maps - cartography.org.uk · visit the bcs website at summer 2014 / maplines • 3 w elcome to the...

Summer 2014 – £3.00

Historical group studytour pages 13-14

Getting out of the studiopage 6-7

MAPS: Capture,Create, CommunicateSee page 18 for a report on the BCS’ Symposium 2014

Masters of all theysurvey... pages 4-5

Summer 2014 / Maplines • 3Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

Welcome to the summer Maplines. As I type,the sun is shining, it’s the season forholidays and the less said about the

football, the better! So, indulge yourselves in thisnew, jam-packed edition and feast on a diverse rangeof articles to suit all palettes.

There is no common theme to this edition, but a largevariety of interesting articles covering many topics, sohopefully there will be something to catch the eye ofcartographers from all backgrounds.

There is a fascinating piece on historic militarymapping, which is poignant as we commemorate 70years since D-Day. Something which affects us all isthe dissemination of traffic information, and an articlelooks at how this can be enhanced through the use ofmaps. There is also a segment on the making of acartographic movie, telling the history of Indiafollowing its independence in 1947. CarolineRobinson has again contributed, with two articles in

this issue, one on the use of maps in advertisingcampaigns and the other following a group ofstudents while they compile a map from scratch. I’msure we all remember those days! If you are inspiredto put pen to paper (or fingers to keys), please feelfree to contact the editors, as we are always lookingfor relevant pieces.

Of course, a large part of this edition is given over tothe hugely successful Symposium, held at theMarwell Hotel near Winchester, in June. Thisevent is better-attended each year and brings our artto an ever-widening audience. It is encouraging tosee so many younger people with an interest in GISand cartography and I look forward to seeing manyof you at next year’s Symposium! Have a goodsummer.

LouisaOn behalf of Martin, Mark and Louisa

Maplines Editors

2 • Summer 2014 / Maplines Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk

From the Editors

As I write this, Germany havejust won the World Cup,England have drawn the First

Test with India, the Tour de France iswell underway, the Open is due tostart in a few days time, theCommonwealth Games is just acouple of weeks away and the newfootball season starts in less than amonth. If you are not a sports fanthen I guess you haven’t been, orwon’t be, watching the televisionmuch! Global sporting events such asthe World Cup always spawn mapsand some have been featured in myonline monthly bulletin. Whilst theymay not always be of the highestquality, they do increase awarenessof global geography and as mappingis making somewhat of a resurgencein the National Curriculum, we canonly hope that awareness of placeand location will improve over time.

The Restless Earth programme forthe Academic Year 2014/15 finishedrecently with our 23rd workshop ofthe year at Alsager in Cheshire. Thisengagement with mostly Year 10students has been incredibly popularamongst schools and has highlightedsome of the problem areas thatgeography in general and mapping inparticular is experiencing. Awarenessof different scales seems to be acommon issue, with studentsstruggling to understand how thesame feature is symbolised at avariety of scales. Zooming in and outof internet maps doesn’t seem totranslate well into appreciating sizeand position when relating to printedmapping. Workshops for 2014/15have already exceeded this year’sfigures and with lots of new schoolshaving registered we will be getting toeven more areas, including NorthernIreland in the autumn. By myreckoning, we have now delivered the

workshop at over 30 venues, whichhave been attended by over 70schools and 4000 pupils. Can youhelp at one of these? We are alwayslooking to involve our members, so ifthere is one taking place near youplease do consider volunteering tocome along and help – they are hardwork but great fun too. Full details areavailable on the Restless Earth pageof the BCS website.

The BCS Symposium was anothervery successful event, with delegatenumbers exceeding those for our 50thAnniversary celebrations last year.This year the event was run jointlywith the International Map IndustryAssociation (IMIA) and the extradimension that this commercialinternational organisation brought tothe event was refreshing. Marwellproved to be a popular venue due toits ease of accessibility and theweather was particularly kind to us.Lots has been written about theSymposium in this issue, so I won’tdwell on it other than to say a hugethank you to all involved with everyaspect of running our annualshowcase event. A lot happens in therun up and behind the scenes, muchof which goes unnoticed aseverything runs so smoothly.

My President’s address at Symposiumwas on the topic ‘Cartography is notdead’. I drew the analogy ofSherlock’s ‘death’ in the BBC TVSeries and hopefully managed to getacross the message that althoughtechniques and tools have certainlychanged, cartography itself is still verymuch alive and perhaps moreimportant now than it ever has been inhaving a voice to showcase goodmaps and provide a critical overviewof bad maps. Thanks to theproliferation of tools on the Internet

there are a lot that fall into the lattercategory and whilst we should not setourselves up as the ‘carto police’ wedo need to point out when things gowrong.

We are currently in the early stagesof planning for Symposium 2015, soplease look out for announcementsvia the website as location, dates anddetails are decided.

Looking ahead, the BCS AGM will beheld at the RAF Club in London onMonday 17th November. Nominationsfor the BCS Council close on 1stSeptember, so if you are thinking ofputting your name forward please doso swiftly. The AGM will be followedby our guest speaker, the BBCweather presenter Helen Willetts, whowill talk on 'The Changing Face of theWeather Map'. I heard Helen speak atthe RGS a few years ago and she isa very engaging presenter. Itpromises to be an enjoyable eveningso book early and I hope to see youthere.

Pete JonesBCS President

Notes from our President

ContentsThe Magazine of the British Cartographic Society (Registered Charity No. 240034)

Volume 21, 2nd Issue – Summer 2014

Maplines Regularsp.22 BCS Admin Report

Also in this issue. . .p.11 Information Graphicsp.15 Map Moviep.17 Greater London National Parkp.20 BCS Awardsp.22 Symposium Continuedp.23 Underground

Advertising in MaplinesConsider this a shop window to promote your company, event,course or publication to the mapping community.

To submit editorial, contact the Editors:[email protected]

For display advertising, contact Sharon Robson:[email protected] or +44 (0)1438 352617

All photography and illustrations in this issue have been providedto Maplines by the article authors unless stated otherwise.

Editorial Contact Details:Senior Editor: Martin Lubikowski Editor: Louisa KeyworthEditor, Design & Production: Mark [email protected]

Deadline for copy for the Winter 2014 edition is 14 October 2014.

The views expressed in Maplines are those of the Editors andContributors and not necessarily those of the BCS.

© The British Cartographic Society 2014

Publishers: PV Publications Ltd2B North Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 4ATwww.pvpubs.com

Printing: The Manson Group, St Albans

Masters of all they survey...The cadets of Warsash SeaCadet Unit survey the ocean,the old fashion way.

4

Getting out of the studioStudents explore illustrativemap-making at National Trust'sGodolphin House.

6

Bringing order to parkingA look at modern day trafficmanagement systems onmodern day devices.

8

Historical group study tourFourteen BCS members studycartographic support duringWorld War Two.

13

If you would like to sponsor a Maplines Quiz please contact theEditors for more information.

The symposium kicked off on24th June and was a hugesuccess.

18Create and communicate

And the winner is... The winner of the Spring edition quiz was Wing Commander Slim Dyer, and thecorrect answer was Bournemouth. Slim wins a framed historic map, kindly provided by Cassini maps.

the team, however, as the timewas spent assembling the tidegauge, establishing theorientation and dimensions of thejetty using a combination of steeltape, adelide level and horizontalsextant angles, backed up withGPS co-ordinates from eachcorner (which in itsself sparked aninteresting discussion over theaccuracy of a dedicated handheldGPS compared to a modernsmartphone).

Tuesday/day two and the weatherhad abated sufficiently to allowJUNO’s move around to the surveyground. The tide gauge wasinstalled on the jetty andobservations commenced. 25 hoursof continuous observations wouldbe required to provide sufficientdata to work out the “soundingdatum”, the datum level used,taking into account the tide for allthe depths gathered during thesurvey. The results were compared

to the computer prediction of thetide from the UK HydrographicOffice, as well as the electronicgauge used by the Port ofSouthampton. The readingshighlighted some minor localvariations in the time difference andheights predicted. Simultaneousobservations were also conductedon the horizontal movement of thetide using a “Pole Logships”, atimber pole, ballasted so as to floatupright with a 200 metre floatingline attached to it. With JUNOattached to a buoy, the pole isreleased and line paid out. At theend of a given time, in this case 2minutes, the pole’s position, rangeand bearing are recorded and fromthese the strength and direction ofthe tidal stream would be derived.

Day three and whilst tidal datacollection continued part of theteam began collecting images oflights, beacons and otherlandmarks which may be ofnavigation interest and thereforeof use to the Hydrographicauthorities and mariners. Thepositions of any buoys werechecked using horizontal sextantangles to assess if any had movedduring the recent bad weather.During this time, the Cadets alsocollected data on the variousforms of wildlife present, asadjacent to the survey ground is anature reserve. By the evening,sufficient tidal height observationshad been collected. Sadly thetidal stream measurements had tobe abandoned due to the traffic inthe vicinity of the jetty.

