Landscape Systems in Cartography
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Faragó, I.; 2Jeney, J.
1EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY Email: farago@map.elte.hu
2TU DRESDEN Email: janos_gyoergy.jeney@mailbox.tu-dresden.de
Abstract
In cartography, the visualization of the landscape is the complex representation of the surface of the Earth and the representation of spatial structures according to the scale and purpose of the map. The content and the name of the landscape is specified by giving place names and the names for landscape regions. The maps represent physical geographical, ethnographical and historical-geographical regions. However, their hierarchical structure cannot be shown due to the limitations of the scale. It is a rule that the names of physical geographical regions and of historical-geographical-ethnographical regions, which form separate categories, are written in different letter types. In cartography, the physical geographical regions are divided into further regions, thus forming new categories of names. The units of physical geographical regions are labelled by two different letter types according to whether they are denudation and accumulation surfaces. These are the names of mountains and hills (features under denudation) and of plains and basins (features of deposition). It is a convention that the Hungarian names ending in foothills (-alja) form a group of names of transitional regions. This means that the names of landscape regions should be treated in a wider aspect than just the geographical or linguistic interpretation of the general development process of the names of landscape regions. The term, “landscape” is the object of study not only of geography, but also of other disciplines (ethnography, history). Most often, the cartographer tries to represent them at the same time and to distinguish their types by different lettering. Quite often the landscape names existed before the physical-geographical landscape itself was defined. Ethnographical landscape names existed before physical-geographical landscapes. In many cases these landscapes were bordered by physical-geographical features, for example within Székely land (Hun: Székelyföld) the closed basins are each an ethnographical landscape (Csík, Háromszék etc…). Székelyland itself is an ethnographical region where the Székely (ger: Sekler) people live that is bordered by mountains. These landscape names officially appeared at first in the boundaries of the regional administration divisions. The counties in Hungary were based on landscapes. The counties were the basis of special orientation. In the 20th century the borders and names of the counties were altered, partially as a result of the treaty of Trianon, partially as a result of the merger of counties. This resulted in the so-called historical-geographical landscapes. These are former administrative areas of which the names are still in use today. Many counties have disappeared, but the names still get used for the region today. A few examples are Gömör, Bars and Hont. Another example of a historical-geographical landscape is the former province of Galicia in Austria-Hungary. Today the western half is part of Poland, while the eastern part is part of Ukraine. The name still gets used in everyday speech, although Galicia as an administrative entity does not exist today. One would call any name that once used to be the name of an administrative entity and is still used today while the entity does not exist a historical-geographical landscape name, while the area to which it applies is a historical-geographical landscape. It is important to point out, that a historical-geographical landscape name is not an obsolete name, since it is still in use today. The different types of landscapes get written in different types of letters. In many cases the physical and historical-geographical landscape names coincide. In this case landscape names do not get repeated. It is up to the cartographer which names get used, or have priority on the map. Landscape names used in cartography are researched not only by geographers, but also by other disciplines such as ethnographers and historians.