Times Comprehensive Atlas Complement

I’ve just come across an item by Hans van der Maarel on his GIS and Mapping blog, titled You paid for it? (posted 28 July 2009).

Interesting conversation in the elevator yesterday… I had picked up the Times Comprehensive atlas at a bookstore and was obviously quite happy with it (it is, after all, a great example of cartography). When I stepped into an elevator somebody noticed the €179 price tag and asked if I had actually paid for it. My response was “of course”.I guess he thought it was too much (then again, what is too much? A tiny satnav device is still more expensive…)

Even though free maps and data are becoming more and more prevalent these days, I have absolutely no problem with paying money for good maps, and I would take those over Google or Bing maps any time.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that a good atlas is something that should be in every home or office.

A Career in Cartography

Map are everywhere these days, they are a vital tool for travel, business and recreation. Their delivery makes use of (and often drives the development of) the very latest hi tech gadgetry and equipment. But how do you become a map maker?

A recent article in the Independent Newspaper Careers Section: How to map out a new role for yourself as a cartographer explains what is involved. The article includes extensive comments by Mick Ashworth, Consultant Editor of The Times Atlas of The World.

"Cartography involves assessing and amalgamating bits of geographic information and presenting them in a map form that's relevant for a particular user"

Read the full Independent online (30 Jul 09) article

New Collins Road Atlases

It's that time of year again when here at Collins we can take a moment to pat ourselves on the back, as the new editions of the Collins Road Atlases have made it out the door on time, and should now be on bookshelves up and down the land. (Although hopefully not for too long!)



One of my roles here at Collins is to produce and update the little microsite we have to show off the new range, see :

http://www.collinsroadatlases.co.uk/



But that comes right at the end of months of preparation, information gathering and editorial work that all goes in to producing the country's favourite road atlas.

The whole process is akin to the trusty Forth Road Bridge analogy - no sooner have the 2010 editions hit the shops, than its time to think about the 2011 editions.

The information gathering process involves contacting hundreds of councils across Great Britain, as well as the Highways Agency, Scottish Office and Welsh Office. This enables us to find out the latest information on proposed new road schemes, as well as those already under construction.

Rather than just write to councils with a generic letter, we try to do as much of the grunt work as possible. To this end we have a database of proposed road schemes, populated with the latest information we have collected from previous years. This enables us to produce tailored questionnaires for each council, specifically targeting the schemes which we believe may affect the next edition of the atlas. The theory - which mostly works in practice! - is that it will make it as straightforward as possible for councils to reply.

We also collect and process numerous press clippings throughout the year, as well as check out any queries or corrections that have been sent in to us by members of the public.

When new roads are completed we have a surveying team who then go out and drive along the new route with some GPS kit on board. This records the alignment of the road, and can be merged with our graphic database at a later date.

Although roads are the main thing we need to make sure we have up-to-date, we also check and revise hundreds of places of interest, tourist information centres, ferry routes, airports, motorway services etc. We do this by a combination of internet research and contacting organisations / companies directly.

Once the information has been collated, it is passed to the editorial team, who make the relevant changes to the graphic database, which, along with some DTP, is used to create the finished mapping and atlases. Which for purposes of brevity sounds straightforward, but the amount of work that the editors put in is not to be underestimated!

From there, they get dispatched to the printers, before the finished product appears in the shops.

And so that's where we came in - the new editions raring to fly off the shelves once more, and ready to have their own little website to promote them.

Did I mention the URL? Its www.collinsroadatlases.co.uk

Map of the Month Aug 09 - Time Travel to Major Cities

As Database Coordinator at Collins Geo, I am usually exporting data for the production of published mapping products which are a concise representation of existing geographic features. This map from the World Bank’s World Development Report 2009 caught my eye because it has taken a variety of different data sources and fed them through some clever data analysis software to create a map which shows a different way of looking at our world.


Source: Global Environmental Monitoring Unit, European Commission

The map is essentially one of accessibility as it shows the journey time from the cities of the world, whose population is greater than 50,000 inhabitants, to any other place on Earth. The lightest areas on the map show places that are accessible within one hours travel time of these urban areas, whilst the darkest areas take more than 10 days travel to reach.

In order to create the map, ten different data sources were used in order to calculate a ‘friction’ surface of the world, i.e. a surface that was either easy or difficult to travel across based on factors such as terrain elevation and slope, the need to cross international borders, and the existence of communication routes which in this case included roads, railways, and navigable water routes. Air travel was deliberately excluded from the analysis. Areas of low ‘friction’ included motorway routes which can be quickly travelled along, whilst areas of high ‘friction’ were those of steep terrain where no communication routes exist and only walking from A to B is possible. Throwing all this information together produced the final map.

So what is its purpose? The report explains that “as economies grow from low to high income, production becomes more concentrated spatially. Some places—cities, coastal areas, and connected countries—are favored by producers. ... The way to get both the immediate benefits of concentration of production and the long-term benefits of a convergence in living standards is economic integration.” (WDR 2009, Overview). Using the map in conjunction with other data models such as land cover or population density can help analyse patterns in urbanisation and economic geography such as defining regions where particular economic activities are likely to take place or confirming the links between transport costs and land value.

Overall, the map is a great example of using a variety of data sources to visualise and understand current patterns or trends in our world so that we can better prepare for the future.

Further information about the map can be found from the European Commission’s website at http://bioval.jrc.ec.europa.eu/products/gam/index.htm.

Kenneth Gibson, Database Coordinator, Collins Geo

The World's Heritage: A Complete Guide to the Most Extraordinary Places

We are pleased to announce the publication of The World's Heritage - the unique, first ever guide to every UNESCO World Heritage site. This joint publication with UNESCO World Heritage Centre is a highly illustrated companion guide to exploring the world’s most spectacular and extraordinary sites.

This complete guide to the most extraordinary places includes

• Over 650 stunning photographs
• Descriptions of 878 UNESCO World Heritage sites
• Location map for every site
  

"As any self respecting monument knows, you haven't made it until you've garnered UNESCO status. From the Acropolis to the lesser known El Jem Coliseum, this gives you a tanalising taste of all 878 World Heritage sites." Wanderlust

Collins THREE WALL MAPS

This week we are publishing a great new collection featuring three colourful wall maps. The set contains a world political, world environmental and United Kingdom map.

World Political Map: Ideal reference map covering the whole world, showing individual countries. Includes national flags and key statistics for every country.

World Environment Map: Satellite image of the world with physical names. Also includes fascinating images of environmental change affecting the planet.

United Kingdom Map: Detailed politically coloured road map of all of the United Kingdom. Statistics and flags shown for each of the home countries

Three posters in one box gives a great value package providing an excellent overview of countries of the world and the UK. Each map is printed on high quality paper and laminated, perfect for any school, home or office wall.


High Street retailers WHSmiths are currently doing an offer on the product.



The set is also available online from Amazon