With the majority of the abovewater data collected, all that now

remained was to find the depthsof water around the jetty. With asmall rowing boat and a weightedline marked out in metres thedepth was “sounded.” The boatwas positioned accurately thanksto a distance line attached to thejetty and using transits providedby the piles that support the jetty.The soundings were recorded andthe tide subtracted leaving thetrue depth of water; the resultswere transferred onto thesounding sheet, a rough chart ofthe area ready for transcribinglater.

The final day was dedicated toreturning JUNO to her home port,which gave the Cadets theopportunity to consolidatepassage planning and navigatingon the move, which they hadbeen taught as the weekprogressed.

Collecting the data, it transpired,was the easy bit. Converting it allinto a form easily understoodproved to be a more time-consuming and thought-provokingtask. Drawing an accurate, to-scale chart without errors turnedout to be quite a time-consumingtask. Bent over a dining roomtable is not good for one’sposture, but the efforts haveresulted in a number ofsubmissions to the UKHydrographic Office in Taunton,which hopefully may beincorporated into charts and otherrelevant publications of the areaused by seafarers in the nearfuture.

By Paul Lane

Nautical Mapping

Visit the BCS website at www.cartography.org.uk Summer 2014 / Maplines • 5

The now famous tag linefrom the Monty Pythoncomedy “And now for

something completely different”has become something of amantra to the Cadets ofWarsash Sea Cadet Unit. Notcontent with learning reef knotsand rowing in a classroom,these Sea Cadets like to usethese newly acquired skills inmore practical, relevant andinnovative ways, such as theirDuke of Edinburgh expedition toAustralia not so long ago. Thistime the Cadets spiced up theirsyllabus water-based navigationtraining with some amateurhydrography, making their veryown chart of the WarsashMaritime College Jetty wherethey are based, located at theentrance to the River Hamblenear Southampton.

The genesis for the projectoriginated from the need for theauthor, one of the unit’s CivilianInstructors, who also happens tobe a Royal Navy Warfare Officerto gain some experience of basicsurveying techniques prior tostarting his HydrographersCourse at the Royal Navy’sHydrography & MeteorologySchool in Devonport, Plymouth.As a consequence of thedemands on today’s Royal Navy,there wasn’t any naval manpowerto spare to assist and such a task

would be so much easier withextra hands to help. As ithappened, a handful of theWarsash Sea Cadets expressedan interest in completing the SeaCadet Navigation Badge, whichfollows closely the RoyalYachting Association’s navigationtheory syllabus. Seeing thepotential to consolidate theclassroom theory with a practicalopportunity, a formal approachwas made to the CadetsCommanding Officer, LieutenantTony Thurgood, who wasdelighted to provide the Cadetswith a quality learningopportunity.

Now equipped with a band ofeager volunteers and the target ofthe half–term week in which tocollect the data, the authorobtained the necessarypermissions and equipment tocomplete the task. In a meetingwith the River Hamble’s HarbourMaster, Mr David Evans, ittranspired that the timing of thesurvey was indeed fortuitous; theneighbouring commercial Port ofSouthampton were about to startdredging operations in order totake bigger ships. Therefore,affected users including the RiverHamble had been instructed tosurvey their areas to monitor for

any build-up of sediment arisingfrom the work.

Not having access to a purposebuilt ship, complete withsophisticated equipment, or thetechnical expertise available tomodern hydrographers, the Cadetswould have to rely on the moretraditional methods of mapping theirenvironment as used by Cook orShackleton, namely a hand-bearingcompass, leadlines, sextants and atidepole, to name but a few. Assome of the equipment needed isno longer in common use, such asthe Abney and Adelaide levels,their procurement proved to quite achallenge.

The team was now selected,activity authorised and logisticaldemands satisfied including theloan of the former police motorlaunch “JUNO” to act as“mothership”, and assemblyinstructions were issued. All thatwas left was good weather,although fate it seemed had otherideas. Over the weekend the UKexperienced some of the worststorms in years. On the Mondaymorning the high winds forced theteam to postpone JUNOsrelocation from Portsmouth to theRiver Hamble for 24 hours. Thisproved only a minor setback to

Nautical Mapping


Above: Able Cadet Reece Murray and Ordinary Cadet Gemma Whiteuse sextants to check the position of a navigation buoy.

Below: Cadet Dominic Roberts &Petty Officer Kerry Fullerassemble the tidepole.

Left: Finding the depththe old-fashioned way,Able Cadet Murray,Ordinary Cadet Whiteand Junior Sea CadetLane.

Masters of all they survey...

bees, keeping fish stocks forplate, horses for transport,constant stream of visitors andsupplying ships with logging. Mysense of the place was of anestate waiting to be made alive bypeople to-ing and fro-ing, horsesbeing made ready, stately womentrying to keep the skirts out of thedirt and maids continually sent tofetch water. There was incrediblearchitectural details waiting to bediscovered. High in biodiversitythe site would be throbbing withwildlife in the Summer heat.Unlike other properties, GodolphinHouse has kept most of theworking estate within walkingdistance of the house andtherefore feels compact, while stillbeing part of the historiclandscape. In years past, I don'tthink that the space around thehouse would be still or quiet atany time of the day or night.

Genious Loci


The joy of starting to compilea new map, always startswith some research and

defining the reason for being.What does it show and almostmore importantly, what do youleave out?

Students at Falmouth Universitystudying BA Drawing, were invitedto come along to historical andcontemporary lecture oncartography with me, to start theirjourney into map-making. We

went through what a map was,how they are made and whatprojections are. The course is ledby architect Peter Skerrett, and itaims to explore all differentmethods and principles ofdrawing, while engaging indifferent fields such ascartography.

To start with the students learnthow to read an Ordnance Surveymap, understand co-ordinates andsymbology. We then, went to dosome actual research – shock –with actual printed books andmaps from the local history groupbased at the Royal Polytechnic,Falmouth. There they got toexplore prints of old OrdnanceSurvey maps, nautical charts andbooks on the history of Cornwall.It was a fantastic experience andhanding old printed maps invarious historical styles got themexcited about their own projects.

The next day we went to visitGodolphin House and Estate inwellies. It wasn't full-on rainingbut a mixture of mist and drizzle(mizzle), not the best, first on-site

experience! There were variousleaflets, containing maps, all withdifferent parts of the estateemphasised to get everyonestarted. Soon, the students wereexploring all over the grounds,taking photos and makingsketches of the sense of place.

I found it a bit eerie. The estatewas built on the success ofowning land rich in tin andcopper. It would have obviouslyhave been a bustling centre ofactivity; making cider, keeping

Genious Loci


Getting out of the studioStudents explore illustrative map-making at National Trust's Godolphin House and

Estate, Cornwall

Afterwards, we retired to the oldpiggery converted into a café towarm up and share notes. Farmchickens looking in enviously atthe legendary, almost obligatorycake on offer!

Since then the students havebeen working hard on their projectand have come up withcompletely different aspects of theresearch and site visit.

“From a good map, you do get asense of place, a sense of beingin the location, from wherever youhappen to be. And wouldencourage all of the students toexplore beyond the studio tocreate more outdoor maps.”commented Peter Skerrett,Course Tutor.

By Caroline Robinson,Clear Mapping Co

Left: Falmouth University

Above: Student Artwork

Above: Studio the studentsworked in

Below: Beeware, Bees at workmaking honey

benefits derived from using mapsfor communicating Traffic Ordersbut unfortunately was not takenforward as proposed. It iscurrently necessary to also supplyplans or maps to accompany thetext descriptions used in the legalNotices of Traffic Orders, to helpeasily communicate theirintentions, which the legallyrequired text often fails to doeffectively. Modernisation ofprocedures for the implementationof new Traffic Orders is still anaspiration for traffic engineers andparking managers. Putting thisaside the acceptance and use ofmap-based Traffic Orders hasbeen steadily increasing acrossthe UK with more highwayauthorities switching to the newstyle of Traffic Orders.

