The cartographic heritage of Modern Greece is strongly related to Vienna. Starting from the late 18th century when the milestones of Greek scholar cartography (i.e. the Rigas Velestinlis “Charta” and the Anthimos Gazis “Pinax” as well as his rare world map) are published in the Austrian capital, the traces of Austrian cartography in relation to early 19th century Modern Greece are found in the -unknown till recently to Greek cartographers and map historians- maps of Franz von Weiss (1821, 1829), and in the emblematic map (1838) of the German Ferdinard Aldenhoven, who based his project on Lapie’s, Leake’s and Austrian military (evidently the Weiss maps) cartographies.

In the late 19th century, the Austrian cartography is again present in Greece with the implementation of von Scheda’s maps in the 1880s, the printing of maps of the Greek state in Vienna and the culmination of the Austrian cartographic impact represented by the Heinrich Hartl’s mission (1889-1896) in organizing the first state cartographic service of Greece, according to the Austrian mapping traditions and standards. Since then and until the early 20th century all maps of Greece were printed in Vienna and the best Greek military cartographers were trained in the legendary “K.u.K. M.G.I in Wien”.

The impact of Austrian cartography in the actual northern territories of Greece is also strong, thanks to the coverage of these lands by the relevant map-sheets of the “Franz-Josephinische Landesaufnahme” which were used as the basis for the later Greek cartography (following the same map-sheet tiling) until the mid 20th century. Analogous Austrian impacts can be also traced in the cartographic heritage conserved in some prestigious cultural institutions of Greece (e.g. the Municipal Library of Kozani) where treasures from geography and cartography literacy came from Vienna, since the 18th century, thanks to a strong Greek Community living in the Austrian capital at that time.

The example of the intersection of Austrian and Greek cartographic history is a very representative paradigm of the strong international character implicit in the notion of Cartographic Heritage.

MapAnalyst is a specialized software application for the analysis of the geometric properties of old maps. It offers a user-friendly interface for the identification of reference points on an old and a new map. Various types of visualizations can be computed based on the reference points, for example distortion grids or displacement vectors. This paper will give a short overview of the main functionalities of MapAnalyst, and then focus on new features. One important new feature is the integration of OpenStreetMap, which greatly facilitates the analysis of old maps, because scanning and georeferencing existing reference maps is no longer necessary. The paper will also present a few selected highlights of the more than 20 publications of various map historians using MapAnalyst for their research. It is hoped that this paper will promote the use and critical assessment of MapAnalyst among map historians and provide new ideas for the further development of the application.

Libraries and cultural heritage institutions are increasingly making efforts to digitise their holdings for the purposes of archiving and online publication. Historical maps are a particularly interesting category of cultural heritage material: They are not only an illustration of accumulated geographical knowledge of the time; they also draw a fascinating picture of the cultural, political, scientific, religious and mythological context in which they were created. To the trained scholar, characteristics such as the style of cartographic representation, text inscriptions and legends, symbols and ornamental features, or specific geographical errors and misconceptions reveal a wealth of historical background information. To the student or the layperson, however, this information is not easily accessible.

In this paper we propose a Web-based system that will make it possible for scholars to collaboratively work together in the interpretation of these features. To the general user, this information will become easily accessible when interpretations are made public. Thus the system represents a collaborative academic tool, as well as a show case of academic work. Community involvement, joint aggregation and filtering of user contributed as well as externally linked data, and a user interface that invites exploration constitute the cornerstones of our envisioned system: It enables users to add annotations to the map as a whole or parts of it; it provides basic GIS features such as (approximate) collaborative geo-referencing, feature search, import/overlay and export of point and line data; and it visualises aggregated context information in the form of tag clouds which emerge around the user’s mouse pointer. We describe the architecture of the proposed system, present early user interface prototypes and proof-of-concept implementations, and discuss areas of future work.

This project focuses on the development of a new and interactive way to illustrate historical data in an interactive manner. The main challenge is the design and development of a suitable navigation interface to allow for the definition of temporal-geospacial information as well as the visualisation and interaction with such data. Use cases can be found in various fields of application – from history lessons in secondary school (e.g. expansion of the Habsburg empire) to multimedia extensions of exhibitions and museums (e.g. urban development of Vienna from the Middle Ages to the 21st century). Using a suitable approach, such a system could also be used to enrich plain geographical data with all kinds of metadata and data from other sources.

The goal of this project is to develop a web-based platform based on user generated content platforms like Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap, where users can not only retrieve information but also provide input.

The historical cadastral maps of Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár, Klausenburg) are important maps of the cartographic heritage of the city. Very detailed cadastral maps were published seventy years ago (in 1940), by the Hungarian ordnance survey. These old map sheets were transformed in digital form. This paper present the map sheets at scale 1:1000 with the coordinate system definitions, which has Austro-Hungarian roots. The author made the georeferencing of the 82 sheets. Therefore the sheets can be fitted to the modern maps and spatial databases with an error no more than 3 meters, which can be corrected by a simple manual horizontal shift. The author applied this digital technique for analysis and interpretation of some changes in the built environment.

At the Moscow State University for Geodesy and Cartography  (MIIGAiK) the Laboratory of Planetary Cartography is recreated on the modern base ground.  Now its Internet site is developed. "The Atlas of Terrestrial Group Planets and Their Moons" is choosen as a basis for the most volume section of this new site. The printing version of "Atlas" has been published in 1992 and for the last years is essentially added by the new information. The saved up data on materials of planetary  surveying is collected and analyzed in it. It is necessary to underline that for the first time the Atlas information has comperativ-planetologic character, reflecting also peculiar features of celestial bodies. The maps characterising planets of terrestrial group and their moons both from the point of view of a structure of surface relief, and to various thematic properties are shown. The arrangement of materials in a cartographic part of "Atlas" is defined by distance of planets from the Sun, that is the following order of map representation is accepted: Mercury, Venus, the Earth, the Moon, Mars,  Fobos and Deimos. Creation of Internet version for  «the Atlas  of Terrestrial Group Planets and Their Moons» was developed on the basis of a control system of maintenance MODx. It is necessary to translate all images and maps in the digital form. Now search of the most suitable appendices and methods for transformation of images in an electronic kind is carried out. It is necessary to scan not simply a problem available materials, but also to spend their restoration and updating taking into account last data received as a result of space researches. The atlas consists of twelve sections. It includes along with the basic, cartographic part containing maps, schemes, diagrams, tables also the text part giving the short characteristic of each section, and the appendix with help tables.

