summaries
C.A. Blok - The factor time in choropleth maps for severely
visually handicapped people
Several strategies exist to represent spatio-temporal changes by
means of maps, both in a slatic and in a dynamic way. Those
visually handicapped people who are predominantly depend-
ent on tactual perception of maps still have to rely on static
representations, either through Single or multiple maps. Given
the constraints in the perception and processing of tactual
Information, even with a Single map, the question arises, how-
ever, whether severely visually handicapped people are able to
'conveniently' use multiple maps. In the exploratory study
described here, this question has been dealt with. Tests have
been performed using choropleth maps on swell paper. Ques-
tions were asked at three distinct reading levels. Resu/ts show
that the patterns developed were clearly distinguishable and
evoked the required ordered perception. In the map reading
tasks, the criteria set for convenient use were met for all except
one of the questions.
S.P. Goel en J.E. Drummond Identifying a data capture
production line for building a National Topographie Database
The Survey of India (SOI) is considering building a National
Topographie Database, which should be the topographic con-
tribution to the National Digital Database of India. This paper
summarizes an investigation carried out on four potential data
production lines (manual digitizing, low cost and high cost
scanning and vectorizing, and 'on-screendigitizing), using a
section of a map of the 1:250.000 series. It compares the four
methods in terms of the times required and the spatial accuracy
of the end produet. All methods fulfilled the quality require-
ments, but some methods seem to be better suited for particu-
lar tasks than others.
F.J. Ormeling sr. - Maps in the courtroom: a historic lawsuit
about Copyright
The article describes the lawsuit of 1911-1913 on alleged
Copyright violation between two competing educational
Publishing houses, both situated in Groningen. In 1908
P. Noordhoff published a school atlas with a number of maps
which looked suspiciously like the Bosatlas, published by com-
petitor J.B. Wolters since 1877 and appearing in its se-
venteenth edition in 1906. In addition, the editors of the
atlases had identical family names which could further con-
tribute to confusion. Publisher Wolters brought charges
against the managing director of Noordhoff and his editor
concerning violation of Copyright. In 1911-1913 this was
successively dealt with by the court of justice in Groningen and
upon appeal by a higher court in Leeuwarden. In both cases
the accused were cleared of the charges. The acquittal was
considerably influenced by the choice of expert-witnesses.
Noordhoff was supported by two wellknown geographers who
had experience in educational cartography, white the witnesses
for the prosecution, Coming from large scale topographic map-
ping circles, were completely Zacking this experience. It was not
difficultfor the defence, therefore, to refute the charges and to
clear the way for acquittal of the accused. The lawsuit reeeived
considerable attention in the press. Without doubt, this drew
the attention of the public to the map as a medium, and at the
same time it can be assumed that the lawsuit contributed to
further reflection in the small cartographic Community on ethi-
cal questions related to the profession.
J. Schilder - The map of the first regional plan of Flevoland
This article concerns the production of the map, depicting the
first regional plan of the province of Flevoland. The basic
principles of the regional plan, the cartographic design of the
map and the Organisation of cartographic work in the 'Büro
Kartografie en Grafisch Ontwerp' of this province are dealt
with. Attention is paid to the processing and representation of
geographica! Information by automated procedures, which are
applied to produce maps for all provincial policy areas. Data
are stored in a digital database in such a way, that road,
traffic, water, environmental andplanning maps in three scale
classes can be produced. The enclosed map of the regional plan
is an example produced from data stored at the smallest scale
(class 3). Finally, digital pre-press processing for printing is
briefty discussed.
D.E. Richardson - Automated spatial and thematic gene-
ralization using a Context Transformation Mode!
This article summarizes the author's doctoral thesis on gene-
ralization, undertaken at the Agricultural University in Wage
ningen, the Netherlands, Rather than addressing generaliza-
tion from a graphic representation viewpoint, this research
examines it more from a database perspective and develops
techniques that address map content rather than form. A gene-
ralization model is developed with the objective to create a
logical method for determining what should appear on a map
or in a representation, based on a rationale for why objects
should appear and when, in order to accommodate the di-
versity in user needs. As well, a method has been developed to
control the generalization processes and evaluate it. The con-
trol process results in the availability of continuous generaliza
tion and the evaluation is available at every level of data. This
article gives a brief description of the methodology used for
realizing these objectives with the help of a Context Trans
formation Model.
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