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

Season’s Greetings

Dear Friends of the International Cartographic Association,

The year 2023 was in many ways a successful year for cartography and the ICA. Our International Cartographic Conference 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa was a fabulous event.

The commissions, working groups and committees of ICA have enhanced their agenda further, discussed, brainstormed and presented ideas, concepts and new results.

Many maps, from children maps to the most contemporary innovative map services haven been developed and used.

Publications, such as in the International Journal of Cartography, present new insights on modern cartography aspects.

Maps becoming even more ubiquitous in our modern life and societies, and it is no surprise, as more and more digitalisation, automatisation is taking place, producing more and more data, and thus the need for abstractions, narratives and accentuated knowledge presentation like through maps become more relevant then ever.

I want to thank all of you, which take efforts and interest in the role and work of ICA, for this successful year.

The Executive Committee is looking forward to working with you in the upcoming year and wishes to express their best season’s greetings.

– Georg Gartner
President of the International Cartographic Association

Invitation to EuroCarto 2024

The International Cartographic Association (ICA), the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), the German (DGfK), Austrian (ÖKK), Swiss (SGK), British (BCS) and Czech (ČKS) Cartographic Societies are pleased to invite you to the European Cartographic Conference – EuroCarto 2024, 9-11 September 2024 at TU Wien, Austria.

We aim to bring together Cartographers and those working in related disciplines to offer a platform for discussion, exchange and stimulation of research and joined projects.

Call for Submissions

We invite you to contribute to our Call for Submissions – please find all details here: eurocarto2024.org/submissions 

The submission is open from 01.01.2024 – 17.04.2024.

Interested in organizing a pre-conference workshop?

Additionally, we encourage researchers and practitioners to express their interest in organizing pre-conference workshops scheduled for September 8, 2024.

Please feel free to distribute the information to your network and contacts. We are looking forward to your contributions and to meeting you in Vienna!

For registrations, submissions, sponsoring and comprehensive up-to-date information, please visit our conference website: eurocarto2024.org

Georg Gartner and the EuroCarto2024 organizing team

Category: General News
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18th International Conference on Location Based Services (LBS 2023) – A Report

The LBS conference series started in 2002 in Vienna, Austria, initiated by Prof. Georg Gartner from TU Wien. Since 2015, it has become the annual conference of the ICA Commission on Location Based Services. In the past years, the LBS conferences travelled around the world – with venues in Hong Kong, Salzburg, Nottingham, Shanghai, Vienna, Augsburg, Zurich, Glasgow, and Munich.

In 2023, the LBS conference was hosted by Ghent University, Belgium, on November 20-22, 2023. Around 90 participants from all over the world gathered in the historical city center of Ghent. The conference was opened by the Conference Chairs Prof. Haosheng Huang and Prof. Nico Van de Weghe.

Opening session of the 18th International Conference on Location Based Services – LBS 2023 held in Ghent, Belgium

The conference featured five keynotes by Prof. Krzysztof Janowicz from University of Vienna, Bart Rosseau from Digitaal Vlaanderen, Prof. Wim Hardyns from Ghent University (UGent), Prof. Sofie Van Hoecke from UGent-imec, and Prof. Sidharta Gautama from UGent.

A total of 50 oral presentations have been given in 10 single-stream sessions over the two and half days. Another 4 showcases were presented all the conference. These oral presentations, showcases and posters provide a general picture of recent research activities related to the domain of LBS. Such activities emerged in the last years, especially concerning issues of GeoAI, outdoor/indoor positioning, smart environment, spatial modeling, personalization, context-awarenesss, cartographic communication, novel user interfaces, crowdsourcing, social media, big data analysis, usability and privacy.

Oral sessions of LBS 2023

Oral sessions of LBS 2023

Opening session of the 18th International Conference on Location Based Services – LBS 2023 held in Ghent, Belgium

Showcases at LBS 2023

Showcases at LBS 2023

Showcases at LBS 2023

Showcases at LBS 2023

The conference also featured a “Best paper session” on the 3rd conference day.

  • The best full paper award at LBS2023 went to Eva Nuhn, Kai Hamburger and Sabine Timpf from University of Augsburg, Germany for their full paper on “Mapping olfactory cues for wayfinding – A theoretical approach and an empirical study”.
  • The winner of the best short paper award at LBS2023 is “Towards Personalized Pedestrian Route Recommendation Based on Implicit Visual Preference”, authored by Lin Che, Martin Raubal and Peter Kiefer from ETH Zurich.

With the co-sponsoring of ESRI BeLux and ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, we were also happy to offer Travel Grants to support 7 young researchers to participate in the conference.

A selection of peer-reviewed full papers will be published in the Journal of Location Based Services. Accepted work in progress submissions are included in the conference online proceeding.

Besides the technical and scientific program, the conference provided several social networking opportunities, including an ice-breaker reception on the first day and a conference dinner in a traditional restaurant with famous Ghent cuisine on the 2nd day.

More details and photos regarding LBS 2023 can be found at lbs2023.lbsconference.org.

eCARTO News November 2023

eCARTO News captures the latest cartographic news and developments from around the world. If you have any general cartography items of interest then please email them to David Fraser, editor of eCARTO News.

Insights

Digital

Just Maps

  • Fisheye view of Chattanooga and vicinity showing troop positions in 1863 – loc.gov
  • The Pacific Rim – Reddit
  • 1799 Vancouver Map of Vancouver Island, Washington, and Puget Sound – Geographicus Rare Antique Maps
  • 1840 QMG Manuscript Map of Kandahar, Afghanistan and its Immediate Environs – Antique Maps
  • Skiing’s Next Illustrious Map Designer Unveils New Work – powder.com

Industry

  • 1m Square Kilometers of Updated Satellite Imagery in Europe and Brazil – Mapbox
  • NUVIEW’s quest to map Earth’s land surface every year – geoweeknews.com

Education & Training & Opportunities

Cartographers

  • Scientists Clinch Top Prize at 2023 National Mapping Science Award – miragenews.com
  • Darlington man turned his passion for creating Lord of the Rings-style fantasy maps into a full-time career – chroniclelive.co.uk
  • Adventure cartography: High-tech and high-touch – wvnews.com
  • ‘I wanted to do something useful’: the teenager who drew edible maps for Australia’s wartime pilots – theguardian.com

Environment

Related

  • History Tree of Europe – David Rumsey
  • Ancient Makkah-centered map fetches over $2m at auction in London – arabnews.com
  • USDA updates plant hardiness map for the first time in more than a decade – npr.org
  • Cardiff volunteers help to map city’s ancient and veteran trees – nation.cymru
  • Autonomous excavator creates 3D map of rocks to build 19-foot-tall wall – uk.news.yahoo.com
  • Modeling walking accessibility to urban parks using Google Maps crowdsourcing database in the high-density urban environments of Hong Kong – nature.com
  • Vietnam on Dutch maps – miragenews.com

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the weblink authors are their own and do not represent the official position of the ICA. The links are assembled for information and education purposes only.

President’s Blog: ICA as an Organization of Organizations

The International Cartographic Association is an organization of organizations. It is built upon its members, consisting of National Members and Affiliate Members.

What are members?

National Members are those national cartographic or geographical information organisations, national mapping and cadastral institutions, or coordinating national cartographic committees who wish to represent their nation as a member in ICA. Affiliate Members are organisations, institutions or companies wishing to support the mission and activities of the International Cartographic Association.

ICA has a long list of active members, which can be found at icaci.org/national-members and icaci.org/affiliate-members. Membership comes with a lot of benefits, the most important one as being an active and driving part of the mission, aims and scope of the world of cartography! Details about this can be found on icaci.org/membership-types.

What members do

It is important for ICA that our members flourish. Only if our members are strong, ICA can be a strong global voice for cartography. As the world is changing, the role of societies, institutions and associations is changing as well. In some of our member countries the representation of the national cartographic community might be decreasing, limited or changing. I want to therefore highlight from time to time some best practices and selected successful activities some of our members are pursuing. As I had the opportunity to participate in three recent events let me describe activities of the British Cartographic Society, the German Cartographic Society and the Hellenic (Greek) Cartographic Society as examples.

British Cartographic Society

On 20. September 2023 the British Cartographic Society (BCS) celebrated 60 years during their annual conference at Cambridge, UK. BCS has developed since its foundation 1963 a wide range of activities. To name a few highlights I want to mention publications, such as The Cartographic Journal as well as the magazine “Maplines”. To give map curators a home BCS is also providing a periodical newsletter called “Cartographitti”.  BCS has also developed a variety of awards for excellence in cartography, which are presented at the annual conferences. Those awards include entries for best map, printed maps, electronic maps, thematic maps, use of Ordnance Survey Data and 3D cartography as well as the Henry Johns Award for the most outstanding article published in the Cartographic Journal. On their website BCS provides also resources for education, including free data, software links and online support sites. Also, annual conferences are organized as well as so called “Tea Time Talks”, giving the members several opportunities to stay connected. It should be mentioned as well, that BCS has always been a key member of the International Cartographic Association, providing beneath two presidents (Deny Thackwell 1964-1968, Michael Wood 1995-1999) several Vice-Presidents, Commission Chairs and Map Enthusiasts!

During the celebrations of the 60th Anniversary I had the opportunity to address the members as well as hand over one of the BCS awards for excellence in cartography as well as hand over an ICA Map Exhibition Award Winner from ICC 2023.

Former SG David Fairbairn and former VP David Forrest enjoying the festive celebrations of the 60th Anniversary of BCS

Former SG David Fairbairn and former VP David Forrest enjoying the festive celebrations of the 60th Anniversary of BCS

Georg Gartner handing over the Stanfords Award to Luke Harvey (Harvey Maps) for the Map “Wales Coast Path”

Georg Gartner handing over the Stanfords Award to Luke Harvey (Harvey Maps) for the Map “Wales Coast Path”

Georg Gartner handing over the Certificate for the 2nd place of the International Cartographic Exhibition at ICC 2023 in the category “Map on Panel” for the entry “The World – Great Discoveries”

Georg Gartner handing over the Certificate for the 2nd place of the International Cartographic Exhibition at ICC 2023 in the category “Map on Panel” for the entry “The World – Great Discoveries”

German Cartographic Society

Cover of Kartographische Nachrichten

Cover of Kartographische Nachrichten

The German Cartographic Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kartographie, DGfK) has just recently organised it‘s 71. German Cartographic Conference (Deutscher Kartographentag). The DGfK was founded already in 1950 and has since then developed several activities to promote cartography, such as thematic commissions, regional sections, educational materials, symposia (such as the legendary “Arbeitskurse Niederdollendorf” and the follow-up events called “Symposium Practical Cartography”), or the annual german cartographic conference. DGfK is also awarding outstanding scholars with the very prestigious “Mercator-Medal”. The recently offered “CartoCafé” is a regular series of online lectures and presentations and has found its audience. DGfK is also organizing once a year a “new year event”, which has become a very popular meeting point. It has to be mentioned especially, that the society is running its own journal, the “Kartographische Nachrichten”. DGfK has been always a strong member and supporter of ICA, contributing with ideas, activities and persons to all the ICA activities over decades.

Hellenic Cartographic Society

The Hellenic Cartographic Society was established 1994 in Thessaloniki. Soon the organization developed as the main forum for cartographers in Greece, organizing since 1994 sixteen cartographic conferences all over the country. The society is most successful in reaching out to all main stakeholders of cartography in Greece, including National Agencies, Academia, Practicioners as well as companies. The HCS is a very active partner of ICA, contributing regularly to the Barbara Petchenik Map Competition, supporting actively the FIG/IHO/ICA International Board of Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartogaphers, being the founder and driver of the ICA Commission on Cartographic Heritage into the Digital, which also runs its own journal called “e-perimetron”.

Current President of HCS Chrysoula Boutoura, Former President and ICA Honorary Fellow Evangelos Livieratos and ICA President Georg Gartner at the Hellenic Cartographic Conference in Athens, November 2023

Current President of HCS Chrysoula Boutoura, Former President and ICA Honorary Fellow Evangelos Livieratos and ICA President Georg Gartner at the Hellenic Cartographic Conference in Athens, November 2023

Prof Evangelos Livieratos receiving a honourable professorship of University of Western Attica during the Hellenic Cartographic Conference November 2023

Prof Evangelos Livieratos receiving a honourable professorship of University of Western Attica during the Hellenic Cartographic Conference November 2023

President’s Blog: Joined activities of IMIA and ICA

ICA has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in place with the International Map Industry Assocation (IMIA). During the Frankfurt Book Fair common interests and joined activities of ICA and IMIA for the next yearshave been discussed and agreed upon between the Presidents Bridger DeVille (IMIA) and Georg Gartner (ICA). This will include sessions and presentations at symposia and conferences, panels and cooperation on major topics of concern such as trustworthiness of maps. A joined ICA-IMIA-ESRI Award for the Best Maps of the ESRI User Conference is already in place and demonstrate the mutual interests.

Bridger DeVille and Georg Gartner at the Frankfurt Book Fair

IMIA President Bridger DeVille and ICA President Georg Gartner at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Discussing joined activities of ICA and IMIA

Discussing joined activities of ICA and IMIA

– Georg Gartner
President of the International Cartographic Association

eCARTO News October 2023

eCARTO News captures the latest cartographic news and developments from around the world. If you have any general cartography items of interest then please email them to David Fraser, editor of eCARTO News.

Industry

  • Geospatial pioneer celebrates anniversary with mobile mapping solution launch – gim-international.com
  • Bentley Sees Potential of AI, Gets Deeper in Subsurface Mapping – enr.com
  • Data Doctors: Google Maps vs. Waze – wtop.com
  • Google Maps vs. Apple Maps: Which navigation app is best? – tomsguide.com
  • The cool new Apple Maps features you’re not using, but should be – thepointsguy.com

Education & Training & Opportunities

Cartographers

History

  • A $7.5-million find: Overlooked Getty estate sale map turns out to be 14th century treasure – latimes.com
  • Map of the Ancient Roman World from their perspective – vividmaps.com

Out of this world

  • NASA Is Locating Ice on Mars With This New Map – nasa.gov
  • Atacama Cosmology Telescope Reveals New Dark Matter Map – miragenews.com
  • Precision Space Map Measures 400,000 Nearby Galaxies – miragenews.com

Just Maps

Related

Environment

  • Mapping methane: Satellites seek out gas-spewing waste sites – aljazeera.com
  • MapLab: Uncovering the Native Landscape of Los Angeles – bloomberg.com
  • Mapping hidden meltwater paths in glaciers: importance – miragenews.com
  • Remember the climate map from your school atlas? Here’s what climate change is doing to it – phys.org
  • Wildlife Worldwide Contaminated by Flame Retardants: New Map – ens-newswire.com
  • Research Refines Accuracy of East Asia’s Planted Forest Mapping – miragenews.com
  • Proposed offshore wind map protects a key Maine lobster fishing ground – newhampshirebulletin.com

 

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the weblink authors are their own and do not represent the official position of the ICA. The links are assembled for information and education purposes only.

International Journal of Cartography – Issue 9.3, 2023 Special Issue ICC2023, Cape Town, South Africa, published online

Cover International Journal of CartographyThe new issue of the International Journal of Cartography is now available on the Journal website

Details of papers published in the Issue are provided below:

