Cartography is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.
A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database, however, this is not essential to meet the definition of a GIS. In a broader sense, one may consider such a system also to include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, the body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations.
A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes.
In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines, but historically using a variety of methods. Traditional definitions require a topographic map to show both natural and artificial features. A topographic survey is typically based upon a systematic observation and published as a map series, made up of two or more map sheets that combine to form the whole map. A topographic map series uses a common specification that includes the range of cartographic symbols employed, as well as a standard geodetic framework that defines the map projection, coordinate system, ellipsoid and geodetic datum. Official topographic maps also adopt a national grid referencing system.
A digital elevation model (DEM) or digital surface model (DSM) is a 3D computer graphics representation of elevation data to represent terrain or overlaying objects, commonly of a planet, moon, or asteroid. A "global DEM" refers to a discrete global grid. DEMs are used often in geographic information systems (GIS), and are the most common basis for digitally produced relief maps. A digital terrain model (DTM) represents specifically the ground surface while DEM and DSM may represent tree top canopy or building roofs.
Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery and other phenomena.
In the visual arts, a cityscape is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. It is the urban equivalent of a landscape. Townscape is roughly synonymous with cityscape, though it implies the same difference in urban size and density implicit in the difference between the words city and town. In urban design the terms refer to the configuration of built forms and interstitial space.
John Bachmann, Sr. was a Swiss-born lithographer and artist best known for his bird's-eye views, especially of New York City. He was a journeyman lithographic artist in Switzerland and Paris until 1847. His first known American print appeared in 1848, a view from an imagined point above Union Square in New York, looking south toward The Battery. In 1849 and 1850, he created and published a series of American views, including views of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Havana. Both directly copied and used as a primary source by other lithographers at home and in Europe, these were the first major bird's eye views, as opposed to panoramic views in the United States .
A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object or location from a very steep viewing angle, creating a perspective as if the observer were a bird in flight looking downwards. Bird's-eye views can be an aerial photograph, but also a drawing, and are often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans and maps.
Bing Maps is a web mapping service provided as a part of Microsoft's Bing suite of search engines and powered by the Bing Maps Platform framework which also support Bing Maps for Enterprise APIs and Azure Maps APIs. Since 2020, the map data is provided by TomTom, OpenStreetMap and others.
The earliest known term used for maps in Japan is believed to be kata, which was probably in use until roughly the 8th century. During the Nara period, the term zu (図) came into use, but the term most widely used and associated with maps in pre-modern Japan is ezu. As the term implies, ezu were not necessarily geographically accurate depictions of physical landscape, as is generally associated with maps in modern times, but pictorial images, often including spiritual landscape in addition to physical geography. Ezu often focused on the conveyance of relative information as opposed to adherence to visible contour. For example, an ezu of a temple may include surrounding scenery and clouds to give an impression of nature, human figures to give a sense of how the depicted space is used, and a scale in which more important buildings may appear bigger than less important ones, regardless of actual physical size.
Aerial landscape art includes paintings and other visual arts which depict or evoke the appearance of a landscape from a perspective above it—usually from a considerable distance—as it might be viewed from an aircraft or spacecraft. Sometimes the art is based not on direct observation but on aerial photography, or on maps created using satellite imagery. This kind of landscape art hardly existed before the 20th century; its modern development coincided with the advent of human transport which allowed for actual overhead views of large landscapes.
The history of cartography refers to the development and consequences of cartography, or mapmaking technology, throughout human history. Maps have been one of the most important human inventions for millennia, allowing humans to explain and navigate their way through the world.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to cartography:
Terrain cartography or relief mapping is the depiction of the shape of the surface of the Earth on a map, using one or more of several techniques that have been developed. Terrain or relief is an essential aspect of physical geography, and as such its portrayal presents a central problem in cartographic design, and more recently geographic information systems and geovisualization.
The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library is a special collections center in Boston, Massachusetts with research, educational, and exhibition programs relating to historical geography. It is the steward of the Boston Public Library’s map collection, consisting of approximately a quarter million geographic objects, including maps, atlases, globes, ephemera, and geographic data. It is located in the McKim Building of the Central Library in Copley Square.
Computer cartography is the art, science, and technology of making and using maps with a computer. This technology represents a paradigm shift in how maps are produced, but is still fundamentally a subset of traditional cartography. The primary function of this technology is to produce maps, including creation of accurate representations of a particular area such as, detailing major road arteries and other points of interest for navigation, and in the creation of thematic maps. Computer cartography is one of the main functions of geographic information systems (GIS), however, GIS is not necessary to facilitate computer cartography and has functions beyond just making maps. The first peer-reviewed publications on using computers to help in the cartographic process predate the introduction of full GIS by several years.
Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler, often credited as T.M. Fowler, (1842–1922) was an American cartographer. He is best known for his work on panoramic maps. A large portion of his work focused around Pennsylvania. He is considered the most prolific maker of Pennsylvania panoramas of the mid 19th-century.
Lucien Rinaldo Burleigh Jr. (1853–1923), whose work was often signed L. R. Burleigh, was an artist and lithographer in Troy, New York who drew and published panoramic maps. His business has been identified as Burleigh Lithograph Company or Burleigh Lithograph Establishment. He produced views of approximately 280 locations of which 120 have been established as his while the others include work by other artists.
Camille N. Drie, also known as Camille N. Dry, was a draughtsman active from ca. 1871 to 1904 in the United States. Drie created pictorial maps of various cities including a 110-sheet view of St. Louis, Missouri (1875). The Library of Congress has a collection of his work.