Mapping Traffic Order data on GISsystems, such as the BuchananComputing’s ParkMap system, pre-dated Chris Brinley’s study, butwas originally mainly used bythose within the authorityresponsible for management ofTraffic Orders. Today this systemcan link to the web through

TraffWeb to put Traffic Order datainto the public domain. It also hasfunctionality to help highwayauthorities adopt and managemap-based Traffic Orderpreparation. An electronic mapversion of traffic controls availablefor all to access and view is wellwithin the capabilities of currenttechnology. From here it would bea relatively small move forward tohave Traffic Order controlsavailable nationally within ourvehicles on our Satnav screensand helping us to understandwhere, or where not, to park. Itwould therefore be veryadvantageous if the legislation wasreviewed and updated to make theprocedures surrounding TrafficOrder making consistent with awholly map based approach,especially as the desire to do thishad been expressed in the recentconsultation process. It is believedthis would be welcomed as areduced procedural and financialburden on highway authoritiesresponsible for Traffic Order

Traffic Management Systems


The saying that ‘a picture isworth a thousand words’means that a picture tells a

story just as well as a largeamount of descriptive text. Iunderstand that this phraseemerged in the USA in the earlypart of the 20th century. Itsintroduction is widely attributed toFrederick R. Barnard, whopublished a piece commending theeffectiveness of graphics inadvertising with the title ‘One lookis worth a thousand words’, inPrinter’s Ink, December 1921. Andwhat is mapping if not a pictureseeking to describe somethingwhich, if set out in words, would bedifficult to describe, oftenincomprehensible to many?

Maps and Traffic Orders

In 2001 Chris Brimley, ChiefEngineer (Traffic andTransportation) for BrentwoodCouncil, considered whetherwritten descriptions of wherecontrols exist were the best way tocommunicate the provisions of aTraffic Order. If it is necessary tomap out restrictions in an area toget a comprehensive

understanding of what a TrafficOrder is imposing, why not use amap as part of the Traffic Order inthe first instance? He thereforeundertook a study1 to determinewhether a map alone could beused to communicate wherecontrols imposed by a TrafficOrder apply. This study was agreat success. It gainedacceptance from the Departmentof Transport that there was noreason why a map could not beused as the schedule to a TrafficOrder. Given the Regulations werecreated under powers given tohighway authorities under primarylegislation2, it was important forthe study’s success to establishthat this legislation would allow the

use of a map in place of thetraditional text schedules that werebeing used. There was oneconstraint within legislation3 thatrequired the locations whereTraffic Order restrictions wouldapply to be “described”. Theinterpretation of this descriptioncontinues today to be a writtendescription, which highwayauthorities are obliged to followwhen communicating the intentionto introduce new Regulations. Arecent consultation in January20124 was undertaken by the DfT,designed to modernise thislegislation and give authoritiesmore freedom on how new TrafficOrders can be communicated. Theconsultation recognised the



1: The Use of Mapping to Define Waiting Restrictions in Brentwood,Chris Brimley & Ann Horgan, June 2001

2: Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 c27

3: The Local Authorities’ Traffic Orders (Procedure)(England andWales) Regulations 1996, SI No. 2489

4: Draft Guidance for New Procedures for Traffic Orders, Departmentfor Transport, January 2012

Below: Screenshotsfrom the Parkopediain-car app

Bringing Order to parkingmanagement throughmapping

Try to imagine the locations where restrictions apply ascommunicated by the following text taken from a Traffic Order:

Market Place (northern arm), north side from a point 10 metres eastof the projected eastern kerb line of Market Place (western arm), for adistance of 17 metres in an easterly direction.

Market Place (southern arm), north side from a point 10 metres eastof the eastern kerb line of Market Place (western arm), for a distanceof 17 metres in an easterly direction.

Read it again and compare it to the map representation of thesame restrictions as follows:

Consider what the textwas attempting to communicate, comparedto how quickly you areable to interpret andunderstand the map

presentation of these Traffic Order parking bay locations.

As an example of the real world, consider a Map-base Traffic OrderSchedule and Legend from the Royal Borough of Kensington andChelsea showing all the controls presented by a map.

What’s your preference? Text or Map for Traffic Orders

processing that still have toprovide text descriptions oflocations that they know can bepresented and communicatedmuch more easily by using a map.

Mapping on the Move

Moving swiftly on to assistingmotorists in finding parking places,services provided by BPA Members,like Parkopedia shows detailedinformation on over 30 millionparking spaces in 45 countries,including parking lots, street parkingand private driveways and can beaccessed online, through SMS or asan iPhone/iPad/ Android app andalso in in-car.

Identifying somewhere safeto park. Enter Park Mark®

There are over 5,000 car parks inthe Safer Parking Scheme. When acar park meets the scheme’sstandards it is given the ParkMark® award and its location isupdated onto a specially designatedwebsite www.parkmark.co.uk

Digital mapping of ParkMark awardshas grown due to connectivity toGlobal Positioning System (GPS)technology. The coordinates andposition are obtained by a GPSreceiver from GPS satellites orbitingEarth. They interact together toprovide the digital mappingprogramming with points of origin inaddition to the destination needed inorder to calculate distance. Thisinformation is compiled to create amap providing the easiest and mostefficient way to reach a destination.

Thankfully car parks are staticand many were originally located

by using the nearest postcodesince, generally, car parks do notrequire a postal address. Howeverworking in partnership with theDepartment for Transport as theybuilt their Transport Direct journeyplanning website it becameapparent that to introducemultimodal journey planning itwas necessary to map thelocations of car parks. This wasan opportunity to more widelypromote car parks which had aParkMark award and collaborationbetween us enabled importantthings to happen.

Firstly BPA was able to support theDfT in locating the position of some20,000 UK public car parks whichcould then be plotted and secondlythose 5,000 car parks which hadthe Park Mark award could beflagged. The quid pro quo forParkMark was that to enablejourney planning to be effective itwas important to know not onlywhere the car park was but whereits access point was located and sofull geocoding of car park entranceswas achieved. Using Geo Codedata, the safer parking schemewebsite plots the position of eachcar park on a map of the UK. Whena user performs a search, the resultdisplays the location of the car parkon a map with a blue pin and liststhe car park details.

The search facility will allowpostcode, street name or town toprovide all the car parks within thelocation specified and just likeParkopedia, the icons revealspecific details including number ofspaces and full address details.Soon our new ParkMark websitewill reformat its size automatically

so that users of smart devices andmobile phones can obtain readabledata at the flick of a finger so tospeak. This is a new innovation forwww.parkmark.co.uk but one thatstill allows users to search for theirnearest Park Mark awarded carpark direct via smartphones ortablets from a list of over 5000nationwide.

Our collaboration with DfT andTransport Direct also means thatthe digital mapping geocodes forPark Mark awards are nowavailable on Open Data and weexpect to see a number of journeyplanning and car parking Appsbeing developed by third partieswhich will help to promote publicawareness of ParkMark, andalready The AA, Confused.Comand Parkopedia have done this.

The new website, with its digitalmapping and is due to launch insummer 2014 coinciding with theSafer Parking Scheme’s 10 yearanniversary. With new car parksachieving the Park Mark awardadded every month, finding a well-managed, safer, cleaner andbrighter car park has never beeneasier. Moreover, the more peoplethat take advantage of finding safeplaces to park so the downwardtrend in car crime will continue.

The end of the road?

And so we come to the end of ourjourney, exploring the world ofmapping in traffic and parkingmanagement, which from itshumble beginnings of printedmaps used by engineers to plotnew roads and has moved ontohelping residents and businessesbetter understand the nature ofparking and traffic managementschemes in their locality and nowself-help navigation systemsavailable to all in the palm of yourhand. The end of the road or justanother stopover on the greatjourney of mapping the world ofparking and traffic management?

By Kelvin Reynolds, I.Eng, FIHE,MBPA, Dip HTE (Middx.)Director of Policy and PublicAffairs, British Parking Association



Above: Screenshots from the Parkopedia mobile appCurious and curiouser!

Taschen’s recentlypublished tome,

Information Graphics, makes mefeel a little like Alice inWonderland! Not in the dress andhair-style sense … but thegeneral feeling of having entereda weird domain. First, the book isenormous … it ‘weighs in’ at wellover 3kg on my bathroom scales(I was not prepared to risk themore delicate kitchen set!). Incomparison, The Times Atlas ofWorld History (prehistory to thepresent) comes in atbantamweight at only 2kg, whilemy rather careworn edition of theAA Street by Street - London,hardly moves the dial at all - forall the metropolitan highways,byways, and major buildings itcontains. Lugging the massivebook around the house I felt likeAlice after she had taken a draftfrom the bottle labelled ‘drink me’and had shut up like a telescope!Secondly, the various essayshave something of the bizarreassociated with Alice’sconversations with the caterpillaror the Mad Hatter…and third, andforemost, the book is a dazzlingcornucopia of wondrousimaginings!

And the cover is ‘lush’!

This is an enterprise in threeparts…literally! One - a set ofessays on cream paper with atexture that screams out ‘this isquality stuff’! …two – the bulk ofthe book … a series of examplesof information graphics(presumably chosen to represent‘good practice’ - more anon) onshiny, ‘sexy’ white paper (Irecognise this aspect as theperson who put the china claygloss on paper for ‘glossy’magazines during the 1980s – mystudent summer job with a paper

manufacturer) … and three – aposter!