  • The paper Options for systematizing cartographic rules was provided by Václav Talhofer, Jiří Drozda and Filip Dohnal. This paper suggests a systematization of the rules that are used in the whole technological cycle of map creation. The suggested system of rules is processed into the design of a knowledge-based ontology database intended for solving especially collision situations during the creation of topographic maps.
  • Otakar Čerba, Tomáš Andrš, Loic Fournier and Martin Vaněk contribute Cartography & Web3. This article addresses the relationship between cartography and Web3. It describes the basic features of Web3 and its future relationship to the field of cartography. The paper aims to generate discussion regarding the evolutionary changes in cartography that may occur due to the emergence of Web3 technologies such as Blockchain.
  • Square-glyphs: Assessing the readability of multidimensional spatial data visualized as square-glyphs is provided by Gianna Daniela Müller, Daria Hollenstein, Arzu Çöltekin and Susanne Bleisch.  In this paper, the authors present a user study evaluating the readability and interpretability of the square-glyphs. They compare the user performance with squareglyphs containing two and four simultaneously mapped data dimensions and different value compositions.
  • The following paper is Understanding Relevance in Maps through the use of Knowledge Graphs by José Pablo Ceballos Cantú, Markus Jobst and Georg Gartner. The paper describes ‘SeMaptics’, a tool has been developed to better understand the relationship between the two domains of ontological and spatial dimensions. Ontological mapping allows for discrete ontologies to be projected into the spatial field. Such ontologies are regularly seen in a continuous or overlapping layered format in the spatial dimension. However, integrating both spaces results in a novel method, which could add additional perspectives to the map-making process. SeMaptics implements a graph structure to accommodate graph visualizations using D3js.
  • Visualising temporal changes in visitors’ areas of interest using online geotagged photographs by Bochra Bettaieb and Yoshiki Wakabayashi. Details a study undertaken to visualise the spatial patterns and temporal changes in the areas of interest (AOIs) of foreign visitors using data derived from geotagged photos on Flickr. The results show differences in the distribution of AOIs between visitors from Asia and Europe.  Furthermore, the distribution of changed AOIs may reflect environmental changes due to a redevelopment project.
  • Behind the first Habsburg map of Transylvania – comparative analysis of contemporary manuscript maps by Zsombor Bartos-Elekes provides results from a study analysed, for the first time, three other contemporary manuscript maps: “Mappa della Transilvania”; “Continet mappas comitatuum”; and the map by Morando Visconti. The research was conducted to determine the relationship between the printed map and the manuscript maps, the map sources and if they were copies. They also wanted to determine the authors and the date of the manuscript maps.
  • Gertrud Schaab, Serena Coetzee, Nerhene Davis and Faith N. Karanja, in their paper Developing teaching/learning materials on “Sense of Place” with students in an international university cooperation: overall approach and first phase outcomes at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences report on their project to jointly develop digital teaching and learning resources related to sense of place, which can be used in blended learning at several universities.  This paper provides the results of the first phase of the project.
  • Spatial aspects of evacuation: A closer look at user interaction during route choice by Dajana Snopková and Lukáš Herman reports on one aspect of a larger project that dealt with the study of the influence of spatial parameters of buildings on decision-making during evacuation.  They focussed on the analysis of the collected interaction data (mouse rotation) and their relationship to the laterality of the participants and the final choice of an evacuation corridor. Statistical analysis using correlation coefficients and the Welch t-test were employed in the study.
  • The paper by Haowen Yan, Weifang Yang and Xiaomin Lu: provided information on their research: Quantitative expressions of spatial similarity between road networks in multiscale map spaces. Using road networks as an example, the authors proposed an approach to calculating the spatial similarity degree between a road network at a larger scale and its generalized counterpart at a smaller scale. They argue that the proposed quantitative method lays a foundation for using spatial similarity as a constraint during map generalization.
  • José Jesús Reyes Nunez provides a paper entitled: The presence of geoinformatics in Hungarian secondary education. The paper offers a brief background on the influence that geoinformatics currently exerts on geography teaching in Hungarian secondary schools:  the main characteristics of geography teaching at elementary and secondary levels; skills and competences that should be developed by geography in this level; and how geoinformatics could assist further development. Finally, some ideas are proposed that might increase the presence of geoinformatics in the teaching of geography at the secondary level.
  • Orienteering maps, perhaps the least familiar map type to cartographers, are addressed in the paper History of orienteering maps: in the light of the evolution of survey and reproduction techniques by László Zentai. Map symbology, surveying methods and printing technologies employed in the development and production of orienteering maps are explained.
  • Atlassing Sustainable Development: A Participatory and Critical Approach to Neighbourhoods in Transition by Barbara Roosen and Mela Zuljevic paper discusses the production of an atlas as a critical and trans-disciplinary practice for participatory research in sustainable development.  Starting from critical cartography and participatory mapping, the authors propose the process of ‘atlassing’ as a tool to support negotiation between various sustainability aspects in relation to everyday practices, different research inputs, actors and participatory activities.
  • The primary goal of the article by Nina Polous, Smart Cartography: representing complex geographical reality of 21st century, is to reflect on the term “Smart Cartography”. The author makes the term “cartography”, the focal point of the debate rather than the word “smart”. This paper simplifies the definition of cartography to the unexcludable “geographical reality,” critical for understanding our environment. It examines how this term has been interpreted historically and contemporarily since the mid-19th century.
  • Krzysztof Pokonieczny and Wojciech Dawid provide the paper The Application of Artificial Neural Networks for the Generalisation of Military Passability Maps. Passability maps are cartographic studies that are generally used by commanders when planning military operations. This article presents a methodology for the automated generalization of passability maps. For this purpose, artificial neural networks (ANN) were used, and, specifically, a multilayer perceptron. The paper describes the manner of preparing teaching data to train artificial neural networks and their implementation, which led to the creation of the resulting maps. In order to test the consistency of maps, Moran’s I spatial autocorrelation coefficient was determined.
  • Finally, a regular column in issues of this Journal – MAPS IN HISTORY by Imre Demhardt – focusses on : Cape Town’s changing waterfront.  Three maps – Plan of Cape Town (1854), South African Railways – Table Bay Harbour (1911) and Map of Cape Town (1948) – are used to ‘track’ the changes to the harbour.