The Virtual Globes Museum (VGM) is a homepage created by Prof. Márton at the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics at Eötvös Loránd University. Its primary aim is to collect, process and present in 3D those earth and celestial globes on the Internet that were published either in Hungarian or prepared by a Hungarian. Famous globes made elsewhere are also presented in the VGM. The VGM offers multidisciplinary analyses and supports research in the following topics:

• Visualizing the geographical image of the Earth in the past
• Tracing the discovery of the world by the Europeans since the maps of the Earth made right before Columbus
• Study of geographical names, the development of and changes in the terminology of geography since the first Hungarian globes
• Tracing the changes in the cartographic representation of the geographical space by studying the content of terrestrial, political and thematic globes.

By studying the globes made in various language areas and comparing them may lead to interesting conclusions. For instance, the major geographical names of other countries are often translations: which names became internationally accepted or which was the intermediary language?

As a cooperation of Virtual Globes Museum at Eötvös University, Budapest; the Commission on Planetary Cartography of the International Cartographic Association; and MIIGAiK University, Moscow, an "International Planetary Cartography Database" has been set up on the internet. The database serves as a catalogue of old, historic planetary maps and globes that have been published outside the USA or by international organizations such as the UN. A special feature of the database is the reconstruction of historic Mars and Moon Globes in the virtual reality. These maps are available as Google Maps add-ons and fixed location-based information boxes can be added to provide further information. The maps and globes can be compared which gives a unique view how cartogarphic style, nomenclature and available information have been evolved during the last centuries and decades.

The paper builds on a current research partnership between academics and the National Library of Scotland's map collection. The central aim is to bring together socio-economic historical data provided by Professor Richard Rodger with historical maps and expertise on their geo-referencing and web-mapping technologies provided by the NLS. (For further details see http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/ ) This partnership is creating a dynamic website of open source and free-to-use applications, allowing new insights into the spatial character and historical development of the Scottish capital. Edinburgh will only be the exemplar for integrating historical mapping with historical data; the objective is to enable students, academics and the public to reveal the spatial characteristics of other cities. This is a fundamentally different approach since 'Visualising Urban Geographies' brings hundreds of the NLS' historical maps within reach of users through a straightforward suite of tools that can be customised to suit their own data. Thus, for example, a local history society's membership addresses for, say 1900 can be plotted on an NLS map of the period in a one-stop process that does not require expertise in GIS.

The digital Map Library of Catalonia launched it’s website on October 31st, 2007. More than two years afters that day, the impact both on users and on the map library desk is very important. Searching for maps, relationship with users and reproduction ordering have been deeply transformed by moving to the digital environment. In this paper we will explain which transformations took place in the Map Library of Catalonia with figures and statistics about uses and users. We will also present the impact of visualization in local, national and international scale.

The greater part of the maps in the Historical Atlas of Vienna are notreproductions of historical maps. They are composed of data from differenthistorical sources and serve as spatially distributed information for theso called Commentaries to the Atlas, for the definition of protection zonesetc.

The production process of the above mentioned maps will be described.

Mare Oraque Tusciae is a new prototype database carried out by the University of Siena, Department of History and the University of Firenze, Department of History and Geography. It looks at historical cartography (XVI to XIX century) as a primary source for defining the coastal dynamics in modern period. It can serve as an instrument for defining areas subjected to deep coastal risk, for archeological research and for territorial planning.
Actually it takes into consideration four hundreds printed and manuscript iconographies (nautical charts, isolari, chorographies, topographical maps, architectonical drawings, views, etc.) together with descriptive memories (portolans and travel accounts) related to the Tuscan coast and archipelago. The data shall be on line in autumn 2010.

Mare Oraque Tusciae gives a geographical approach. Maps are distributed in layers which cover different coastal sectors and islands. It georeferences approximately 190 fortifications (i.e. towers, castles, fortified cities and towns): any tower’s position is considered as an important element in defining the coastal profile in the different centuries.

At the Wien session we will present an example focused on the area of the cuspate delta of Ombrone (Grosseto), being the second longest Tuscan river for lenght.

The research here presented was developed within the project "Atl@s of historical cadastral and topographic maps of Lombardy (2009–2011)" funded by 'Fondazione Cariplo', involving 'Politecnico di Milano – BEST Dept.' (project leader), 'Archivio di Stato di Milano', 'Agenzia del Territorio', 'Centro Studi PIM', 'Regione Lombardia', 'Comune di Gorgonzola' (partners). The first release of the geo-portal (www.atlantestoricolombardia.it), has been presented to the public on 19th January 2010 after a year work. Conceived in the form of a modern Atl@s, it has been designed with a double level access to the historical cadastral series available by ASMi ('Catasto Teresiano', 'Lombardo Veneto', 'Cessato Catasto'), together with samples of ‘Impianto in conservazione’ by AdT (Italian Cadastral Administration): besides a catalogue approach level based on classical research keys (the application, Divenire©, has been inherited by ASMi from the Archive of Venice), an open geographic level has been implemented by the research group of Politecnico, with ongoing functionalities, based on a territorial regional basis, obtained experimenting and georeferencing little scale topographic maps, principally here focused on the historical chorographic maps. The methodologies, the reliability and feasibility of the georeferenced output, and the overall potentiality to use them as a gate to access to the local scale represented by the spread diffusion of the cadastral series, are the topics discussed.

