish the next survey, another tour de force. From North Yorkshire the Roman Road, now the A66, is to BROUGH, near the head of the River Eden. From Brough Fort a 45 degree or 1:1 ratio alignment has been set out to WREAY FORT, based upon the side length of a triangle formed with 24 Roman miles. This is part of the basic surveying system of the Agrimensors or Geometres. The Roman Land division system is based upon a square, the Acti Quadrati of 120 x 120 Pedes (feet). The simplest pseudo Pythagorean triangle to use for such measures is 12:12:17, i.e. 2 x 12 x12 = 288 and 17 x 17 = 289. Thus the Brough to Wreay line is 34 RM. The actual alignment is meant to locate Luguvalium/Carlisle, 39RM from Brough. A simple extension of the hypotenuse line, the survey line achieves that. The proof of this hypothesis is so very simple. The route from Brough to Carlisle is marked by four forts, namely, Kirkby Thore, Brougham, Old Penrith/Voreda and Wreay. From Brough to Kirkby Thore on

Then, from Carlisle westerly around the Cumbrian coast-line and into its hinterland, The Lakes, we find the same repetitive distances to forts established sequentially in the period following the Claudian invasion. The detailed position of these forts, if plotted on plain parchment, provides for the skeleton framework onto which the coast-line and geographical detail can be appended. History tells us that the Roman Navy followed the Legions up the coast from the Severn Estuary and Glevum/ Gloucester, to Chester and thence to Carlisle. It takes little imagination to see that this combination would give more than adequate information to the Roman map maker, be he Greek or Roman, and indicates the transference of that data could take place in both written and map form to both Rome and Alexandria. Marinus the Tyrian and Claudius Ptolemy worked in Alexandria from c100CE to c170CE, and within the text of Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’ he acknowledges that he is using the work of Marinus the Tyrian. In fact in Book One, Chapter XV, entitled, ‘Concerning discrepancies in some of the explanations of Marinus’, there is one rather telling sentence. I quote, ‘From London in Britannia he puts Noviomagus (Chichester), 59 (Roman) Miles south, in a some what westerly direction.’ A study of the Roman survey works reveals the real picture. From London Bridge to the East Gate of Noviomagus, the design line for the road, Stane Street, is a precise 3:5 tangent ratio to

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north and as such it is parallel to the Foss Way alignment. And yes, Marinus has the correct distance. The data for the Roman map construction is set in the landscape.

Conclusions The World survey commissioned by Julius Caesar and the World map which was completed before the beginning of our current era is the only tangible evidence of a proper Roman map. It is possible that a Roman map of Britannia was extant until the sacking of the monasteries took place. It was probably used as a guide for such maps as the enigmatic ‘Gough Map’ and the basis for early geographers work in England. The Romans by their careful placement of forts and the road alignments have bequeathed to us a valuable survey asset which has hither-to been ignored in the cartographical and historical literature. That a survey of Britannia took place is evinced by the data which is recorded in the text of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’ and that self same data must have enabled him to ‘turn’ Scotland and maintain the Geography. Michael Ferrar

This essay is based on articles from www.cartographyunchained.com. The diagrams are all by the author. Maplines / Summer 2010 • 17

Admin Report

BCS Administration Report New Members: The Society has pleasure in welcoming the following new members who have joined the Society since publication of the Spring 2010 edition of Maplines. Corporate Member: Environment Systems Ltd UK Members: Mr T. Barnett, Mr D. Bennett, Miss C. Dobbin, Mr C.J. Going, Mr C. Gomm, Mr D. Gorse Mr G. Gurney, Dr M. Haklay, Mr A James, Mrs M. Kanjilal, Mr P. L. Kohler, Miss N. MacVinish, Mr J. Pepper, Mr S. Stephens, Mr J. Wood. Overseas Member: Miss S. Bleisch (Switzerland) UK Associate Members: Mr C. Bullett, Ms A.M. Clare. Miss L.J. Francis, Mr H. Grothuis, Mr J. Merrills, Mr P. Sugden Administrators Plea Again my regular plea – email addresses. Prior to the BCS Symposium I had to send out quite a lot of emails to members informing them of the event etc – unfortunately a number of them were bounced back as ‘address not found’ so if you have changed or are about to change your email address please let your Administrator know at admin@cartography.org.uk with a few kind words. BCS Council The BCS Council elections this year will be rather unique in that members will be asked to cast their votes for a new President, Vice-President and members of Council and I am not sure if this is a first. In the Spring edition of Maplines I asked that nomination forms be returned to BCS Administration by 1 July 2010 – this was an error and should have read 1 August 2010, my apologies.

