Dresden School of Cartography

Map section of the region around the Lonquimay volcano (Chile) from Dresden production

The concept of the Dresden School of Cartography summarizes the characteristics that are typical for cartographic research and teaching at the University of Dresden .

Definition

Research and training in the field of cartography was able to develop relatively independently as an independent branch of science in Dresden in the past and still today, whereas elsewhere there is a strong dependency on the neighboring sciences of geodesy , photogrammetry or geography as well as an organizational integration into these. Is an essential factor for the existence of the company founded already in 1959 the Institute of Cartography of the former Institute of Technology and today's Dresden University of Technology . In close cooperation between research and training, peculiarities developed that are typical for the Dresden School of Cartography and have had a lasting influence on cartography internationally. The Dresden University of Technology and Economics , which was only founded in 1992 and which also conducts research and training in the field of cartography, has largely taken up and continued these peculiarities, as a number of the university lecturers who work here have studied at the Technical University of Dresden or in Teaching and research have worked.

Thematic coverage

The Dresden School of Cartography is characterized above all by the complexity and diversity of research and teaching on cartography, based on the constant efforts to cover as many cartography topics as possible. This is expressed not least in the diversity of diploma theses , dissertations and habilitation theses , which cover a very wide range of topics.

Card design

Design skills are essential for cartographers. Therefore, in the training, but also in research in Dresden, great importance is attached to illuminating all aspects of map design in detail from all sides. In the 1960s and 1970s in particular, it was a declared goal to systematically optimize the map design so that the maps were easy to read while maintaining the greatest possible information content. Accordingly, the majority of cards from Dresden graduates are characterized by a balanced color scheme, well thought-out design and dimensioning of the signatures , and a particularly clear typeface. These creative qualities are also incorporated into the various commissioned work of the Institute for Cartography at the Technical University of Dresden. Exemplary for this is the formative collaboration of the institute on the "Atlas of the German Democratic Republic", which was first published in 1976, with predominantly element relations maps and complex maps, as well as on the "National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany", the pilot volume of which was published in 1997 and which was published from 2000 to 2007 by the Leibniz Institute for Regional Studies in Leipzig was published. But the map design has also been fundamentally modernized in the production of modern Alpine Club trekking maps . So far, one map sheet about the highest volcano on earth, the Ojos del Salado in the Andes (2004) and two map sheets about the Tienschan Mountains (2006 and 2011) have been published.

Dresden representation methods

During his work in Dresden, Professor Wolfgang Pillewizer systematized, categorized and described the various possibilities that are available for displaying spatial information . He was inspired by corresponding works by Konstantin Alexejewitsch Salishchev , which at the time were hardly noticed in the western world . In doing so, he created the basis for targeted research, optimization and application of these methods. Today the general display methods of cartography are an integral part of cartographic teaching. With reference to their origin, these methods are often referred to in the literature as Dresden representation methods .

Generalization

A central topic in cartography is generalization . Specific research has been carried out in Dresden on this since the 1950s. The focus is on the development of mathematical laws for the derivation of follow-up scales for larger-scale maps. The root law developed by Friedrich Töpfer in Dresden is still a much cited example of the formal description of a selection condition for cartographic generalization. Some even take the view that all generalization tasks can be solved with this law of roots - a view that is judged differently by experts. Current research deals with method development and process control for automatic generalization, with relation modeling within multi-representation databases and with the development of generalization services.

Remote sensing

From the very beginning, research and teaching in Dresden paid particular attention to the evaluation of aerial photographs to generate maps, whereas at that time it played a subordinate role in cartography elsewhere. Since the 1990s, satellite images have also been analyzed. The digital processing of raster images from remote sensing is still of great importance in the Dresden School of Cartography. A number of other areas of cartography are also influenced by it. For example, aerial and satellite images are used to a large extent in environmental and high mountain cartography.

High mountain cartography

Due to the many international research projects on high mountain cartography in which the Institute for Cartography of the Technical University of Dresden is involved, high mountain cartography has been an integral part of the Dresden School of Cartography since Wolfgang Pillewizer's activities in high mountain and glacier research in the 1960s. The proximity of Dresden to the Elbe Sandstone Mountains is also important, as this offers many of the formations typical of high mountains on a small scale and thus represents a good practice field for cartographers . In addition to work for Alpine Club cartography - such as the trekking maps for the Alpine Club mentioned in the section on map design - and the maps of the Working Group for Comparative High Mountain Research , which have been published for a long time by the Nelles Verlag, Andean maps were also created for the Chilean publisher TrekkingChile. Remote sensing-based, automation-supported 3D mapping of glacier surfaces over long time series is an internationally leading branch of work .

Environmental mapping

Environmental cartography is a sub-area of thematic cartography in which the state of the biosphere and the influences on it are mapped. In the broadest sense, one can already count Professor Wolfgang Pillewizer's thematic admission cards from the 1960s. However, the topic only gained importance in the 1990s, as this basis is essential for the coordination of environmental and landscape protection . Since that time, numerous diploma theses on this topic have been written in Dresden. The focus was on the development of an environmental geographic information system for the area of the Katun National Park in Altai in cooperation between the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Barnaul, as well as the participation of the Technical University of Dresden in the development of the forest geographic information system of the Free State of Saxony . But also many other international Dresden projects deal with environmental cartography, which thus has a permanent place in research and teaching in the Dresden School of Cartography.