Due to the high number of historical cadastral sheets, the generation of a systematic GeoDB on the local cadastral series - with a rigorous georeferencing method, already documented within the research – shall be faced by government policies and by algorithm automation, to become sustainable in the next years, in terms of time and costs. Thus, in the mean time, few functionalities are  being tested to allow an agile user access, based on a geographic approach to the non georeferenced sheets, straightening the immediate content of the geographic language to a large public demand, respect to the simple key queries, through Web Mapping Services (WMS) developed on the little scale map: ASMi is going to share -  over this project through the portal - more than 28.000 sheet units, that can find a challenge in the geographic fruition. Flying the territory of the past with the little scale synthesis, its political assets and physical elements, such as the hydrographical network, can offer interesting  thematic cultural opportunities to the knowledge dissemination of 'our territory' and its preservation.

OldMapsOnline.org is a research project which aims to develop software to assist in the management, manipulation and visualisation of historical map collections on the web. We are designing online tools for collaborative georeferencing, annotation, 3D visualisation, accuracy analysis and geometadata specification. During the last year we have developed an improved version of the IIPImage software, which libraries and archives can use to publish their digitised documents on the Internet in a user-friendly way with a variety of popular pan&zoom viewers. Now, when the ISO standardized JPEG2000 format is supported, it is possible to save significant amount of disk space and even utilize the same version of the image for both digital archiving and for the fast online visualization on the web.
The popular Zoomify and Seadragon (Deep Zoom) viewers are now supported too. Your maps can be displayed even on an iPhone! The IIPimage software is available for free, under an open-source license (GNU GPL). We are also going to present the beta version of the Georeferencer.org: our online service, which allows georeferencing of the scanned maps directly from the web browser! This tool is developed for libraries and map enthusiasts to precisely locate maps already published on the Internet. Georeferencer is a collaborative online service. There is no need to upload the image data to our servers. The remote online images of maps can be visualized in a 3D environment with Google Earth. It is also possible to rectify the images with an affine, polynomial or TPS transformation and export the maps via OpenGIS Web Map Service (OGC WMS), to overlay and combine them with other maps. Georeferencer.org is still under development. We intend to add more functions in the near future. Project OldMapsOnline.org is an R&D project of Moravian Library Brno, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. The technical manager of the project, Petr Pridal (Klokan), is an independent consultant and programmer, cooperating with clients such as David Rumsey (http://www.davidrumsey.com/) or National Library of Scotland (http://www.nls.uk/maps/).

Franz von Weiss (1791-1858), an Austrian military cartographer, prepared in 1821 and 1829 two multi-sheet maps representing SE Europe (in particular the Balkan Peninsula), the "Geographische Karte des Osmanischen Reiches" in 17 sheets and the "Carte der Europaeischen Turkey nebst einem Theile von Kleinasien" in 21 sheets respectively in almost the same scale, (appr. 1:575.000). The two dates of these maps creation correspond to two fundamentally crucial years in the process of the birth of Modern Greek state because 1821 is the year of the start of the struggle for Independence of Greece and 1829 is the beginning of the life of the New Greek state. These two maps by Weiss are not widely known, but represent a strong point in the Greek cartographic heritage associated as well to the Austrian political and geo-strategic interests in SE Europe at that time. The similarity of Weiss’ cartography with that of Lapie’s representations of the same area at the same period (1822, 1826) developed a research interest in analyzing these maps using digital processing techniques. In the paper the historic evidence of Franz von Weiss' maps in relation to early 19th cent. History of Greece is documented as well as the similarities of the Austrian maps with Lapie’s coetaneous cartographic representations.

The first scientific mapping of the northern part of the actual Greek territory is an outcome of a broader cartographic campaign, namely the “Third Austro-Hungarian Mapping”. The relevant survey took place in the second half of the 19th century and resulted in the military map series of the so-called “Generalkarte”, in 1:200 000 scale.

The map sheets of the Generalkarte are of particular importance to the modern Greek cartographic heritage, since they constituted the initial cartographic tools in the newly liberated northern parts of the Greek state (1912-1913) and they were reproduced until the mid 20th century in various Greek map editions. Additional reproductions of the Generalkarte were made by other Balkan countries (e.g. Bulgaria) until the same period.

Digital cartographic tools were of great assistance in the comparison processes carried out in order to investigate the similarities between map sheets of the Generalkarte and their Greek and Bulgarian counterparts. This digital comparison process confirms the historical evidence of copying the Austrian map sheets in later cartographic products of Balkan countries. In the Greek map sheets of the early 20th century, however, an interesting differentiation appears, especially in the newly liberated territories. Remarkable differences are spotted between the Generalkarte sheets and the respective Greek counterparts, especially in the form of the terrain, but also in additional map features. This fact seems to be related to another mapping project of the time, namely the official Greek map series in scale 1:300.000, produced in the early 1880s and influenced by another Austrian mapping tradition, the von Scheda “Handkarte” and its updated derivatives as well as some local surveys. Features of the Greek map series were incorporated in the Generalkarte sheets, resulting in an interesting blend. The digital comparison process carried out attempts to trace the steps of this cartographic merging.

Generalkarte representations of northern part of actual Greek territories in the early 20th century (1900-1904) are put in comparison with slightly later mappings (1917) carried out by the Greek army cartographers trained traditionally in Vienna since the late 19th century. A key study concerning the evolution of a local geographic milieu, networks, toponymy and relief representation around the city of Kozani (with strong historic cultural connections with Vienna since 18th century) is carried out using digital map analysis, in order to show the importance of map comparison in studying not only the geographic alterations which occurred in the first decades of 20th century but also the change in the cartographic representation techniques.