18 • Summer 2010 / Maplines

And finally... It has been a busy time since my last report with chasing up membership renewals and preparing for the Annual Symposium. I attended my first BCS Symposium in June at Nottingham, having to travel the enormous distance of some 10 miles (no I did not use my SatNav). I really enjoyed my time there, the organisation was excellent the accommodation and food very good but, best of all was meeting members and putting faces to some of those people I had been in contact with over the previous 8 months. The hardest part of the Symposium was keeping my mentor Ken Atherton from accidentally finding out that he was about to be made an Honorary Fellow of the Society not only for his outstanding work as Administrator but also for the hard work he had done in the 25+ years he has spent as a member of Council. I had to hide his framed certificate in the boot of my car until the actual awards ceremony itself as we were both involved in the presentation side of it – the look on his face when the citation was read out and he realised that it was him is something that I shall never forget. Ken, there is a new manipulator on the block. As I come to the end of this report the sun is shining, the BBQ is set to be lit, the beer is cooling in the fridge and rumour has it that there could be some football on the TV for a change!!! My regards to you all.

...continued from page 8 cartographic products offered by the delegates. Those that stayed on Friday evening had the opportunity to catch the opening games of the World Cup, with the piercing vuvuzela cacophony, and wind down to the sounds of Abba, with a tribute band playing in the hotel. On Saturday, the hardy few who had braved all four days, visited the British Geological Society, Keyworth where we were treated to a fascinating two hours. From the visually stunning artworks of some of the original hand coloured maps to the technically aweinspiring 3D visualisation of the whole of Great Britain it was a fascinating morning. So to the end of another very successful Symposium with some very positive feedback from delegates. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors, ESRI UK, Ordnance Survey, Star-Apic, Victoria Litho, PV Publications and Global Mapping, without whose generous support we would not be able to offer all the additional activities at the Symposium. We would also like to thank all those who presented and also to make a call to others to consider presenting their work next year. Until then, so long. Peter Jones Chair, Programme Committee

Roger Hore BCS Administration 15 The Crescent Stanley Common Ilkeston Derbyshire, DE7 6GL England, UK Tel/Fax +44 (0)115 9328684 Email: admin@cartography.org.uk

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Calendar

Calendar 30 April – 19 September 2010 Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art British Library, London, UK For further info visit www.bl.uk/magnificentmaps 1 – 3 September 2010 Governance and the Geoweb Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, London For further info and bookings see www.rgs.org/AC2010 8 – 10 September 2010 Beyond the Neat Line: BCS Map Curators’ Group Workshop 2010 Workshop covering topics such as marginalia, metadata, production methods and helping users access maps via new technologies. Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK For further info contact Anne Taylor, aemt2@cam.ac.uk Become a Fellow of the British Cartographic Society. Contact BCS Administration for further information

8 – 10 September 2010 46th Annual SoC Summer School Chancellor’s Conference Centre, University of Manchester. Themes include Art and everyday mapping, OS OpenData, Maps and geopolitics, Transport mapping, Mapping Manchester, Crowdsourcing and open data. For further details see www.soc.org.uk/manchester10/ Cambridge Seminars in the History of Cartography 2010 10 November 2010 … about Globes Emma Perkins, Cambridge University. Further details are available at www.lib.cam.ac.uk/ deptserv/maps/camsem0809 All seminars will be held at 5.30pm in Emmanuel College, St Andrew's Street, Cambridge, England CB2 3AP in either the Harrods Room or the Gardner Room. For more info contact sarah.bendall@emma.can.ac.uk tel: 01223 330476

Until 17 October 2010 Mapping Portsmouth’s Tudor Past Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Admission times: April-October 10am – 4.30pm; November-March 10am – 4.00pm; Mary Rose Museum is open all the year round except for Christmas eve, Christmas day and Boxing day.

EDITORS’ CHOICE

Maps and Society Nineteenth Series Programme 4 November 2010 Cartographic Race Games in Europe: Entertainment, Education - or Influence? Professor Adrian Seville, formerly City University, London. 2 December 2010 The Compost of Ptolemy and the Gosson Map (1600/1623?): English Geographic Thought and the Early Modern Print Almanac Professor Meg Roland, Marylhurst University, Oregon. 20 January 2011 The First Two Centuries of Mercator Projection Sea Charts: Positioning the Practitioners, Leaving the Ships at Sea? Gillian Hutchinson, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. 17 February 2011 Cartography and Credulity: Mapping the Sources of the Nile since 150 AD. Emeritus Professor Roy Bridges, Department of History, University of Aberdeen. University of London, Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H OAB, at 5.00 pm Admission is free and each meeting is followed by refreshments. Convened by Dr. Catherine Delano Smith (Institute of Historical Research, University of London), Tony Campbell (formerly Map Library, British Library) and Alessandro Scafi (Warburg Institute). Enquiries to +44 (0) 20 8346 5112 For more calendar entries visit the BCS web site: www.cartography.org.uk

Publicise your events on this page. Send your information through to the Editors. See page 2 for new details. Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Maplines / Summer 2010 • 19

Quiz

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE sponsored by Lovell Johns There are 10 differences between these two otherwise identical pictures. There are three ‘Huge World Wall Maps’ produced by Lovell Jones to be won. So, don’t hold back, get looking and send us your entries. Postal entries must be sent before 22 October 2010 to: BCS Administration, 15 The Crescent, Stanley Common, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7 6GL, England, UK Entries by email must be sent to: lynda.bailey2@virgin.net

20 • Summer 2010/ Maplines

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk