International Map Year
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Ormeling, F.; 2Hillier, D.; 3Rystedt, B.; 4Berces, A.
1UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Email: f.j.ormeling@uu.nl
2EÖTVÖS LORAND UNIVERSITY Email: hillierdom@gmail.com
3RETIRED Email: bengt@rystedt.se
4EÖTVÖS LORAND UNIVERSITY Email: adam.berces@gogglemail.com
Abstract
1 Introduction Bengt Rystedt and Ferjan Ormeling produced in 2011 a proposal for an international map year that the Swedish Cartographic Society sent as a motion to the ICA General Assembly. The motion was handled at the ICA Conference in Paris 2011. The General Assembly decided in favour unanimously and the Executive Committee of ICA set up a working group with Bengt Rystedt as chairperson and Ferjan Ormeling as vice chair. 2 UN Contacts Many attempts were made to involve the UN in the IMY. Firstly, the Swedish Government was asked to send in an application, but the responsible Minister thought that UN years are normally costly and that UN had more important things to do. Secondly, a resolution proposed by ICA a resolution was adopted by the UN Regional Cartographic Conference in Bangkok at the 1st of November, 2012, saying that ICA should organize the International Map Year during 2015. In March 2014 the UN Cartographic Section proposed that ICA should invite the UN Global Geospatial Management (UN-GGIM) as a partner, to be decided at the August, 2014 UN-GGIM meeting in New York. Georg Gartner and at least three ICA Vice Presidents attended that meeting. Georg Gartner presented the ICA proposal on IMY in the ICA report from the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JBGIS). The reaction was positive and IMY is now endorsed by the UN-GGIM through a resolution reading: The committee endorses the International Map Year 2015–2016 as proposed by the International Cartographic Association as a valuable means to promote the importance of maps and Geoinformation. 3 The IMY Program It is very important that the ICA member countries and hopefully also other countries will participate in IMY and organize national map days, both nationally, regionally and locally. The target group to organize local map days are the municipalities, as they can show their cartographic activities in producing and using maps, and also show old maps on the municipality’s development. Other possible institutions to organize IMY activities are universities and archives. Guidelines for organizing map days are included in the IMY homepage that will be described later in this paper. Further information of the IMY program can be found at the IMY homepage and the intention is to add more information later on. The target groups of IMY are: • The general public; • School children; • Professionals and • Governments. One important aspect of the program is the textbook, The World of Maps. The book contains 18 chapters that together give a rather full description of how to produce maps and how to use maps. All chapters can be downloaded for free from the IMY homepage.