Computer assisted cartography. [Prentice- Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1982, 214 pp., $20.95, ISBN 0-13-165308-3.]
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Post a Comment
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CONTRIBUTORS:
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JOURNAL:
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Computing Reviews,
23(6),
293 -
294.
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YEAR:
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1982
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PUB TYPE:
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Book Review
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SUBJECT(S):
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PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING: Earth and atmospherlc science.
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DISCIPLINE:
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Computer Science
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HTTP:
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LANGUAGE:
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English
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PUB ID:
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103-426-893
(Last edited on
2006/05/25 15:43:35 GMT-6)
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ABSTRACT:
This text emphasizes the principles whereby present and future automated systems store, retrieve, analyze, and display geographic data. According to the author, it looks only briefly at hardware and is not to be considered a textbook on computer programming. It was designed especially for geographers and cartographers, and, may be useful to geologists, foresters, planners, landscape architects, environmental scientists, demographers, and similar specialists; it may also be interesting to computer scientists, civil engineers, and land surveyors.
The chapter introducing computer cartography refers to generic hardware, mentions resolution, touches on gray scale and color, and furnishes a few examples of CRT and plotter displays. The chapter entitled "Computers and Algorithms" deals with generic hardware, becomes involved with floating points and double-precision, flowcharts, and Turing machine concepts, gives a FORTRAN example, explains the CMAP method of producing choropleth maps, and mentions a few advanced developments, such as the associative storage characteristic of a content addressable memory.
In "Raster Symbols and Surface Mapping," the author describes the uses and limitations of raster symbols, defines resolution, and explains SYMAP (SYnagraphic MAPping), which produces choropleth and isoline maps. He discusses procedures for analyzing multiple distributions and measurements from digital terrain models to yield slope maps and shaded relief products in "Raster-Mode Measurement and Analysis." A chapter is devoted to "Vector Symbols"; it includes mathematical basics, symbol generation (railroad symbol, circle, shaded circles, shaded polygons, contour threading, label placement, etc.), and prepares the reader for "Cartometry and Map Projections," the following chapter. Such aspects of this area as cartometry, projections and transformations, stereoscopic and oblique views, are studied.
The author approaches "Cartographic Data Structures" with caution because he believes these systems can influence public policy, the appropriations of many millions of dollars, and the future quality of the environment. Explanations of addressing and memory, data manipulation, DIME (Dual Independent Map Encoding) features, and topographic features are provided. The final chapter is "Computer-Assisted Map Design," which includes discussions of areal aggregations, atlas layout, map layout, color maps, classification and mapped pattern, line smoothing, feature shifting, and automated cartographic generalization. The book includes sections on "Selected Readings," "Sources of Additional Information," and a "Glossary."
This must have been a difficult book to write because of its built-in constraint to avoid mention of both hardware and programming, For this reason, it is also a difficult book to read unless the geographer or cartographer has a good background in computing.
Most authors have virtually no control over the cover graphics of their books, This book's cover shows an electronic digitizer with crosshairs and an array of buttons centered on a railroad map symbol; yet the text allocates only four dozen words to digitizing, and there is but one figure of the device with an accompanying caption! While the author states that "some knowledge of high school algebra and trigonometry wiII be helpful, . ." he should
have added geometry, statistical mathematics, and set theory, in small amounts!
The volume is a good overview of the current status of computer cartography, but should be supplemented with readings in, for example, the Harvard Library of Computer Graphics Mapping CoIlection, since the field is evolving very rapidly. It is recommended for those specialists for whom it was intended: geographers and cartographers and others interested in computer-generated maps.
-L. C. Silvern, Sedona, Ariz.
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