summaries
KT 1993.XIX.3
F.J. Ormeling sr. - Surveying and mapping the former
British East Indies and Netherlands East Indies
The article makes, on the basis of limited literature study, a
comparison between early surveying and mapping in tropical
countries with a poor infrastructure, where the climate was not
very suitable for fieldwork by Europeans. Local workers were
needed for the manifold tasks and, especially in India, their
achievements were highly valued.
Already in 1767 the foundation was laid for the prestigious
Survey of India. The 'Great Trigonometrie Survey' of the
largest part of that country remains a remarkable achieve-
ment.
The Dutch did not keep up this pace. The foundation of their
Survey and Mapping Institute (Topografische Dienst) took
place in stages between 1853 and 1903. Contrary to the British,
it took a long time before they realised the usefulness of tri-
angulation networks.
In the second part of the I9th Century the surveying in India
suffered due to internal departmental disagreements. How-
ever, at the same time in the Netherlands East Indies many
initiatives were taken.
At the beginning of this Century both institutes were
reorganised to improve their competence. But soon World
War I started, then came the economic recession and finaily
World War II, all negative factors for the realisation of many
plans.
At the moment of granting independence to India (1947) and
Indonesia (1949) still large parts of both countries had not
been well mapped. But looking back there is a certain satisfac-
tion about all that was achieved ander difficult circumstances.
R.P.G.A. Voskuii - Naval expeditions to and surveying of
the coast of New Guinea in the first part of the 19th Century
In the 17th and 18th centuries under the rule of the Dutch East
Indies Company the most important fairways were situated in
the western part of the East Indies archipelago. Manuscript
Charts of those areas were fairly accurate. However, more to
the east, large areas of the archipelago had not or not ac-
curately been surveyed. This applied in particular to New
Guinea (now Irian Jaya) which was of no economic im-
portance. The author discusses in this article a number of
naval expeditions in the first part of the last Century along the
coasts of New Guinea. He also describes the influence of these
expeditions during that period on the representation of the
area on Charts.
A.J. Pannekoek - Geographer at the Topographie Service in
the former Dutch East Indies
In 1921 a Cartographic Department was established at the
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Topographie Service of the former Dutch East Indies. The
Department was to be responsible for small scale mapping in
particular. A scientifically educated geographer was appointed
as head of the Department, so not a military officer with
cartographic training.
More attention now was paid to the design of legends and
simplification of existing ones, the representation of the geo-
morphology and the height representation.
A number of small scale map series already existed, amongst
them the famous Regency maps of Java, but the new Depart
ment brought more uniformity to the methods of representa
tion and moreover increased the number of series. Some of the
maps published up to World War II were: a uniform map
series in 10 sheets of Java and Madoera at the scale 1:250,000;
14 sheets of the International Map of the World 1:1 million;
aeronautical Charts 1:1 million; Netherlands-Indies and
surroundings 1:5 million; Road Map of Java and Madoera
1:500,000; sketch maps at various scales in black and white
which were produced quickly.
All this work ended in 1942 due to the Japanese occupation,
during which the militairy and civil personnel disappeared into
Japanese prison camps.
J. Rais A.H. Polderman - The mapping component of the
TRANS- Vproject in Indonesia
The article gives an overview of the wide spectrum of activities
in which the Indonesian National Coordinating Agency for
Surveys and Mapping (Bakosurtanal) was engaged under the
mapping component of the Transmigration- Vproject. Fairly
big contracts were signed with a variety of (international) con-
tractors for aerial photography, SPOT SAR imagery, base
maps, levelling, education training, consultancy, and the
procurement of equipment. An international Technical Ad-
visory Team assisted Bakosurtanal in the supervision of the
Programme, in the strengthening of Bakosurtanal's institu-
tional capabilities, and in the introduetion and implementa-
tion of advanced geodetic subjects, analytical photo-
grammetry, automated cartography, GIS, etc.
P.J. Oxtoby - Experiences with new Topographie Base Map
ping in Indonesia
The produetion of Topographie Base Mapping at 1:50,000 of
parts of Kalimantan and Sulawesi was impeded by a lack of
experienced personnel. This inexperience was present with the
three contractors making the maps and with the dient Bako
surtanal. By formal and informal training methods the Techni
cal Advisoy Team (TAT) transferred knowledge and
knowhow to all those involved with the mapping. Comprehen-
sive quality control was applied rigourously. This resulkted in
maps of better quality though the mapping took longer than