Papers can be viewed via the Journal website.

Bill Cartwright and Anne Ruas
Editors, International Journal of Cartography

Category: General News

President’s Blog: A new dawn – the beginning of a new term in ICA

New ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027

The International Cartographic Association sees a change of its “term” every fourth year. This change is a result of the discussions and decisions at the General Assembly of the national members of ICA. The most recent General Assembly (the 19th of ICA) took place during the (most successful) International Cartographic Conference 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa and decided on the main proponents of the new term, which will last from 2023 to 2027.

Let me introduce you to the new members of the Executive Committee:

    • President Georg Gartner (Austria)
    • Secretary General Thomas Schulz (Switzerland)
    • Past President Timothy Trainor (United States of America)
    • Vice President Serena Coetzee (South Africa)
    • Vice President Dariusz Dukaczewski (Poland)
    • Vice President Amy Griffin (Australia)
    • Vice President Haosheng Huang (Belgium)
    • Vice President Alex Kent (United Kingdom
    • Vice President Jiping Liu (China)
    • Vice President Dusan Petrovic (Slovenia)
Georg Gartner

Georg Gartner

Thomas Schulz

Thomas Schulz

Tim Trainor

Tim Trainor

Serena Coetzee

Serena Coetzee

Dariusz Dukaczewski

Dariusz Dukaczewski

Amy Griffin

Amy Griffin

Haosheng Huang

Haosheng Huang

Alex Kent

Alex Kent

Jiping Liu

Jiping Liu

Dušan Petrovič

Dušan Petrovič

This team has already met for the first Executive Committee meeting in Vienna and is keen to advance the International Cartographic Associations activities, instruments, aims and scope further. By doing so we are happy to build upon most successful former terms, such as the now ended with President Tim Trainor. We are highly grateful for all the work which has been done on behalf of ICA and we feel inspired to follow those paths!

– Georg Gartner
President of the International Cartographic Association

eCARTO News September 2023

eCARTO News captures the latest cartographic news and developments from around the world. If you have any general cartography items of interest then please email them to David Fraser, editor of eCARTO News.

Publications

Education & Training & Opportunities

  • British Cartographic Society 2022-2023 Awards – cartography.org.uk
  • New multimedia cartography laboratory opened at University Park – psu.edu

History

Built Environment

Just Maps

Cartophiles

Industry

  • Map buried inside your phone reveals where you’ve been and photos you snapped there – foxnews.com

Related

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the weblink authors are their own and do not represent the official position of the ICA. The links are assembled for information and education purposes only.

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