'Begin at the beginning,' the Kingsaid gravely, 'and go on till youcome to the end: thenstop.'…Okay, okay!!!

Fit the First (from The Hunting ofthe Snark, to mix our Carroll’s) …To begin - the book starts with aneclectic mix of an introduction,three essays and the ‘LATCH’(…to be explained). The essaysare certainly thought-provokingand worth the read, if at times theprose was rather purple and themetaphors extravagant. All,sensibly, draw attention to theissues related to the massiveamount of data now circulatingwithin society and in need ofinterpretation and visualisation.Each text is repeated in Germanand French and the text litteredwith classic graphics.

The introduction by Rendgen is aneat historical survey of the needfor a ‘legible world’ and ways inwhich graphics can make visiblethe un-seeable, whether the worlditself (unwrapped) or the inside ofthe living body (unpeeled). It endsby introducing the main body ofthe book, a review of 200 imagescreated during the previousdecade by scientists, journalists,

designers and others engaged inenvisaging information.

Richard Saul Wurman’s essay,‘How I strive to understand what itis like not to understand’, is apersonal vision of dealing withwhat he calls the ‘tsunami of data’crashing on society today. Heposes some interesting questions

concerning the need forcomparative information ina globalised world,specifically the mapping ofcities, which he has beenworking on for over 50years. He continues towork with ESRI on the‘urban observatory’, acomparative cartographicinitiative for mapping urbansettings.

Simon Rogers, editor of theGuardian’s ‘Datastore’,

Information Graphics


An ecstasy inthree Fits!*

Information Graphics, SandraRendegen and (ed) JuliusWiedemann, Taschen, 2012,480pp., colour maps andillustrations, £44.99, ISBN 978-3-8365-879-5 (Hardback) pluscolour poster.

discusses the growth in ‘datajournalism’. He makes a cogentcase for the importance ofgraphics in a world in whichevidence-based reporting, basedon large numerical data sets, hasbecome an ever more importantto good journalism. He points out,however, that reporters, who arenot afraid of the numbersunderlying important issues fromfinance to pandemics, also needto ensure that this iscommunicated graphically.

Finally, Paolo Ciuccarelli’s essay,‘Turning visualisations into storiesand big pictures’, is a call forhumanisation of communication,and an admission of the limits toour understanding of complexsystems. Scientist andgovernments (other technocrats?)are encouraged to face thechallenges of the ‘sea of opendata’ (a slightly less alarmingmetaphor than Wurman’s‘Tsunami’?) and move the use ofinformation from informingcitizens to mobilising them. Hissolution is to use graphics as aform of story-telling, to addressthe fundamental need in allhumans to make sense of theworld. Alice in reverse?

The ‘LATCH’ explains theorganisation of the book into fourparts, based on Wurman’sclassification of informationstructure. His schema providesthe four major themes ‘location’,‘time’, ‘category’ and ‘hierarchy’

…never ask what happened to‘alphabet’**, it suddenly vanishedaway….for it was a Boojum, yousee!

Fit the Second – the main bulk ofthe book is a series of wonderfullyreproduced information graphics!

This, ironically, is the largestsection of the book, but the mostslippery to deal with (a bit like aCheshire cat). It is a massivecollection of information graphics,generally clear and legible (somesuffer from being too large to bereproduced with the text at areadable scale, even in such alarge tome, although fold-outshelp), and reproduced in high-quality. The main critique (andone addressed by severalreviewers) is the lack ofevaluative commentary. The textaccompanying the graphics islargely descriptive, however, thismay actually be its merit – itprovides a resource that can beused with students withoutprejudice. The first section on‘location’ provides an enormousnumber of maps and relatedgraphics. It must be presumedthat the graphics are deemedbest-practice, but a trawl offersmuch to critique, ranging from aneat map-graphic of voting shiftsin the US (New York Times), tothe usual failure to pickappropriate world projections forthe task in hand. While some arelittle more than ‘infotainment’,others surprise; a graphic for

Bicycling magazine, turns out oncloser examination, to be anengaging and effective map of the2010 Tour de France. Maps alsoturn up, if less frequently, in theother three sections. The mostobvious thing that stands out thisrange of Harry Beck/’tube map’derivatives, illustrating thelinkages between anything fromonline-services to the influence of‘rock ‘n’ roll’ bands. Time-lines asroute maps are another frequentvisual metaphor through the book.

Fit the Third – A large poster (or‘map’) of infographia … thatleaves me cold! It is not beautiful– which is what one would expectfrom a special insert in a book ofthis quality, and it’s notparticularly informative. A dreadfulverbal-visual pun in the top rightcorner, relating to pie-charts andpies-in-the-sky is enough to sendit to the waste-bin of eternity! Themain part of the poster simplyprovides (in its own words) ‘anidiosyncratic taxonomy’ ofinfographics. There is little thatcomes as a surprise despite thischaracterisation. A time-line, withexamples of graphics, runs underthe main diagram, but it too is alittle tame, featuring the usualsuspects… ancient Egyptianshieroglyphs to graphics byPlayfair, Beck and Neurath.

To end on a ‘high’– I do lovethis volume… I really do! Thisreview deliberately has nographics from the book, only thedoor (oops! cover) towonderland…you have to tumbledown the rabbit hole foryourself!!!!

By Peter Vujakovic, BCS MapDesign Group & Canterbury ChristChurch University.

Information Graphics


*Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting ofthe Snark, is an Agony in EightFits! Strictly speaking a ‘fit’ is adivision of an epic poem!

** The removal of ‘alphabet’ asa theme is explained on p.96of the book… but not veryconvincingly.

There cannot be many poemsthat refer to maps andcharts but it was appropriate

that Coward’s moving poem aboutBomber Command did so. Withoutcartographic support - maps,charts, aerial photographs, reliefmodels, map makers, modelmakers and photographicinterpreters - Bomber Commandcould not have operated.

I can report that in the spring agroup of fourteen comprising BCSmembers and their guests made avery successful tour ofLincolnshire to study cartographicsupport to the Bomber Offensiveduring the Second World War.

We began our tour with anafternoon visit to the LincolnshireAviation Heritage Centre at EastKirkby. The Centre is family runand was set up to commemoratea member killed on the disastrousNuremburg Raid. After losingalmost 100 aircraft and 800 men,the survivors of the raid returnedhome on the morning of 31stMarch 1944. Our visit therefore

was very timely. The Centre isnow widely seen as a livingmemorial to the 55,500 men ofBomber Command who lost theirlives during the war. There is agreat deal to see at the Centrebut the highlight is undoubtedlyAvro Lancaster heavy bomberNX611, called “Just Jane” afterthe heroine of the wartime strip(in both senses) cartoon. Basedat the old wartime airfield of RAFEast Kirkby, the site retains theoriginal 1940s control tower. Theairfield is on the prime meridianand has a pillar to that effect.

We stayed at the excellentPetwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa, aformer stately home which servedduring the war as the officer’smess of the legendary 617Squadron of Dambusters fame.

We held a series of evening talksin the Squadron Bar, which isadorned with memorabilia fromGuy Gibson VC, LeonardCheshire VC and others from 617Squadron. This memorabiliaranges from photos and maps to

a large bit of a tree inadvertentlyacquired by a Lancaster on a raid(that is what you call low flying).After a drinks reception and theviewing of a Bomber Commandmap display, on the first eveningwe heard two fascinating talks.Assisted by his wife Christine,Chris Halsall (an ex Army PI) toldus about PhotographicInterpretation. Chris and Christineare both members of theMedmenham Club and few knowmore about PI and the crucial butlargely unsung role it playedduring the war. Phil Bonner (exRAF Sdn Ldr and nowLincolnshire Council’s aviationheritage officer) told us about AirVCs of Lincolnshire from bothwars. Gibson, leader of the DamsRaid, is of course the mostfamous Bomber Command VC butthere were two others who flewfrom the county. We then had anexcellent dinner at which Phil andhis wife were our guests.

On the second day we visitedHemswell Court. A former RAFairfield, the Officer’s Mess hasbeen stunningly restored andturned into a conference hotel.We heard an interesting talk fromPhil Bonner about the Polishbomber squadrons that werebased there during the war. Wethen visited the disused RAFairfield at Faldingworth, which has

Historical Mapping


Above: Lancaster “Just Jane”,East Kirby

Historical MilitaryMapping GroupBomber CommandStudy Tour,Lincolnshire

Lie in the dark and listen, It's clear tonight so they're flying high Hundreds of them, thousands perhaps,

Riding the icy, moonlight sky. Men, materials, bombs and maps Altimeters and guns and charts

Coffee, sandwiches, fleece-lined boots Bones and muscles and minds and hearts

The beginning of LIE IN THE DARK AND LISTEN by Noel Coward

a Polish Air Force memorial at theend of the old runway.

We had lunch at the Blue Bell Inn,Tattershall. A historic andpicturesque pub, it was andremains very popular with theRAF and has lots of memorabilia.On the ceiling are the signaturesof flyers past and present,including Prince William, Duke ofCambridge.

After lunch we visited RAFConingsby, home of the historicBattle of Britain Memorial Flightwith its airworthy Lancaster,Hurricanes, Spitfires and Dakota.We were shown round the hangarby a former OC of the Flight whowas apologetic that there werenot that many aircraft in thehangar to be seen. The Flight hadjust emerged from its winterhibernation, had been springcleaned and most of its aircraftwere outside basking in thesunshine. This proved to be aremarkable stroke of luck for usbecause as we were getting readyto leave after the tour the currentOC decided to give the Flight itsfirst shakedown of the year. Sowe were privileged to witnessclose up the Lancaster do a mainengine start and then the Spitfiresand Dakota start up and take tothe air for an impromptu acrobaticshow.

Our talks in the Squadron Bar onthe last evening were on theHamburg Raid by the HMMGConvenor and on the NuremburgRaid by the BCS President, bothof whose fathers served inBomber Command. My fatherserved mostly with Canadianbomber squadrons while Pete’s

father was wounded on theNuremburg Raid piloting aLancaster of 49 Squadron. Thetalks were followed by anotherconvivial dinner.

On the last day we went toRAF Scampton, now known asthe home of the Red Arrows.During the Cold War it was thehome of the V-Force (theweapons of which were storedat Faldingworth). It is mostfamous as the wartime homeof the Dambusters. We weregiven a tour of the HeritageCentre with its many artifactsand displays. The highlights werebeing taken into Gibson’s newlyrestored office and to his dogNigger’s grave. A presentation ofmemorabilia was made to theCentre by the BCS Administrator,who spent part of his RAF careerat Scampton.

We lunched at the DambustersInn in Scampton village, with its617 Squadron memorabilia. Thetour officially ended at that pointbut some of us then visited thedisused 49 Squadron airfield atFiskerton. The runway is stillthere and the shape of the airfieldcan still be discerned from the air.We then visited the nearby villagechurch with its 49 Squadronmemorial before heading home.

The visit would not havehappened without thecontributions of two men: PeteJones and Phil Bonner. I wish tothank them on behalf of the groupbut also personally. They picked

up and ran with the baton when Iwas rendered hors de combat. Ialso wish to thank the speakers,the guides who showed us aroundthe various sites and Phil Mills forthe excellent photos he took. Thevisit was regarded by all as agreat success. It was bothinformative and enjoyable. Wevisited some amazing places andheard some fascinating talks.There were no administrativeglitches and the weather wasunseasonably good. It was a trulymemorable visit and somehow theBCS made a tiny profit on it.

Yet we only scratched the surfaceof what Lincolnshire has to offer.RAF heritage including disusedairfields is to be found dotted allover this part of the world. So ithas been proposed that theHMMG return to Lincolnshire thesame time next year to visit RAFWaddington (with its HeritageCentre), RAF Digby (with itspreserved wartime FightCommand Sector Control Room),Lincoln (with its Cathedral repletewith RAF memorials) and Newark(with its Aviation Museum).

If anyone wishes to participate inthe next tour or has suggestionsfor other tours or events, pleasecontact me.

By Dr John Peaty,Convener,HMMG

Historical Mapping


Below: Fiskerton - Wartime plan and modern aerial photograph

Right: Extract from targetmap of Nuremburg showing

different zones within the city

Iwas born in the Holy Hindu cityof Varanasi (which to most ofpeople is known as ‘Banaras’)

and grew up in Mumbai (or, at thattime, Bombay). Almost all of myschooling took place in Mumbai,where I studied till 2007. Followingthe usual stereotype of gettinginto engineering after school, Icame to Bengaluru (which stillpeople call as Bangalore) in 2008.After working in a softwarecompany for around a year, Iswitched over to what I wanted todo the most, to the area where Ihave always wanted to succeedprofessionally – filmmaking.Following this decision I came toBournemouth, Dorset, Englandand will be finishing MA DirectingDigital Film & Television course atBournemouth University inSeptember 2014.

My interest in mapping developedwhen I was around 8 years old,back in 1998. My father SunilKumar Srivastava, Captain in theMerchant Navy, used to bringnaval charts back home forstudying. I was always fascinatedwith borders, the colourcombinations in each map, namesof places, maps of islands and soon. This unorthodox hobbybecame a regular practice when Istarted sketching more and more

maps. The quest of knowingabout each country and regionwas fuelling my curiosity inmapmaking. Atlases like NationalGeographic Atlas of the World,Rand McNally Atlas, OrientLongman Atlas and MacmillanSchool Atlas helped me in gainingmore knowledge aboutmapmaking skills. I like to knowmore about different places andtheir surroundings, so mapmakingbecame my obvious interest.

The reason why I chose thissubject for filmmaking, is because

it is something I am very muchfamiliar with, and it is close to myheart. And as a rule offilmmaking, if the subject is ofsomeone’s interest, and themaker has a thorough knowledgeof it, the film becomes moreinteresting to the viewer. The film,United States of India, is about 2years of Indian history, startingfrom 1947 to 1949. In 1947, Indiawas granted independence fromthe British Empire, and had 562Princely States. Each of thesestates were small kingdoms ruledby kings and princes, and wantedto remain independent monarchs.Also, 1947 was the year whenBritish India was partitioned intotwo dominions of India andPakistan. Out of these 562 states,some even chose to join Pakistan.The whole phase of these twoyears went in negotiationsbetween Indian leaders and thesekings, to surrender their kingshipsand join the Government of India.The length of the film would bebetween 15-20 minutes. The filmwill be made in a technique ofstop-motion animationaccompanied by voice-overinterviews of people whowitnessed this phase. The

Movie Map


United States of India

Right: Editing thefilm United States of

India in AdobePremiere Pro

Below: Photographing the maps

interviews would be recorded viaSkype and would be placed withinthe film. The film shall reflectunexplored parts of post-independent India, and wouldexplain the critical moments inthat phase. The integration ofeach Princely State into the Unionof India shall be done with thehelp of written texts on eachregion of the country. The mapshall be presented in threecolours – red, deep yellow andgreen, where red represents theformer British Provinces which

automatically became part ofIndian Union soon afterindependence; deep yellow forPrincely States and green forthree Princely States which had atough time merging with the restof India. The movie will show thesmooth change of borders of eachstate, and the end would be onesingle map of united India, whichhistorically, in 1950 became arepublic. The basic narrativewould be a brief overview ofincidents which took place in thetwo years of post-independentIndia.

This type of hand made map-movie is one of the first of itskind, with respect to animationand story, where changing ofborders is shown with thebackdrop of a very short periodwithin a historical timeline. Thefilm would be a fascinatingexperience, in terms of editingand map-making and wouldinvolve a massive editing

process in its production phase,involving software such as AdobePhotoshop, Adobe AfterEffectsand Google Picassa. The filmwould be an original approach tomake historical short-films, whichis an amalgamation of animationand documentary. The film isopen to a variety of audiences,but more precisely targetedtowards people who would wantto pursue an interest in animatedhistory. Since this is a student-based project, not a single pennyhas been invested in itsproduction. The only purpose ofthis movie is to show howimportant maps are in narrativeconstruction. It is hoped toextend boundaries of mapsbeyond the usual stereotype ofrestricting maps just to fictionalstories and travel shows ontelevision. I am fully aware offilms which are based onshowing transformation offrontiers as a historical show, butall thse maps are computerizedand edited at a very highprofessional studio. UnitedStates of India is the first of itskind as a hand-made map basedshort documentary film. Thiswould open doors to moreinnovative and creative ways ofputting maps in any film. Since Iam personally more connected to‘partition of India’ phase of Indianhistory, this film has more of apersonal touch.

The further scope of this project,would be the continuation ofsimilar types of hand-made shortfilms. Initially, the concept was toshow the entire world history withthe help of stop motion and hand-made maps. The project wasinteresting in its concept, but notfrom the point-of-view of filmingand story narration. So, it had tobe dropped, but the idea will beworked on after the completion ofUnited States of India. It would bemore complicated but far moreinteresting. Both the projects areintended to make map studyingmore interesting, intriguing andblend it with filming in a morecreative approach.

By Sagar Srivastava

Movie Map


Below: Threedifferent versions ofmapping India

When I go back to London, Idon't think of thegreenery. I think of the dirt

and the heat. Being two degreeswarmer than the surroundingcountryside and returning backhome with black snot, isn't my ideaof fun. The very air seems to throbwith the hum of machines. Thetraffic and the speed of peoplewalking even, seems too fast.

However, there is another view ofLondon. A calmer, more sedateand reflective place in openspaces. Those pockets of greenerycan provide shelter to a wide rangeof species and a welcome retreatfor us. When you start to peekbehind the façade of modernbuildings, explore canals and reachinto the suburbs, there are manyplaces to enjoy. You'll be surprisedby the places right in the city thatcan provide a haven for wildnessand human scale we crave.

The Greater London NationalPark* is a provocative campaignto turn London into the world's firstNational Park City, a new kind ofNational Park. Led by DanielRaven-Ellison, a guerrillageographer, the campaign usesmapping to support their activities.

As we all know maps are one ofthe ways to sculpt the view of alocation; to change minds. The

work that Daniel is spearheadingis to open peoples minds to analternative vision for GreaterLondon and maximise thewildness within the city.

Daniel and fellow volunteers areusing data that currently availableto start to change the view onGreater London sucha as usingGiGL green and open space datato create an alternative map ofthe notional park. Cartograms ofspecies map in partnership withLondonmapper and tree densitymapping by ward, which createsmedia that demonstrate London'surban forest. The maps sure feellike the biodiversity of the city willliterally jump off the page.

Besides creating maps, the edgesof the possible are being blurredwith OS personalised mapping"hacked" to create an "officialmap" of the park and Boundarydata to create outline maps forpeople to imagine their own parkdesigns. Greater London NationalPark* 'Guerrilla' park boundarysigns may go on the ground willbe alerting people to theproposed status.

The ultimate aim of the campaignis to change how all people thinkabout London and shift how theycreate their own mental andphysical maps by changing thelens through which they seeLondon.

How can you getinvolved?

Help to make the Greater LondonNational Park* (#GLNP) real bydoing these 3 easy things:1. Add your name to ourChange.org petition to the Mayorof London.2. Tweet your support for theGreater London National Park*.3. Show your support bycommenting on the Friends of theGreater London National Park*page.

*Officially a Notional Park. The Greater London NationalPark* is officially a Notional Park.

Follow on Website: http://www.greaterlondonnationalpark.org.uk/Follow on Twitter: @LondonNPFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/greaterlondonnationalpark

By Caroline Robinson,Clear Mapping Co

Maps in Campaigns


Using maps incampaigns -Greater LondonNational Park*

Uniquely combining abiodiverse landscape withnature reserves, parks andgardens, the Greater LondonNational Park* covers an areaof over 1,500 km2 and ishome to more than 8 millionpeople.

Recognised as one of theworld's most important urbanhabitats, green spaces andwater occupy over 60% ofLondon's land. Over 1,300Sites of Importance for NatureConservation cover 19% of theNational Park and are home tomore than 1,500 species offlowering plants and 300species of bird.

With over 300 languagesspoken, 170 museums, fourUNESCO World Heritage Sitesand one of Britain's NationalTrails the Greater LondonNational Park* is open for youto explore.

discussed automated generalisation,one of the holy grails of cartography,he explained the developments1Spatial are making in this field.Duncan Hill completed the sessionwith a review of the challengesinvolved in gaining harmony acrossEurope by getting 15+ nations tostandardise on a single referenceframework and to agree on commonsymbology.

The morning was completed by theworkshop sessions delegates had aplethora of seven sessions to choosefrom each one linking to our themeof Capture, Create & Communicate.

Capture was represented by LeicaGeosystems with an explanation ofhow small unmanned aircraft can beused for mapping. Create wasrepresented by Sterling Geo'spresentation on the use of remotesensing data for mapping, OrdnanceSurvey creating mapping from OSOpen Data and Mary Spencehighlighting the design aspects ofmap creation. Communicate wasdemonstrated by two of theSymposium's Platinum sponsorsEsri UK and OCAD who investigatedtheir respective software offeringsfor cartography and visualisation.

For the first time BCS introduceda form of speed dating to theSymposium. This was theBusiness Connect session run byIMIA (EAME) and offers delegatesa dynamic meet and greetdesigned to establish businessopportunities and relationships.

The afternoon sessionwasdedicated

to Travel andExploration

Josh Weiland (SteerDavies Gleave) and DavidOverton (SplashMaps)illustrated their supportof the Tour de France. Areally useful applicationof simple technology toproduce high qualityvirtually indestructiblemaps for the outdoorleisure market. Theywere also very

honoured to have Leo Seldon inthe audience. Our youngestdelegate who accompanied hisMum, Clare,as she took a breakfrom maternity leave to pop in andsay hello to her BCS compatriots.

Phil Dellar generated a lot of interestwith this presentation thathighlighted the issues faced whenmapping constantly changinginfrastructure. The case studyunderlined the project undertaken byThe GeoInformation Group to mapground assets at Stansted airport.Alice Gadney closed the sessionand echoed some of last year’s talkby Richard Carpenter highlightingthe paucity of information about thedeep sea floor. Oil bearing areas arewell mapped but usually verylocalised. She included a veryinteresting artefact of a blob of oil,sealed in Perspex.

After the formal presentationssocial and networking startingwith a wine reception kindlysponsored by Maney to celebratethe launch of the new bookLandmarks in Mapping; 50 Yearsof The Cartographic Journal.

The evening was dedicated to theannual gala dinner and awardsceremony. The gala dinner waskindly sponsored by theSymposiums Platinum (Esri UK,OCAD, Ordnance Survey, VictoriaLitho) and Gold sponsors (1Spatial,Collins Bartholomew, UnitedKingdom Hydrographic Office andUnited States GeospatialIntelligence Foundation).

It was, as ever, a pleasure to seethe award winners receiverecognition for excellence in ourfield. Louisa Keyworth from LovellJohns was clearly delighted to bepresented with the BCS Trophy.Congratulations go to all winnersand encouragement to all mapmakers to enter next years contest.

Thursday started withLandscapes, Mountains and 3D,Seppe Cassettari stood in at shortnotice to discuss a local parishproject which is using forensiccartography to identifyfeatures/buildings that have endured

the centuries and also those that areno longer in existence. Thisillustrated a fascinating application ofmapping and GIS to solve adetective mystery.

Using the case study of SouthGeorgia Adrian Fox gave aninteresting presentation on thechallenges of finding reputablesource data to update maps of a truewilderness area. Designed for ratand reindeer eradication, although itdoesn’t say that on the maps!

Ken Field closed the session andwas as entertaining as always ashe highlighted the fact that youdon’t have to make everythingsuper-sophisticated to get themessage across. Simplification issometimes the best method ofeffective communication.

After the break and the final chanceto complete the CollinsBartholomew quiz we introduced anew session to the Symposium -the debate. A session for allcartography professionals tocontribute to a new BCS backedresearch agenda for contemporarymap design. The debate was leadby Peter Vujakovic, Alex Kent &Kate MacLean from CanterburyChrist Church University. The aimto identify interesting new directionsfor map research which will lead togenuine long term benefits for theprofession. The team have alreadybeen invited back to report on theirprogress at the next Symposium.As the debate proved a popularaddition to the programme we arenow identifying prospective leadersfor next year’s session.

Continued on page 22...

Symposium 2014


The GIS SIG kicked off theweek and Tuesday 24thJune 2014 will now go down

in cartographic history as the daythe world’s first Charity Mapathonwas successfully competed. Thisevent was kindly Sponsored bythe ICA Commission on MapDesign http://mapdesign.icaci.org/allowing cartographers to attendfor free and the prizes were kindlydonated by Esri.

Working with data from theCommonwealth War GravesCommission (CWGC) twenty fivecartographers from nine differentcompanies were split into teams andgiven six hours to produce acompelling cartographic product. Theaim (which was achieved) was toproduce innovative mapping that hadthe potential to be used within theCWGC’s educational programme.

A fun and informative day was hadby all with cross organisationalworking ensuring participants learntfrom each other in a friendly andcompetitive environment.Congratulations to all that took partin this historic event and particular

praise to those who made it ontothe Mapathon podium.

First Place was awarded to theteam coming from Ordnance Survey(OS) and Hampshire County Council(Hants CC): Edyta Korczynska (OS),John McKay (OS), Oliver Russell(Hants CC), Christian Carley (HantsCC). Their prizes included: Menno-Jan Kraak's book Mapping Time:Illustrated by Minard's Map ofNapoleon's Russian Campaign of1812 which considers thecartographic challenge of visualizingtime on a map.http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=254&moduleID=0

They were also the gratefulrecipients of Hangar24 BreweryOrange Wheat Beer from Redlands

Second Place was awarded toChris Wesson (OS) and PaulNaylor (OS) who also receivedMenno-Jan Kraak's book.

