History of Mapping Technologies

The earliest known maps are of the heavens, not the earth. Dots dating to 16,500 BCE found on the walls of the Lascaux caves map out part of the night sky. Associated with the animal drawings are also track lines and tallies thought to depict migration routes. While simplistic in comparison to modern technologies, these early records mimic the

two-element structure of modern GIS, an image associated with attribute information.

Earliest Known maps

Babylonian Map of the World

As civilizations emerged, mapping also developed. This is a clay tablet from Babylon is in the center of the map; parallel lines at the left seem to represent the southern marshes, and a curved line coming from right appears to represent the Zagros Mountains. There are seven small interior circles at the perimeter areas within the circle, and they appear to represent seven cities.

Importance of Ancient Greece in Map Making

Greeks made an invaluable contribution to mapping and geography.

500 BCE – Hecataeus creates one of the first maps of the known world improving on Anaximander. Hecatæus's map describes the earth as a circular plate with an encircling

Ocean and Greece in the centre of the world. The map shows the world divided into two continents, Asia and Europe. He depicts the line between the Pillars of Hercules

through the Bosporus, and the Don River as a boundary between the two.

Aristotle

While the idea of a spherical earth was postulated by previous Greek philosophers, including Pythagoras:Aristotle (384–322 BCE)– proves that the earth is spherical with the following evidence.

Lunar eclipse makes a circular shadow on the moonShips “sink” on the horizonSome stars can be seen from some locations of the earth but not from others

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes (275–195 BCE) was able to calculate the circumference of the Earth to 99.5% accuracy by calculating the heights of shadows in Alexandria, and further up the Nile, where a the sun shown straight down a well on the summer solstice. He knew the distance between these to locations and the

height of the column and shadow in Alexandria. From this he calculated the angular difference between the locations and extrapolated the distance to a

total of 360 degrees.

Ptolemy

Ptolemy c. AD 30 revolutionized the depiction of the spherical earth on a map, and suggested precise methods for fixing the position of geographic features on its surface

using a coordinate system with parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude.

Ptolemy's eight-volume atlas Geographia is a prototype of modern mapping and GIS. It included an index of place-names, with the latitude and longitude of each place to guide the search, scale, conventional signs with legends, and the practice of orienting maps so

that north is at the top and east to the right of the map—a universal custom today.

Chinese Mapping

In ancient China, geographical literature spans back to the 5th century BC. The oldest extant Chinese maps come from the State of Qin, dated back to the 4th century BC. An

early Western Han Dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD) silk map found in tomb 3 of Mawangdui, depicting the Kingdom of Changsha and Kingdom of Nanyue in southern China (note:

the south direction is oriented at the top, north at the bottom).

Indian Mapping

In India, early forms of cartography of India included legendary paintings; maps of locations described in Indian epic poetry.

Islamic Mapping

The Arab geographer, Muhammad al-Idrisi, produced his medieval atlas Tabula Rogeriana in 1154. He incorporated the knowledge of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the

Far East, gathered by Arab merchants and explorers with the information inherited from the classical geographers to create the most accurate map of the world up until his

time. It remained the most accurate world map for the next three centuries.Note that the north is at the bottom, and so the map appears "upside down" compared

to modern cartographic conventions.

European Mapping History

Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594) was a Flemish cartographer who in his quest to make the world “look right” on the maps developed new projection (called Mercator

projection) using mathematical formulas. From then on, the image of the world that he produced on his map from 1569 becomes a conventional view of the world that we are

accustomed today. This map was drawn by his son Romold in 1595.

Mapping and Colonization

In the Age of Exploration, from the 15th century to the 17th century, European cartographers both copied earlier maps (some of which had been passed down for centuries) and drew their own based on explorers' observations and new surveying techniques. The invention of the magnetic compass, telescope and sextant enabled

increasing accuracy.This nautical chart by Portuguese cartographer Pedro Reinel (1504c. 1504), one of the

first based on astronomical observations and to depict a scale of latitudes.

Mapping and scientific discovery

Maps have played an important role in scientific discovery.

Lewis and Clark

The famous map of Lewis and Clark's expedition. It changed mapping of northwest America by providing the first accurate depiction of the relationship of the sources of

the Columbia and Missouri rivers, and the Rocky Mountains..

Evolution – Wallace Line, biogeography

Alfred Russell Wallace, a contemporary of Darwin, helped to develop the theory of evolution by creating a map of the world titled the Geographical Distribution of Animals.

The map which started the field of Biogegraphy, shows Wallace's six biogeographical regions which is explained by evolutionary theory.

Epidemiology - John Snow 1854 map of cholera

John Snow began the science of medical epidemiology by using a spot map to illustrate how cases of cholera were centered around the Broad Street pump in the London

epidemic of 1854.

Plate tectonicsAlfred Wegener

Alfred Wegener used mapping to postulate his theory of continental drift in the early 1900’s. Similar plant and animal fossils are found around different continent shores,

suggesting that they were once joined. Wegener’s idea was ridiculed by the majority of the scientific community but he has since been proven correct.

Importance of Mapping in War Making

Cold War 1950’s– satellite spying film retrievalGulf War 1 – GPS extensively used

USGSNational Geodetic Survey

The USGS is America’s civil mapping agency. Created by an act of Congress on March 3, 1879. It was charged with the "classification of the public lands, and examination of the

geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain." This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by

the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) defines and manages a national coordinate system, providing the foundation for transportation and communication; mapping and

charting; and a multitude of scientific and engineering applications.

First Aerial Photography

Aerial photography was first practiced by the French photographer and balloonist Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known as "Nadar", in 1858 over Paris, France..

First Satellite Imagery

First satellite photographs of Earth were made August 14, 1959 by the US satellite Explorer 6. All satellite images produced by NASA are published by Earth Observatory and are freely available to the public. Several other countries have satellite imaging

programs, and a collaborative European effort launched the ERS and Envisat satellites carrying various sensors. There are also private companies that provide commercial

satellite imagery. Google now has their own satellite.

Computer Mapping Begins

The "Canada Geographic Information System" (CGIS) created in 1962 was the first GIS and was used to store, analyze, and manipulate data collected for the Canada Land

Inventory.

GIS comes to Desktop Computing

By the early 1980s, commercial vendors of GIS software emerged, combining the first generation approach to separation of spatial and attribute information with a second

generation approach to organizing attribute data into database structures.

Web Mapping & User Contributions

By the end of the 20th century, mapping made the leap to digital, networked maps. Sites like Mapquest pioneered individualized routing to destinations.Online mapping has

evolved quickly and now allows end users the ability to plot their data on pre-existing base maps, called “mashups.”

Digital Globes & Google Earth

The first version of Google Earth was released building on the virtual globe metaphor. Terrain and buildings can be viewed 3 dimensionally. The KML (XML based) markup

language allows users to integrate their own personal content.

Mobile Mapping & GPS

Networked mobile devices with integrated GPS allow users to search the Internet and receive back results based on their real world location. Many mobile applications allow users to contribute spatial information back to the Web. Social games like foursquare

allow users to share visits to locations with friends.