In the years from 1873 to 1876, during the Franz-Josephinische Landesaufnahme, J. Ritter von Scheda (1815-1888), prepares initially the 72 sheets and later on the 207 sheets in total of the so called “Handkarte or Scheda-karte” of Central Europe and the Balkans in scale 1:300.000. The tiling of this map series was the basis of the official state map of Greece, after the annexation of Thessaly (1881), printed in Vienna (1883-1885) in eleven sheets by the “K.u.K. Militaer. Geographischen Institute”, under the title “General Karte des koenigreiches Griechenland”. This map revised by Kokkides and Kiepert played an interesting role in the Greek cartographic heritage in relation with the similar map versions developed by the neighbouring countries at that time. In the paper this map is presented in relation to its updating from independent cartographic surveys. Digital comparisons offer better insight in the geometry and the map content in relation to relevant maps of the neighbouring countries in the late 19th century.

Rigas Velestinlis (1757-1798) is a major representative of the Greek Enlightenment in the late 18th century. Among Rigas’ works, writings and translations, his cartographic production even limited in number of maps, is of particular importance. Especially his masterpiece, the Charta, a 12-sheet 2X2 metres map in ca. 1:600.000 scale, printed in Vienna (1796–1797), representing Southeast Europe (the Balkan peninsula), is now considered an officially declared monument of Greek cultural heritage. Three years later (1800), also in Vienna another great personality of the Greek Enlightenment, Anthimos Gazis (the scholar parish priest of Vienna’s Greek-Orthodox Church of St George, (1758-1828) published his own map of Greece, the Pinax, a 4-sheet, 1X1 metre map, in ca. 1:1.200.000 scale, representing the same geographic area as in Charta. Even though in the relevant bibliography, Pinax is considered a “new edition” of Rigas’ Charta, it is actually an entirely different map.

Despite its historical cartographic importance, Charta, as well as the Pinax, are only known (principally from a scholar or literary point of view) among few experts mainly in Greece, practically unknown abroad, even if both maps are extremely rare and highly priced in the international map Collectionism. In this paper, starting from the analysis of the “external cartographic recognition” for both maps and using digital processes the two maps, both born in Vienna, are put in comparative evidence giving new insights as important elements of Greek cartographic heritage.

Production of topographic maps at various scales in the area of today's Croatia has a long tradition. The first modern topographic maps have been produced during the seventies and eighties in the 18th century during the year of Josephine survey and since than the topographic map production has been ongoing until today. This production can be divided into four periods. The first period is the period between the 1764–1918 when the Republic of Croatia belonged to the community of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The second period was during the “first Yugoslavia” from 1918 until 1945. The third period was during the “second Yugoslavia” period, between 1945–1990. The fourth (and current) period is since the Republic of Croatia has gained independence (from the 1990 until today).
Based on this rich history of topographical maps on the ground of Croatia and the fact that this year development of new topographic maps in scale 1: 25 000 (that has started before 14 years in 1996) will be completed, State Geodetic Administration has launched a project to create a monograph. This monograph named “Topographical maps on Croatian soil”, should describe the four above-mentioned periods of topographic maps production in the Republic of Croatia. This project was launched in the year 2008. The article will describe the project contents of preparing monograph; with detailed description of topographic maps production periods.

Virtual reconstructions of bygone landscapes are created using old maps and drawings. The creation of reliable and realistic virtual historic landscapes is problematic due to 1. inaccuracies in historic sources which leave us with uncertainty in the historic situation, and 2. the lack of automatization tools which obstructs the feasibility of large-scale reconstructions. Our aim is to find a methodical way to process historic sources and model historic virtual landscapes. After digitizing and georeferencing a dedicated collection of old maps and drawings, we created a historic terrain model for the Cruquius map of Delfland (1712) using a current elevation map. First, the interpolation over heights of unchanged landscape features resulted in a generalized large-scale terrain model. Next, we added detailed topographic features (e.g. ditches, channels and vegetation) by fusing it together with the semi-automatic cleaned Cruquius map. A 3D object library including churches, farmhouses, and windmills is created to decorate our historic terrain model in a procedural way. Finally, we validated our landscape model for geometric and topographic aspects. We expect our work contributes the realization of virtual landscape reconstructions to present cultural heritage and landscape information to the broad public. Future work will focus on non-photorealistic representations to communicate inaccuracies and uncertainties in virtual historic landscapes without decreasing a realistic user experience.

Methods for georeferencing and applications of spatial analysis in GIS using the maps and plans from 16th century until 1990a are described. The results of georeferencing – derivatives of historical maps, show a high value and potential of usability for the studies of urban areas – for historical issues, and for more comprehensive planning solutions allowing better development and policy. The applicability of the georeferenced historical maps was explored according to time series analysis. The studied were the applications for the urban area of Ljubljana, Slovenia case study: observing the continuous changing of the river course of Ljubljanica river and railway network.

The contribution deals with the usage of historical maps for urban re-development. As a model area the Špilberk castle with the historical centre of Brno city, Czech Republic was selected. The urban re-development method consists of three phases: in the first one archive maps and other historical materials were collected, the second one was devoted to the data processing and in the third phase map outputs and presentation materials were created. The main part of the oldest maps since 17th and 18th century has been gained from the military archive Vienna, other materials were obtained from various institutions of Brno city (archive, museum, magistrate, private companies etc.). The selected data were represented mainly by a summary of raster maps, consequently processed and transformed in ARC/INFO and MICROSTATION software. The most difficult work on this project was the geodetic surveying of the selected area related to the identical points, which were necessary for the georeferencing of the historical maps. Some of the important points have to be defined by the help of the experts of the middle age archeology branch. As the historical map sheets and plans were made in old measurement units (Austrian fathoms, ells and inches) it was necessary to translate all these values into metric system. A comparison of all map sheets and its analysis resulted in setting landmarks, in the course of which great changes in a given area have been achieved. Final output is as GIS project in ARC/INFO created with the geodatabase, which contains all temporary levels of map sheets, attribute data and historical and current time photos of the interested objects. In ARC/INFO system have been also 3D model of Špilberk castle created.