Third Place was awarded to AliceGadney (OMV UK Ltd), JoshWeiland (Steer Davies Gleave),Alison Hopkins (HR Wallingford)who received Virtual GeographicEnvironments, edited by Hui Linand Michael Batty, a collection ofkey papers that define the currentmomentum in GIS and "virtualgeographies."http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=206&moduleID=0

Following the success of the day andthe positive feedback from delegatesthe GIS SIG plan to run furtherMapathons in the future. As theevent does not command a delegatefee we are keen to hear from

potential sponsors in the form ofhosts to provide a venue and prizedonations. In addition we would liketo hear from charities that have datathat delegates can work with. Forrecommendations please contactRob Sharpe at [email protected] discuss the options.

The Symposium opened onTuesday evening with thecommercial exhibition. This year wewere very pleased to welcome IMIA(EAME) members into the exhibition,in total 25 organisations wererepresented from across Europeincluding: Switzerland, Hungary, UKand Sweden. The drinks receptionwas kindly sponsored by theSymposium's Silver Sponsors:Cadcorp, Europa Technologies,Google and T-Kartor. The exhibitionwas accompanied by the WorldHeritage Site quiz which wasorganised by Gold Sponsor CollinsBartholomew.

On Wednesday the Symposiumconference started withGeography,Generalisationand Grids. AlexKent & PeterVujakovic were anentertaining ‘doubleact’ and built on theirMaplines articleshowing how mappingcan evoke a sense ofplace (plaice) and theway that heritage andtradition can be workedinto advertising seasideresorts. From theexamples shown it wouldappear that the Frenchdo it better than we do.

Nico Regnauld

Symposium 2014


Capture, Create andCommunicate: CartographersCongregate at MarwellThis year the Symposium and associated events were held at Marwell Hotel nearWinchester between 24-27 June. The venue was fantastic, the weather was beautifuland the programme full of outstanding presentations and workshops.

Maps, a tough, light, waterproofmap at 1:25 000 for hillwalkers.Susan Harvey was present.

Visitors Map of the CharnwoodForest Regional Park by GlobalMapping, a well presented foldedmap using OS OpenData as itsbase. Mary Spence was present.

Vatican City by Gizimaps, anexcellent visitors map of theVatican with a high level of detail.Gizella Bassa was present.

2014 Stanfords AwardWinner

Historical Map of York by LovellJohns, historical annotations on amodern map base with additionaltext descriptions. Louisa Keyworthwas present to receive the Awardon behalf of Lovell Johns.

The OS OpenData Award forexcellence in cartographicdesign and the innovative andexciting use of OS OpenData.Vanessa Lawrence presented

the award.

2014 OS OpenData AwardWinner

Visitors Map of CharnwoodForest Regional Park by GlobalMapping. This map had previouslybeen awarded Highly Commendedin the Stanfords category. MarySpence was present to receive theAward on behalf of Global Mapping.

2014 BCS AWARD

The prestigious BCS Award is madefor the overall best map from thewinners of each of the four individualcategories. This year the judgeschose the Historical Map of Yorkby Lovell Johns. Pete Jones, BCSPresident, presented the Award toLouisa Keyworth who received it onbehalf of Lovell Johns.

And finally

I would like to thank everyone whocontributed to the 2014 Awards inany way, be they sponsors, hosts

for the judging sessions, judges,entrants or those who have simplyhelped me behind the scenes. Icould not have done it alone.

A comprehensive list of the 2014entries is up on the website alongwith the results and photos of theAwards.

Vanessa sounded a rallying cryfor entries for next year, for notjust the OS OpenData Award butfor all four awards. There will beslight changes made to the entrycriteria for the John CBartholomew Award as mentionedby Jim Irvine and full details maybe found in the Awards section onthe website.

The 2015 Awards are now openand entries may be sent to me assoon as they are ready, we lookforward to seeing all yourexcellent cartography.

By Jane Sprague,BA (Hons), FRGS, FBCart.SBCS Awards Officer

BCS Awards


The Society Gala Dinner andAwards were held at theMarwell Hotel and Conference

Centre on 25th June. A total of 89delegates from both BCS and IMIAattended including VanessaLawrence, Head of OS Internationaland Hans-Joachim Niemeyer,President of IMIA Europe, Africa andthe Middle East. A comment wasmade that the Marwell staff werehardly noticed as they deftly servedthe courses marrying up the correctmenu choices with the delegates.Indeed, it was a superb dinner.

The IMIA Awards were bothpresented and awarded by HowardHudson, their Awards Officer.

The BCS Awards followed on,beginning with the Henry JohnsAward for the most outstandingarticle published in the CartographicJournal the previous year. Thewinners were Jari Korpi and PaulaAhonen-Rainio for their paper in theICA Dresden Special Issue entitled“Clutter Reduction Methods for PointSymbols in Map Mashups”. Thecitation gave hope to anyone whohas struggled with point symbols:

The problem of overcoming clutterthat results from simply placing pointsymbols on a map that coalesce andoverlap as you zoom throughdifferent scales is a very realcartographic problem. Whileprofessional cartographers recogniseand can deal with these problems,techniques are not available to thosemap-makers creating mashups oftheir own points of interestinformation. This paper clearly setsout a range of techniques that would

significantly help resolve theseproblems to provide far betterdefaults for such maps.

It was wonderful that Jari from AaltonUniversity in Finland was able toattend the Symposium and collecthis Award from Louisa Keyworth whopresented it on behalf of LovellJohns, who sponsor the Award.

There were a total of 40 entriesacross the four categories of John CBartholomew, Avenza, Stanfords andOS OpenData from all over the worldincluding the UK, Eire, USA, Canada,Mexico, New Zealand and Hungary.

The John C Bartholomew Awardfor small-scale non-topographicthematic mapping. Jim Irvine fromHarpers Collins presented thecertificate.

Special Commendation

Socio-Economic Tectonics byKen Field. This was a largeformat poster displaying a rangeof key socio-economic indicatorsusing a new thematic mappingmethod that focuses on adjacencyrelationships rather than arealvalues. Ken Field was present.

The Avenza Award for electronicmapping products. Tim Rideoutfrom XYZ Maps presented thecertificate and Award.

Highly Commended

Smell Map of Amsterdam byKate McLean. This was a motiongraphics visualization ofAmsterdam’s canal infrastructure,

emerging smellmarks, wind-shiftedsmell drifts and final volatile smelldissipation. Its aim was tocommunicate smellscape as adynamic, temporal, dimensional,mappable phenomenon. Therewere 11 individual scents alongwith a composite fragrance.

2014 Avenza Award Winner

UK Low-Flying Chart by No 1Aeronautical Information DocumentsUnit, an 8 man team. The chart isproduced for UK military low-flyingaircraft such as helicopter and fastjet. It highlights restricted UKmilitary airspace, night flying areas,training areas and obstructions.Present at the dinner was theOfficer Commanding, WingCommander Dyer, who collectedthe Award on behalf of his unit.

The Stanfords Award for printedmapping products. MartinGreenaway from Stanfordspresented the certificates and Award.

Special Commendation

Atlas of Gwynedd by AlanCooper. This contained thecomplete history of the county upto 2012. Alan Cooper from BlueFox Technology was present.

Commended

Milford Track/The Road to MilfordSound by Geographx, a topographicmap of the area using a rock basedpaper that was indestructible.Unfortunately Roger Smith wasunable to travel from New Zealand.

New York City Map with CycleRoutes by The Future MappingCompany, a colourful wallmap. JoClarke and Marcus Kirby werepresent.

Highly Commended

Plan of Connaught Estate byRural Maps, an example of how aLate-Victorian map style stillworks well today when used forcontemporary estates. AnthonyPelly was present.

Glen Coe Superwalker by Harvey

BCS Awards


Lovell Johns has a longassociation with the HistoricTowns Trust and have workedtogether on various atlases sincethe company was founded in 1965by Colonel Henry Johns. TheHistoric Map of York is one of along line of products that havebeen created to show thedevelopment of a modern city fromits ancient origins. Various townshave been mapped, with a view tothe continuing production of fullatlases.

To create the map base, mid-nineteenth-century OS mappingwas digitised to make a vectorbase which could be edited.Various academics researchedhistoric information on the

location of buildings, which wasdisplayed in a graphic format onthe map, with clear colouring forthe different stages ofdevelopment. The map has beenpublished, with textual informationon the reverse, by Old HouseBooks, and is selling well invarious outlets in York, where it isof interest to tourists, residentsand researchers alike. The mapdemonstrates many years ofresearch into the historic layout ofYork, and mention must be madeof Giles Darkes, of the HistoricTowns Atlas who has beeninstrumental in bringing thisproject to print.