Real 3-D

Since the 1990s, research in Dresden has also been concerned with the real three-dimensional , i.e. (auto) stereoscopic representation of terrain forms. All possibilities of three-dimensional representation are investigated in order to find out which is best suited for cartographic representations under which conditions. The first great success in this area was a stereo hologram of the Dachstein Mountains . For the first time in the world, a combination of white light transmission hologram , holographic stereogram and image field hologram was realized in a hybrid analog - digital manufacturing method. In addition, the Dresden research dealt primarily with chromostereoscopy , physical milling models and lenticular lens technology - which has proven to be particularly promising for issuing as three-dimensional hardcopy maps, as well as the use of various autostereoscopic displays for cartographic purposes. At the beginning of 2012, the volume “True-3D in Cartography. Autostereoscopic and Solid Visualization of Geodata ”by Manfred Buchroithner .

Theoretical cartography

Theoretical cartography has also been firmly anchored in research and teaching in Dresden from the start. The structural model of theoretical cartography for teaching and research developed by Rudi Ogrissek in 1980 is the focus of his monograph on theoretical cartography. This was the first publication of its kind in the world. As early as 1972 , he introduced theoretical cartography as an independent subject . Systems and information theory studies were carried out by Friedrich Töpfer and Werner Stams in the 1970s. Wolf Günther Koch carried out other important work on this topic . But the work of Alexander Volodchenko on potato hemiotics is also of international importance.

Web links

literature

Jörg Aschenbrenner, Hermann Suida (Eds.): 1960 - 2000. 40 years of glaciological research. Festschrift for Heinz Slupetzky on his 60th birthday. Salzburg Geographical Works, Volume 36; Institute for Geography and Applied Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg, Salzburg 2000, ISBN 3-85283-019-2 .
Jürgen Bollmann, Wolf Günther Koch (Ed.): Lexicon of cartography and geomatics. Volume 1: A to Karti ; Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg / Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-8274-1055-X .
Jürgen Bollmann, Wolf Günther Koch (Ed.): Lexicon of cartography and geomatics. Volume 2: Karto to Z ; Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg / Berlin 2002, ISBN 2-8274-1056-8 .
Manfred Buchroithner: Remote sensing cartography with satellite images. Part 2: Digital methods, relief mapping, geoscientific application examples. Franz Deuticke, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7005-4613-0 .
Manfred Buchroithner (Ed.): Cartographic building blocks KB 18. High Mountain Cartography. Proceedings of the Second Symposium of the Commission on Mountain Cartography of the International Cartographic Association held at the Alpine Center Rudolfshütte, Austria from March 29 to April 2, 2000. Institute for Cartography, Kartographisch-Technischeeinrichtung, Dresden 2000, ISBN 3-86005-265 -9 .
Manfred Buchroithner (Ed.): True-3D in Cartography. Autostereoscopic and Solid Visualization of Geodata. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer 2011, ISBN 978-3-642-12271-2 .
Hans Günter Gierloff-Emden: Remote sensing cartography with satellite images. Volume 1: General principles and applications. Franz Deuticke, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7005-4603-3 .
Wolf Günther Koch: Contributions to scientific cartography. Contributions to scientific cartography. TUDpress Verlag der Wissenschaften, Dresden 2007, ISBN 978-3-938863-87-9 .
Rudi Ogrissek (Ed.): Brockhaus-ABC Kartenkunde. Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1983.
Rudi Ogrissek: Theoretical Cartography. An introduction. Hermann Haack Geographisch-Kartographische Anstalt, Gotha 1987.
Werner Stams: Cartographic building blocks KB 2. Bibliographical compilations. TU Dresden, Section Geodesy and Cartography, Dresden 1982.
Friedrich Töpfer: Basics and methods of contour generalization. Works from the surveying and mapping of the GDR. Volume 27, Leipzig 1972.
Ingeborg Wilfert (Hrsg.): Cartographic building blocks KB 23. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) for the Internet presentation of maps. Five articles on SVG with 3 executable applications on CD-ROM. Institute for Cartography, Cartographic-Technical Facility, Dresden 2003, ISBN 3-86005-359-0 .

Individual evidence

↑ E. Breetz & E. Gerth: Process for the production of large-area parallax stereograms, in particular for the spatial representation of the ground relief. GDR patent specification 83901 Wpa 75/148 150 (August 12, 1971).
↑ E. Breetz: The systematic introduction of card reading in the lower level - an essential prerequisite for the effective organization of geography lessons. In: Wiss. Zt. D. PH Potsdam 14 (1970) 4, pp. 773-781. (Lenticular process).
↑ Manfred Buchroithner (Ed.): True-3D in Cartography. Autostereoscopic and Solid Visualization of Geodata. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-642-12271-2 . (abstract)

[1] E. Breetz & E. Gerth: Process for the production of large-area parallax stereograms, in particular for the spatial representation of the ground relief. GDR patent specification 83901 Wpa 75/148 150 (August 12, 1971).

[2] E. Breetz: The systematic introduction of card reading in the lower level - an essential prerequisite for the effective organization of geography lessons. In: Wiss. Zt. D. PH Potsdam 14 (1970) 4, pp. 773-781. (Lenticular process).

[3] Manfred Buchroithner (Ed.): True-3D in Cartography. Autostereoscopic and Solid Visualization of Geodata. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-642-12271-2 . (abstract)