Cartographic collection of the State Archives in Zadar includes several separate funds of geographic maps, navigational charts, cadastral plans and individual cartographic presentations in other archival funds, which makes it one of the richest collections in Croatia. It consists of maps that encompass many periods in the history of cartography, from Middle Ages to present day. Those maps are a valuable source for geographic and historical research related to eastern Adriatic coast and complex historical and geographic changes. On the basis of those maps it is possible to reconstruct the development of cartographic techniques that subsequently enabled more reliable insight into different spatial data. Therefore, it is extremely important to digitalize that rich cartographic heritage in order to make it more accessible and usable, and to save the originals from overuse and possible damages. Unfortunately, so far, systematic digitalization of several hundred old maps has not been made, primarily due to organizational and financial issues. However, for the purpose of setting up the exhibitions Cartography of Zadar and Maritime Cartography organized by Croatian Cartographic Society about fifty old maps were scanned digitally, which was a good foundation for future digitalization. Additionally, partial digitalization was made by using digital cameras, mostly as a part of scientific researches done by several geographers and historians. However, that digitalization was not made by using a unique methodology, so the quality of digital records was not the same, and the possibilities for their use were different. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to conduct a systematic catalogization of the whole cartographic heritage of the State Archives in Zadar, and after that systematic digitalization should be made by using a unique methodology, which includes using the same digitalization technology and unique resolution of digital records. Digitalization should be the result of cooperation between experts from different scientific disciplines, primarily cartography, and then geography and archival science.

The paper will provide an introduction into the history, the importance, the organisation, the aims and the manifold usability of the European Historical Atlas of Towns, which in fact does not exist as a single project but as a combination of a number of – at the moment – 17 national Towns Atlases. This important contribution to the knowledge about urban evolution in the European context forms the basis for any comparative research and is of greatest value for scientific use. The project which started in the UK in 1969 pays attention to a structure of common features, especially regarding the use of scales. Nevertheless the single Atlases have chosen different approaches with regard to the length of commentaries, the addition of illustrations etc. In recent time a new and big step forward has been made by the production of digital versions of the printed Atlases enabling a modern use of the great variety of information stored in such products. It is of greatest interest for any debate on cartographic heritage that the European Historical Atlas of Towns is guaranteeing best access to an international series – at the moment for more than 450 European towns – of the oldest detailed town-plans.

Based on the principles of the production of Historic Towns Atlases fixed by the „Commission internationale pour l’histoire des villes“ in the late 1960ies the Austrian Historical Towns Atlas project started in 1977. The project was a cooperation of the Viennese City and Provincial Archives and the “Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Stadtgeschichtsforschung”. In 1982 the first volume was published and up to now the number of volumes reached 11, including maps of 59 Austrian towns. In 2009 in cooperation with the Hungarian company Arcanum the production of the whole Atlas on DVD was planed and meanwhile published. This project extended the options to use the Atlas for scientific research to a remarkable extend. Beside the much easier use of the collected maps – mainly the redrawn cadastral map of the first half of the 19th century, the so called “Franziszeischer Kataster” – as far as the zooming function is concerned, the Atlas-DVD provides two major advantages for researchers on comparative urban history. The first is the full text search within the 59 commentaries of the towns maps, which makes the study of specific locations, there regional embeddedness and there interrelationship with other spots much easier. Interlinked with this advantage is the full text search in the so called “Growing phase maps”, which show the extension of urban functions from the middle ages up to recent developments. This paper gives on overview of the contents of the Austrian Towns Atlas and some examples of ways to use the Atlas-DVD in scientific research, especially in Urban History.

The 132 cm diameter manuscript globe of Perczel from 1862 is among the largest ones of Central Europe. This sphere suffered severe damage during the storms of the history of the 20th century. A restoration was carried out in the 1970’s but due to the improper solutions it caused further information loss.

The project has several aims:

• Creating a digital facsimile of this globe in order to archive its present state.
• Finding the possible source materials that were used for compiling the globe.
• Reconstructing the globe in digital form based on the digital facsimile globe, the original source materials and contemporary descriptions of the globe.
• Creating a renewed copy of the globe.

The original and the reconstructed digital globe will also be placed in the Virtual Globes Museum (http://vgm.elte.hu).

This paper describes the methods of this project and the first results of the work.

Surveyor Starzynski’s plan in the Lodz Internet Land Information System – InterSIT

The International EOD service

Production line for data conversion (digitizing/vectorizing) of hydrographic fair sheets is a subproject of the main project called Croatian Hydrographic Information Project (2007).

The Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia (HHI) and the Norwegian Hydrographic Service (NHS) defined the joint project: Croatian-Norwegian Hydrographic Information Project (CRONO HIP). The main purposes of this project are to scan old hydrographic originals and to produce vector data to the Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia (HHI) for complete digital production line for data management and chart production. Special emphasis was laid on establishing quality mechanisms in the production line. The main project goal is to provide the HHI with new technology and methods for data collection, data management and chart production. As a part of this project, the HHI acquired a system for scanning and vectorizing fair sheets and probe sheets. The HHI has more than 2000 old fair sheets of different kinds, and the main purpose of the scanning system is to produce vector data of the existing analogue fair sheets.

In the historical Hungary, as a part of the Habsburg Empire, the first preserved and systematic cadastral survey was carried out between 1856 and 1859. Interestingly enough, this cadastral mapping, which was called in Hungary as 'Provisional' was surveyed simultaneously with the Stable Cadastre in the Austrian regions of the Empire. By the commission of the State Archives of Hungary, the Hungarian company Arcanum Ltd. scanned over 46,000 cadastral sheets of the Provisional Cadastre, mostly covering the present-day Hungay but also some copies covering parts of the present-day Croatia, Slovakia and Austria. The sheets were rectified by the calculated coordinates at the corner points. With the correct projection and datum parameters, the cadastral mosaic, based on the individual sheets and the digitized borders of the administrative units, is presented in any modern coordinate systems in GIS. Using this feature, the product is published as a DVD series by old counties as well as in the Internet.

The projection type and projection parameters of the old Hungarian geological maps (1791-1922) are analyzed and estimated, in order to provide optimal geometric fit to modern cartographic coordinate systems in GIS environment. Older maps, such as the ones of Korabinszky (1791), Townson (1797) and Beudant (1822), mapped before the introduction of the Second Military Survey, have the equidistant conic projection, with slightly different parameters. Later, the higher scale local maps follows the projections of the most up-to-date topographic products (prior to 1863, the Cassini-Soldner projection of the Second Military Survey, later the Budapest-centered Stereographic projection). The last analyzed maps, the ones of Böckh (1896) and Lóczy (1922), showing again the whole Pannonian Basin, have true conic projection. The accuracy of the simple linear fit has blunders up to ten kilometers in case of the older country maps and it is around 500 meters (0.5 map millimeter) at the maps of Böckh and Lóczy. The higher scale local geological maps, with solid topographic and geodetic base allow fitting with an accuracy below 100 meters.

The Institute for Cartography of Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb purchased Deskan Express 5.0 at the end of 2002. It is a large format (A0+) flatbed scanner produced by the Australian company Shapemakers. It is unique for its scanning technology and price in range of large format scanners. The price of the scanner together with scanning and automatic vectorization software was 3600 USD. The scanner was bought in order to digitize the topographic map of the Republic of Croatia (150 sheets) needed for digital catalogue of trigonometric points.

Deskan Express 5.0 is based on Omron HS600 office scanner, which is mounted on a glass plate laid over a plexiglass board.

The map is scanned by parts, and therefore special software is needed to control the process of scanning and stitching the parts into the whole image. Omron HS600 is self-motorized scanner with linear sensor 216 mm wide and of 600 dpi physical resolution. Due to the possibility of self-movement over horizontal surface, the scanner has some advantages over other scanning systems. Some scanning possibilities are:

1. When mounted on the original base, Omron HS600 is used as an ADF (Automatic Document Feed) scanner with capacity of 25 sheets.
2. When taken off the original base, it can be placed over a horizontal template and used for arbitrary scanning.
3. When mounted on a glass plate and using special software of Deskan Express 5.0, it can be used for precise scanning of large format templates.

Such construction of the scanner makes it a good choice for scanning of sensitive materials because the template doesn’t move during scanning. Therefore, it can be used to scan old maps. Another important advantage is portability; its weight is less than 20 kg and a flat surface of 1×1.5 m is needed for installation. Institutions keeping old maps prefer scanning be done in their premises.

Until now, the scanner was used to scan approximately 300 old maps in various institutions in Croatia. The main purpose was to prepare map exhibitions which included map reproductions rather then originals. Expenses of exhibition preparation were reduced this way. On the other hand, digitized old maps are to be researched in the future with all advantages of digital media.

Disadvantages observed during scanning were:

1. Low scanning speed. For example, in order to scan the A0 template with the resolution of 300 dpi in colour, it takes an hour and 20 minutes only for the scanner to move over the template. Editing time should be added to obtain the final result.
2. The scanner is connected through parallel interface and works only under Windows 95/98/ME.
3. The final joined raster has visible jags and even some missing content due to part overlap.

The third disadvantage was solved in D. Tutić’s master's thesis in 2004. In this thesis, a new software interface was produced for improved geometric and radiometric corrections. This new interface only uses the TWAIN interface for communication because the low-level communication protocol is not published or available.

The first and second disadvantages were solved by the manufacturer in newer versions, Deskan Express 6.0 and 7.0, using USB interface for connection. It is also stated that the improvements in process of geometric and radiometric corrections were included in the software. According to specifications, only 10 minutes are needed to scan the A0 template in resolution of 300 dpi and in colour. The price remains around 4000 USD.

At the end of 2009, we purchased a second-hand office scanner HS600U, which is connected via the USB interface. According to specifications, scan speed is 8.2 ms/line for 300 dpi and in colour. This speed is in accordance with the speed of newer versions of Deskan Express. When used, the scanner only had a 40% improvement in speed over parallel interface. It works under Windows 2000/XP, but only through the TWAIN interface. There are no drivers for Unix/Linux operational systems.

Even considering the mentioned disadvantages, Deskan Express 5.0 was successfully used for scanning old maps. It is possible to scan templates larger than A0, which was sometimes necessary. Although the scanner is not in range of professional equipment, it is good for making reproductions and reading raster images. Portability is especially important, because it is possible to scan within institutions preserving old maps. The speed problem can be solved by purchasing a newer version. The authors will try to find their own solution for the existing system.

The map of Lányi is the last map which represents the branches of the Tisza before the river control measures in the former Heves and Külső-Szolnok counties in central Hungary. The map was made by surveying between 1834 and 1843 led by Sámuel Lányi, a qualified engineer. This map was the base of the river control guided by one of the greatest engineers, Pál Vásárhelyi, which shows the importance of the map.

The map was drawn on 22×28 Viennese inches sheets of paper. Its scale is 1 Viennese inch to 400 Viennese fathoms, which in metric system is 1:28800. Its geodetic base is the triangulation of the Tisza and Maros rivers surveyed between 1834 and 1836. The coordinates were described in Cassini projection. The central point of the coordinate system was the old observatory of Gellérthegy in Buda (now Budapest). This map is useful for ethnographical, urban-geographical, hydrological and agriculture-historical research. It contains many streams and canals which had formed the surface of Great Hungarian Plain in the 19th century but are missing today. The small altitude variations of the central part of the Great Hungarian Plain are displayed with surprising accuracy.