The map was submitted for theprestigious British Cartographic

Society Awards 2014, and LovellJohns are delighted to have beenawarded the Stanfords Award forthe best printed map, as well asthe BCS Award for the best mapin all categories. It was an honourto receive the awards, and acomplete surprise.

The awards are particularlypoignant as the cartographer whoproduced the map, Chrissy Bond,died in March 2014, so this is afitting tribute to her body of workas a cartographer.

Lovell Johns were proudrecipients at the recent BCSSymposium of two awards fortheir ‘Map of Historic York’

The BritishCartographicSociety 2014 GalaDinner and Awards


BCS Admin Report & Symposium Continued

Administrator’s ReportSummer 2014 Edition ofMaplines

New Members:The Society has the pleasure ofwelcoming the following newmembers who have joined theSociety since the Spring 2014 issueof Maplines:

Corporate Members:Rural Maps

Educational Members:Calthorpe Park School, NicholasChamberlaine Technical College.

UK Members:Mr J T Avery, Mr E J Barber, Mr C Barrington Brown, Mr I G Blair,Dr M Bravo, Mrs S A Brett, Mr L Burns,Miss L J Dabbs, Ms M Emilova, Mr J Gatward, Mr J Glenn, Mr J T F Goldsmith, Mr R Kenyon,Mr J Lyon, Mrs M Mack, Mr D Moody, Ms N Moloney, Ms R Ramsay, Mr D Robinson, Mr D Sprecht, Mr R Stringer, Mrs S L Temple, Mr D Tuck, Mr M Tucknott, Miss C Whitcomb.

Overseas Members:Dr S Tang (China), Mr R T York

(Cayman Islands)

Associate Members:Mrs A R Henry, Mr M MacCalman,Miss R Minchew, Mr N Sanderson,Mr M Simmonds.

Fellows:At meetings on 9 April and 10 July2014, Council was pleased to awardFellowship status to: Miss A Gadney,Miss J M Chapman, Miss J Sprague,Mr D J Stevenson, Mrs J A Wilson.

And finally:As I write my input for the Summerissue of Maplines it suddenly strikesme that we are probably more thanhalf way through our Summer, theWorld Cup (less said the better) andWimbledon (what happened Andy) areover and all that is left is cricket andgolf and that my Pimms bottle has notbeen attacked with my usual gusto!On a brighter note I attended the BCSSymposium in June and had a reallygood time, the weather was good, foodand accommodation excellent and Icertainly got the feeling that my fellowattendees felt the same. It was goodto meet old friends and certainly makenew ones (a gentleman from Russiagave me some of the smoothest vodkaI have ever tasted). The only downside

was the distance I had to drive and asmuch as I like maps the days of thembeing spread over the dashboard ofthe car are over and now use a satnav which although probably lessaccurate is certainly less cumbersome.On my drive home after theSymposium after hitting the M1Motorway the further North I drove Ikept seeing signs saying Tour deFrance starts here 5/6 July and Ithought to myself who wants to cycledown a motorway?

The Annual General Meeting of theSociety will take place on Monday17th November 2014 in the RoyalAir Force Club (London) in theweeks prior to this members willreceive the agenda along withvoting forms for the election ofofficers and members of Councilincluded in this package will be apre-paid envelope in which to returnvoting forms. It would beappreciated if members would makeevery effort to complete and returnvoting forms as it is your right toselect the officers and members ofCouncil to represent you.

My regards to you all.By Roger Hore, BCS Administrator

...Continued from page 19

The afternoon started with thebiannual President's Address, titledThe Adventure of the Great Circle(with apologies to Sir Arthur ConanDoyle). Peter Jones took theopportunity to highlight the fact thatdespite several articles to thecontrary, Cartography is not dead –drawing an analogy from Sir ArthurConan Doyle and more specificallythe BBC Series ‘Sherlock’. At theend of Series 2 we were all lead tobelieve that Sherlock was dead, butSeries 3 showed him to be verymuch alive. The same can be said ofCartography; commentators havetried to kill it off, but it is in as healthya position now as it ever has been.

The final session of theprogramme was Curate,Create and Collaborate

David Cairns reported from front line

cartography to support the G8 inIreland. This very detailed analysisincluded online demos of theinformation that was used to supportthe security surrounding a very highprofile event. The presentationemphasised the importance ofaccuracy and timeliness for this typeof mapping project.

Markus Fuchs-Winkler, OCAD Increviewed the methods for derivingdifferent map types from one singlebasemap geometry. Finally FenellaFrance from Library of Congressgave an in depth look at modernanalysis of historical mapsrevealing information that had beeninvisible until the new technologypermitted it’s rediscovery.

The final activity of the week wasthe President's Annual GolfTournament. This year five playerscompeted and I began my BCScaddying training! Congratulations

to Andy Wilson who regained thetitle from last year's winner PeterFretwell. The challenge is on fornext year so all golfers should dustoff your clubs and get practising.

All in all the Symposium was amemorable occasion and all on theProgramme Committee would like tothank all the delegates, sponsors,exhibitors, presenters andcharacters for making it such asuccess and a pleasure to organise.

We will be starting our planning for2015 very soon and towards theautumn will issue the call for papers.In the meantime if you are interestedin being involved in next years eventplease contact me for programmeopportunities, Alan Grimwade forsponsorship opportunities and/orRob Sharpe for Mapathon input.

By Fiona Cocks,Chair of Programme Committee

To set the scene. My mother,me at 2 years old, and mybaby brother in a pram, all out

shopping in one of the departmentstores in Uxbridge. I’d got bored,apparently, and decided to wanderoff down the escalators and alongthe high street to the Undergroundstation to watch the trains.

Turning around and seeing I’ddisappeared, my mother rushedaround the store, and nearbyshops asking if anyone had seenme. After half an hour of franticsearching it dawned on her that theonly place I could be was at therailway station. Sure enough, thereI was on the concourse admiringthe trains coming in and out. I’veasked why she thought of lookingfor me at the railway station andapparently it was because I wasalready mad about trains havingbeen given a train set by my father.

I don’t exactly remember this inany detail, being as it’s a fair fewyears ago, but the experiencemust have left a strong mark.

Marching 16 years forward I’mleaving Sixth Form aftercompleting my GCE O and A levelexams and on the jobs market.What else but to work for therailway! I wanted to drive trainsbut in the early 80’s there was aban on recruitment to the

Footplate. 60 ever-hopeful lettersand several interviews aftermonths of patience was finallyrewarded with a job in the TicketOffice at Wokingham.

Years later I got the opportunity todrive trains. But what has all thisgot to do with Cartography?

Well I was also interested in maps.Goes back to those early years inUxbridge. At school I would doodleon my school exercise books bydrawing the Beck LondonUnderground map from memory. Iused to collect schematic mapspublished by BR and LT.

Forward in time, and during awhistle-stop tour of 17 Europeancities in 11 days from Madrid toBrussels, I found the availability oftransport maps to be appalling.There were either none or, those thatdid exist, were of very poor quality.

Nearer home, I also found thelocal bus companies had no mapsof their services. Telephoning thelocal call centres for businformation the staff asked mewhere the bus stops were!

1988 and the first all-systemtransport map I designed was theAlder Valley network. All doneusing the family living room table,a set square and metre rule,along with the edges of the tableand the paper as substitutes for aparallel motion to draw horizontal,vertical and 45º lines, andcombined with my localknowledge of the area and a setof bus timetables.

Whilst impressed with the design,the rather jaded view from the ‘manin marketing’ and I quote, “youhave to understand that we have toappeal to the lowest common

denominator and although I agreeit is a good design it will be acomplete waste of money for us topublish it because our customerswon’t use it”.

Luckily times have changed, inthe most part, since then andmore and more companies arewaking up to realise that good,honest and accurate transportmapping information is paramountto their success in attracting andkeeping customers.

1991 and TCS partnership wasborn, and first set of customers –the AA, Paris Travel Service andFilofax followed in 1993 byThomas Cook Holidays.

All these companies wanted toreplace their existing (or in somecases non-existing) maps with mydesigns. Repeat orders anddemands for more of the samestyle maps for different cities letme know that what we wereproducing was effective.

To date, having designed 146different transport maps andpersonally field researching 96 ofthose, I could never haveimagined I’d get to see and mapthe world in such a way.

In 2004 Communicarta wasformed: a truly global companyserving all continents and over140 cities worldwide with maps inover 1000 different publications(and mobile applications) withmore than 13 million copiesproduced and downloaded.

Part 2 next time and I’ll bediscussing the how’s and why’sand the technical detail of publictransport mapping.

By Robin Woods

Underground


The Underground lured meinto a lifetime of work in publictransport one way or another

Above: Author, Robin Woods