FISHING
What’s In a DAVID BROWN
Map? Over the centuries, maps have been used for many different purposes.
During the age of exploration and discovery, maps were used as the basis upon which Nations were conquered and divided. And, because of the stakes that were involved, to divulge what was on them was a treasonable act, punishable by death. The consequences of distributing a map are not quite so high today.
Maps are used by government and industry as decision making tools in support of the demarcation, development and management of land and resources. They are used to improve knowledge about land use and human occupancy, and to articulate information about the health of our air, forests, lakes and rivers. Maps are used as reference points for information about people,
their interaction with the built and natural environment, and to convey information that cannot otherwise be properly communicated through the printed or spoken word. In short, people have been making and using maps to navigate, delineate and graphically represent geographic phenomena for millennia. Some of the earliest existing maps appear as paintings on the walls
of caves in France, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Spain. Some date to almost 25,000 years ago! A Babylonian clay tablet dating from 6,200 B.C. is generally accepted by academics as being the “earliest” known map of the world; that is, until someone finds an earlier rendition. Technically, some of the earliest maps are not maps at all, but consist
of hydrographic and nautical charts where the “land” comes along for the ride. Some of the earliest charts containing information about Canada were produced by Nicolas Bellin, Samuel de Champlain, Guillaume Del’Isle and famed navigator and explorer James Cook while he was surveying the coast of Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Over the years, technology has and continues to change in order to
meet the demands of new generations of map creators and users. Prior to the advent of the printing press and the use of copper plates, maps were hand drawn and constructed with brushes on parchment paper. Today, maps are rendered by computers using geographic information system (GIS) technology which is basically map making software that manipulates geospatial data into a graphical representation known as a map.
Companies such as Apple, ESRI, Garmin and Google are changing
the mapping landscape even further by developing internet mapping applications that run on almost any type of electronic device. Their applications even allow you to download routes, tracks, waypoints and other information so they can be overlain on a graphical map or chart interface. As map users, today’s challenge is in how we store and manage these mapping data for future use! As convenient as these electronic mapping apps and devices seem to be, digital technologies cannot replace the traditional paper map or
14 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
www.bounder.ca
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