Fernando Consag – Croata Varasdinensis is croatian cartographer, missionary man, jesuit and founder of Lower California (Baja California). As result of his three expeditions 1746, 1751 and 1753 were several maps of Lower California and Bay of California and diaries of the first and the second expedition. Map of California and Consag’s diary of the first expedition were published 1757 in Madrid and then presented to king’s advisors. After many confrontations, king of Spain officially recognized that Lower California is peninsula not an island on the basis of Consag’s map and diary of his first expedition 1746. This paper analyzes geometrical properties and the content of Consag’s map taking into acount latitude measuring methods, graphical scale, geographical coordinates assigned at map border and other map characteristics. There are some suggestions for map georeferencing into contemporary cartographic model.

Map-maker or, better, Web-masters of the Medieval Past added new links to the traditional sites on new mappae mundi, according to civilization’s evolution in a continuous process on the same cultural line. Scattered in form of lustrationes, picturae, nomina locorum on mappae mundi and mappae maris, these visual links are like world-wide web portals, pass-words and pass-icons that cybernavigators of the Present can figuratively press in order to access deeper levels of meaning, each pass-word or pass-icon resembling a small activating image in a dialogue box, that the user may choose to perform a task by mentally clicking the “Enter” key. In this respect the Medieval mappa is like a Home-page of a Hyper-text. Striking visuals arrayed sequentially over the basic surface of the parchment map let you take a short cut across Cultural Heritage.

In Zadar, one of the oldest and most important cultural and scientific centers in the Republic of Croatia there are numerous institutions which, among else also preserve valuable cartographic heritage. Since for centuries this city had been the administrative centre of Dalmatia, that is the whole South Croatia, which generated various needs of regional administration entities, courts, army, shipping companies, Church, schools and others, a part of important cartographic resources is preserved in Zadar. Due to the efforts of civilian and church authorities and more prominent individuals, it originated mostly from European cartographic centers, but some of the maps were also made in Zadar.

The biggest number of old maps, atlases and globes are preserved in the Zadar State Archive and in the Research Library Zadar. Part of the cartographic materials is also preserved in the Archbishopric Library, in the Monastery of St. Francis but also in other monastery collections in Zadar and in Zadar region. Cartographic heritage encompasses cartographic representations of several hundreds units dating back from the 16th century. Most of the cartographic representations show Zadar, certain parts of Dalmatia, the whole Croatian coast and the Adriatic, and there are also comprehensive cartographic works representing the entire – at the moment of their creation known – world (Molleti's edition of Ptolemy's Geography, Coronelli's Atlases, Sanson's Atlases, Homann's and Seutter's atlases and others). Some editions are rare even in the European context, for instance Bordon's isolario, atlas of sea charts Carta di cabottagio del Mare Adriatico and others.

Since the cartographic heritage preserved in Zadar is an inevitable source for research of experts from various scientific disciplines (geography, cartography, history, art history, toponymy and others) dealing with the examination of the Croatian Adriatic region, it is of extreme importance to systemize cartographic heritage and enable accessibility of quality digital records. From the technical standpoint, research is facilitated to users, and from the archival standpoint, fragile resources are preserved from wear and tear and various forms of damages.

The paper will present some aspects of a research project „A methodology for mapping movable heritage”. The main idea of the project is to use a Geographic Information System (GIS) - as a technology and as a tool - to integrate different digital archival collections, present their content in one space and provide online access to them from one common level – from an online map.

Presented project, financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education in 2008-2010, is realized by the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography in cooperation with the Research and Academic Computer Network (portal Polska.pl), the Central Archives of Historical Records and Department of Art History of the Wroclaw University. The base of research is the fact that the spatio-temporal GIS gives the possibility of collecting and presenting on the maps not only current, but also historical information. Moreover, one simple map can present as much information about digital collections as we would need to write on several text pages. The idea of the project is to simplify access to the cultural heritage by the use of online map.

Presentation will concentrate on cartographic heritage as a part of movable heritage, which has no such simple relation to geographic space, as it looks like: they can be created in one place, they can present other places and now they can be stored still in another place. Moreover, each archival map could be stored in many different places in the past. Access to such maps is not easy and it depends on this how precisely they are described in the archival collections. Accessing such collections with the use of a map, based on spatio-temporal GIS, seems to be attractive and more efficient for an Internet users, especially those, who are looking for information about history of their “small motherlands”.

Digital archives contain a lot of old maps which now are described with the use of the international standards for describing digital collections. They provide metadata which are the source of spatial information about archival maps and about spatial, temporal, typological and semantic relations between them. In our research, all these aspects were integrated in the GIS and presented as the prototype of an online interactive map. Proposed solutions as well as practical applications of the map will be presented in the paper.

The particular paper is dedicated to the medieval scientist Al Bīrūnī (973-1048). His scientific interests comprised mathematics, astronomy, as well as the linked sciences – meteorology, chronology and creation of astronomical instruments. In the field of geography he was more interested in mathematical and astronomical geography – theoretic aspects of the Islamic cartography.

In his work “Kitāb Al Qānūn al-Mas‘ūdī” two chapters are dedicated to the description of lands and climates. Here he gives not only astronomical tables, but also geographical coordinates, lists places under climates, assigns longitude and latitude values for each place individually. In the  5th book of “Kitāb Al Qānūn al-Mas‘ūdī” we can find 602 geographical coordinates of cities and other settlements. It is the third greatest number of coordinates in the work of one author only. (In comparison to Al -Khwārāzmī and Suhrab were we can find more).

