Welcome to the International Cartographic Association
Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic AssociationGet to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027
Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic Association
Get to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027

(CANCELLED) Invitation to the 12th Mountain Cartography Workshop

Update, March 2020: Sorry, this workshop had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus situation.


We invite you to participate at the 12th Mountain Cartography Workshop in the Colorado Rockies, April 14—18, 2020.

Banner 12th Mountain Cartography Workshop

The workshop theme is People, Maps, and Mountains. All topics broadly relating to maps and mountains are welcome as are a variety of presentation formats: from full papers to technical demos.

Call for Presentations is already open!

For more information about the workshop and to submit your abstract, visit www.shadedrelief.com/workshop/

Invitation to the 11th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop

In partnership with the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geodesy, the ICA Commission on Mountain Cartography is organizing its 11th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop on the island of Hvar, Croatia. From May 21–25, 2018, we invite you to this beautiful venue in the Adriatic Sea and welcome you for numerous interesting excursions. The workshop will be hosted in hotels Pharos and Amfora in one of the most popular tourist destinations in Croatia – the city of Hvar.

The ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop brings together cartographers, geographers and others who want to discuss the current developments in mountain cartography and spatial data analysis and representations related to mountain environments. Main conference topics are (but not limited to):

  • Mapping for outdoor activities in mountains
  • Mapping and GIS of mountainous areas
  • Physical and topographic mapping
  • Relief representation
  • Visualisation of mountain dynamics
  • Interactive atlases
  • New media applications
  • Glacier movement
  • Rock representation

Different presentation types are possible, from classic research papers to live software demonstrations and map discussions. With visits to the Hvar Observatory, St. Nikola and Pakleni Islands, the workshop includes outdoor thematic excursions, too.

Along with traditionally interesting scientific and professional programme and exchange of experiences among mountain cartographers from the whole world, there are many options for those interested for hiking and kayaking, local cuisine, charming beaches, historical sites or just strolling through the streets of the ancient Pharos. Our diversified programme with complementary activities will meet everyone’s interests.

Submit your abstract and take advantage of discounted early registration until February 28, 2018.

Find more information on the workshop web-site: science.geof.unizg.hr/cmc2018.

Tag:

President’s Blog: A map perspective on the sustainable development goals

The Sustainable Development Goals, officially known as Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are a UN Initiative. Official website: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org

In the light of the International Map Year (IMY), the ICA and its commissions are highlighting the value of cartography by “mapping” the UN sustainable development goals.

In the past months, a set of posters has been created, one for each sustainable development goal. They do not map the goals and their target based on indicators as such. The poster series tells the story of cartographic diversity, of mapping options, and of multiple map perspectives. Each of the goals has been mapped from a particular perspective by different ICA Commissions. All posters have a short take-home-message that should make one aware of particular strengths of the map.

The posters as well as the catalog for the poster exhibition can be found on icaci.org/maps-and-sustainable-development-goals

A huge thank you to all commissions involved and to Wim Feringa from ITC for the poster design and production. Let’s make the world a better place with maps!

Menno-Jan Kraak
– President of the International Cartographic Association

Joint ICA meeting in Vienna, November 8–9

ica-commission-meeting

All chairs and vice-chairs of the ICA commissions and working groups were invited to join an ICA meeting in Vienna on 8–9 November 2015 to plan and discuss their activities for the term 2015–2019. 46 chairs, vice-chairs and members of the executive committee followed the invitation and spent two intensive workshop days at Technische Universität Wien.

Meeting participants

Commission chairs and vice-chairs

Working Group International Map Year

Executive Committee

Website

More photos of the workshop can be found on the ICA Facebook page.

Get to know the new ICA commissions for the term 2015–2019

27 commissions and 3 working groups were elected for the term 2015–2019 by the ICA General Assembly 2015. We are currently in the process of updating the website to reflect these changes. Also some of the commissions are still preparing or updating their websites. In the meantime, we invite you to have a look at the short “Commissions at a glance” presentations, which the new commissions chairs gave during ICC 2015:

Tag:

Commissions at a glance

During ICC 2013 all commission chairs presented their commissions in a speed presentation. You can check out the presentation slides below (or via our ICC 2013 sub-page).

President’s Blog: Mountain Cartography

To depict elements of the topography of a landscape in a symbolic, abstract, geometrically sound but also eventually easily understandable way is a core discipline of cartography. Beneath all topographic elements of a landscape mountains are for sure amongst the most challenging ones to model and depict. Not only the derived geometry needs to fulfill the constraints of allowing a meaningful combination with other map elements but also the applied cartographic design should support the visual impression from the terrain  features  and especially the most dramatic ones, including the mountains itself.

It is therefore not a big surprise that beyond the most famous cartographers you can find especially such which have deserved their merits by designing and producing cartographic mountain depictions of high quality.

Within the International Cartographic Association the specific importance of this particular area of cartographic challenge has led to the foundation of the Commission on Mountain Cartography at the ICC 1999 in Ottawa. Since then this Commission, chaired by Lorenz Hurni from Switzerland from 1999-200 and Karel Kriz since 2007, has managed to attract ambitious cartographers and fascinating aficionados of all kind of different backgrounds being interested in mountain cartography. The unique spirit of this group has proven to be specific just recently when the Commission meet at their International Workshop at Tongariro National Park New Zealand. ICA Commissions are platforms for enthusiasts, experts and those which want to exchange and share their ideas, solutions and developments for the sake of the issue. The mountain cartography commission is fulfilling this role exactly and thus leads to an ongoing benefit to its members.

The merits of the recent meeting in New Zealand belong to the Commission Chairs, namely Karel Kriz and in replacement of Lorenz Hurni also Dusan Petrovic and Stefan Räber, but especially also to the colleagues from the local organizing committee Geoff Aitken, Roger Smith, Igor Drecki, Antoni Moore and Christian Fremd who not only organised the whole event but also managed to make everybody feeling most welcome in New Zealand.

Participants of the 8th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop

Mountain Cartography Workshop in New Zealand in September

The next Mountain Cartography Workshop will be held in New Zealand near Taurewa, adjacent to the Tongariro National Park south of Auckland (North Island) between 1 and 5 September 2012.

The theme of the Workshop is Mapping Mountain Dynamics: from glaciers to volcanoes, in recognition of the unique natural environment of the host country New Zealand. The Workshop will focus on current developments in mountain cartography and present state of the art approaches to cartographic representations in large scale topographic mapping, symbolization and map design, as well as discuss technological issues, map use and links with Location-based Services (LBS).

Abstract submissions are welcome on any topic relating to mountain cartography, large scale topographic mapping, visualization of mountainous landscapes and artistic renderings and representations of terrain, and covering work of an academic and/or professional nature. Further details can be found on the invitation page.

rawboned-refined