Swiss world atlas

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The Swiss World Atlas ( French Atlas mondial suisse , Italian Atlante mondiale svizzero ) is a widespread school atlas for secondary level I and secondary level II in Switzerland . It appears in German , French and Italian .

As a didactic aid for teachers, there was also a commentary volume in German for the 2010 edition.

history

Simple school atlases were already known in the 18th century. From 1843 onwards, Heinrich Keller and Jakob Melchior Ziegler created the first atlases in Switzerland that were accepted for general school use. Further editors of school atlases were Heinrich Wettstein from Zurich (first school atlas for secondary schools in the canton of Zurich from 1872) and Wilhelm Götzinger (from 1902).

First edition 1910

The history of the Swiss World Atlas goes back to a decision by the Conference of Cantonal Education Directors in 1898 to publish a school atlas for Switzerland. The first edition appeared under the name Schweizerischer Mittelschulatlas in 1910 (French edition 1912, Italian edition 1915) and was produced under the direction of the Zurich high school teacher August Aeppli.

Edition 1928

With the 1928 edition, Eduard Imhof , head of the Institute for Cartography at the ETH Zurich , took over the processing of the Swiss Middle School Atlas.

Edition 1962

The atlas underwent a significant revision and changed map appearance with the 1962 edition, when the form of relief display developed by Eduard Imhof was used in the atlas for small-scale maps. With the seventeenth edition in 1976, the atlas received a place name register, which was created by Eduard Imhof's wife Viola Imhof.

Edition 1981

In 1981 the first edition with the name Swiss World Atlas finally appeared . This edition replaces the two school atlases previously used in Switzerland, the Swiss Middle School Atlas and the Swiss Secondary School Atlas. In terms of structure and maps, the new editor-in-chief Ernst Spiess, professor at the Institute for Cartography and successor to Eduard Imhof, is heavily oriented towards the Swiss Middle School Atlas. A large part, especially the physical maps, are adopted practically unchanged and supplemented with numerous thematic maps. Since this edition, the atlas has been accompanied by an advisory commission in geographical and didactic-methodological terms.

Edition 1993

Under the direction of Ernst Spiess, another revised edition was published twelve years after the last revision in 1993, which also differs from the previous edition in terms of its book format. The book cover is presented in wine-red color. Several corrected editions were published up to the following edition in 2002, the last of which in 1997.

Edition 2002

At the end of the nineties, the company switched to digital production techniques. The maps that were previously available in analog format were digitized and the atlas has been produced using desktop publishing ever since . Several corrected editions were published up to the next edition in 2010, the last of which was in 2008.

2010 edition

In 2009, Ernst Spiess was succeeded by Lorenz Hurni, Professor of Cartography at the Institute for Cartography and Geoinformation at ETH Zurich, Editor-in-Chief of the Atlas. Under his leadership, the development of the interactive atlas section began , which was published on October 26, 2010 together with the 2010 book edition.

Edition 2017

On June 16, 2017, a completely revised new edition was published in German, French and Italian. It is characterized by new maps on current topics such as the environment, energy, natural hazards, conflicts or the economy. Also worth mentioning is the map of the Mount Everest area, which shows a completely automatically generated rock representation in the style of Swiss national maps. A corrected edition was published in summer 2019.

Content and structure

Since the new edition in 2017, the atlas has started with a 14-page introductory section that provides information on the topic of cartography. A double page is dedicated specifically to the competence-oriented subject teaching according to curriculum 21 .

The Swiss World Atlas contains numerous physical and thematic maps with a geographical focus on Switzerland and Europe. The atlas follows the principle from big to small: in the part about Switzerland, first the maps are shown, which show the whole of Switzerland, before detailed maps of individual regions and cities are shown. The atlas also follows an exemplary approach in which "using large-scale detailed maps of regions or cities [...] specific geographical situations, phenomena or processes" are shown.

The first part of the map contains maps of Switzerland with a focus on geology, climate and weather, cultural landscape change and traffic. This part is followed by maps of Europe and the various European countries that deal with topics such as climate and economy. Individual topics such as land reclamation in the Netherlands are selected as examples and dealt with using several maps. Similar topics are taken up and illustrated in the following maps of Africa, Asia, and Australia. Finally, the atlas contains small-scale world maps and representations of the solar system.

For thematic and geographical searches, the atlas contains an index of subject and place names as well as a geographical overview of all maps in the header .

Since the 2017 edition, the general legend can be folded out and a tab helps with navigation.

Interactive atlas part

Under the name “Swiss Interactive World Atlas”, an interactive atlas section was offered from 2010 to 2018 that contained maps in 2D views , as virtual globes or as block images. The map content was largely based on the topographical and thematic maps of the printed edition 2010 and was editorially expanded with additional information. Almost a third of the printed maps were also made available digitally. The maps were divided into individually selectable levels and could be saved, exported and printed out. It was possible to open several maps at the same time and display them spatially synchronized, i. H. the centers of the maps always showed the same place. In addition to maps, there were additional modules, such as an animation of the earth's movement around the sun.

The interactive atlas part was offered free of charge on the web in the form of a Java application . Due to the technology chosen, it was not possible to run the software on mobile devices. On July 19, 2018, the Swiss World Atlas was placed interactively.

Offer on the web

At the same time as the publication of the 2017 print edition, the website of the Swiss World Atlas was published in a completely revised version. The web platform called “Onlinewelt” by the editors now takes on the function of commentary and interactive atlas section. The close reference to the print edition is reflected in the card-based access to the numerous additional materials such as mute cards, card comments, didactic explanations or interactive, web-based tools.

literature

  • Ernst Spiess, Lorenz Hurni (Institute for Cartography, ETH Zurich) .: Swiss World Atlas 2010 edition. [Sl]: Swiss Conference of Cantonal Education Directors , 2010
  • Rudolf L. Marr: Swiss World Atlas. Commentary tape. Edition 1981. [Sl]: Swiss Conference of Cantonal Education Directors, 1985
  • Samuel Wyder: Swiss school atlases from 1843. In: Cartographica Helvetica Heft 20 (1999) pp. 25–33 full text

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ E-rara: school atlas by H. Wettstein in thirty-two sheets: compulsory teaching material for secondary schools in the canton of Zurich
  2. ↑ Swiss World Atlas: Swiss World Atlas - Chronicle . 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  3. ^ Eduard Imhof: Schweizerischer Mittelschulatlas , ed. Conference of Cantonal Education Directors (EDK), Seventeenth edition 1976, foreword
  4. ^ Ernst Spiess: Swiss World Atlas , ed. Conference of Cantonal Education Directors (EDK), 1981 edition, foreword
  5. ↑ Swiss World Atlas: Fact sheet for the 2019 edition (PDF) 2019. Accessed on June 29, 2019.
  6. ↑ Ernst Spiess: Swiss World Atlas - final report on my work as editor-in-chief 1978–2008 (PDF) 2009. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 28, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schweizerweltatlas.ch
  7. ↑ Education Directorate of the Canton of Zurich / ETH Zurich: Media release: The new “Swiss World Atlas”: Innovative cartography for geography lessons . June 16, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  8. ↑ Lehrmittelverlag Zurich: Swiss World Atlas . June 19, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  9. ↑ Edition 2017 - SWISS WORLD ATLAS. Retrieved October 17, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Media release 100 years of the “Swiss World Atlas” and “Swiss World Atlas interactive” . Ed. Conference of Cantonal Education Directors (EDK), October 26, 2010
  11. ↑ Swiss World Atlas: New materials and deactivation of the Swiss World Atlas interactive . 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  12. ↑ Lehrmittelverlag Zürich: Immerse yourself in the world online (PDF) 2018. Accessed on November 29, 2018.