The inhabited land is divided by Al Bīirūnī in 7 climates, which change according to parallels, listing from equator to the North. Al Bīrūnī has drawn the World sketch map by hand, but it remains unclear if he has also drawn the World Map or some other region map applying geographical coordinates. The number of available coordinates in his book allows the possibility to create or reconstruct the kind of a map. The first and the only one reconstruction of the World Map using geographical tables from  the “Kitāb Al Qānūn al-Mas‘ūdī” was carried out by the Polish scientist J. Lelewel in the 2nd half of the 19th century. In the 1950s the Russian scientists promised that the kind of the map reconstruction will be carried out in the nearest future, which most surely the work was not started and completed. Unfortunately the repeated attempt of reconstruction has not been made.

Due to the ICT the reconstruction of the World Map after the “Kitāb Al Qānūn al-Mas‘ūdī” can be accomplished more easily. In my report I shall deal with the information about my accomplished works by this time at the reconstruction work of Al Bīrūn ‘s map.
The reconstruction of this map allows us to make sure about the correspondence of the Lelewel ‘s reconstructed map to the actual coordinates and dates in the above mentioned source. It makes possible to compare the coordinates, which can be found in different publications of “Kitāb Al Qānūn al-Mas‘ūdī” and to eradicate mistakes. It also gives an opportunity to compare the reconstructed World Map to the World sketch map created by Al Bīrūnī.

This research was performed on a set of three maps depicting the Po river delta area (Northern Adriatic Sea, South of Venice) at the end of the 16th century. They were drawn by the land surveyors (Savi ed Esecutori delle Acque della Serenissima Repubblica) Ottavio Fabri, Gerolamo Pontara and Buonaiuto Lorini and today they are preserved in the Venice State Archive. The maps were mutually cross-compared in order to understand some late Renaissance land-surveying techniques.
The kinds of evidence taken into account consist of technical signs preserved either in the palimpsest of the maps or in their final drawing. The meaning of some of the signs is explained by the Authors themselves in the legend or in the accompanying notes, whereas the meaning of other ones can be inferred by Fabri’s methodological textbook, containing the description of a new topographical instrument which he invented and used. Those inferences are supported by considerations concerning the type and size of the surveyed land areas.

Five kinds of technical signs can be recognized: i) technical-support grids (parallel to map edges and compass-card) probably related to the map-drawing phase; ii) detailed field survey measurements (river channel bathymetry, distances, ...) concerning the size and shape of local topographic details; iii) sighting tracks used to define the position of marine coastal reaches and the width of some riverbeds; iv) unusual local marks (crosses) and fiscal boundaries; v) correction of former landscape-detail drawings, due to mapmaker uncertainty or to map updates (as a matter of fact, the Authors declare the partial re-use of older maps). All of these signs highlight a very interesting class of information related to the hidden steps of pre-geodetic map construction, which up to now is still poorly known and studied. Therefore, in many cases pre-geodetic maps should be regarded not as original technical products but as assemblage of various data sets.

Electronic catalog of map collections of the University of Wroclaw is a georeference database containing informations about cartographical documents collected in different departments of University. At present time (December 2009) it mainly consists of almost 8000 maps and atlases from Maps Department of Wroclaw University Library on the Sand Island and from Department of Cartography of the University of Wroclaw (Institute of Geography and Regional Development).

This catalog completely changes the way of using the cartography collections and allows to increase their availability by shortening time needed to obtain information about them. Records entered to database with geographical coordinates are then searched on scale map basing on given search terms, among which most important is georeference, that makes usage of this application easy. Due to peculiarity of cartographic collections, and especially map series, it is essential to create indexes and coverages of maps. Method of presentation of data in the database includes all types of cartographical materials.

The application is compatible with Digital Library of Wroclaw University and with standard international bibliographical description (MARC 21 format) for cartographical documents that is used in OPAC Catalog of Wroclaw University Library. That kind of compatibility allows to use all of this systems in most efficient way. This electronic application in time will replace present traditional inventory and catalogs and will completely change methods of organization and usage of cartographical collections gathered here, as it is possible to include cartographical records from other localizations. Thanks to this, one extra-faculty information system is being created, that will deliver full information about all cartographic materials collected in the University of Wroclaw.

The modeling and interpretation of verbal spatial descriptions from natural history chronicles is becoming more important due to a growing interest in environmental change. Furthermore, developing early warning systems and improving risk assessment for natural hazards involves the geolocation and analysis of occurring events. As space related events are described in many historical and current sources, their cartographic visualization is an important challenge.

This work investigates uncertainty of verbal spatial descriptions in order to model and locate described places. Natural language processing and information extraction techniques are applied to automatically extract elements and spatial relationships of the described location. An empirical survey was carried out investigating spatial language and perception of humans to support interpretation and locality modeling. On this basis a fuzzy set approach is proposed to handle vagueness and uncertainty resulting from textual spatial references. The developed techniques were tested with texts documenting landslide events in Vorarlberg, Austria. The obtained results show that the developed methods facilitate the manual geolocating process to a high degree.

An automated way to produce representations of verbal spatial descriptions is of great interest for various application fields, regarding spatial descriptions in newspaper articles, directions, traffic reports on radio or the analysis of information from libraries or archives.

The introduction of new terms is often needed to describe the methods or products brought about by the technical and theoretical development in cartography. The standardisation of terms that describe the transformation of old cartographic products into digital form is a current issue. This paper explains some new terms by concrete examples taken from a running project that aims at making the digital facsimile of the largest Hungarian globe made in 1862.

The paper discusses the differences between the terms facsimile (printed after colour separation), technological facsimile and digital (virtual) facsimile. The virtual facsimiles are classified into two types: one that registers the present state of the cartographic product, and the other that displays the original state, when the product was made. The virtual facsimile of the original state can be used for the digital virtual as well as physical restoration of the damaged parts of the old product. It is even possible to make a virtual reconstruction if large areas are damaged. At the final stage, the product may be physically recreated or reconstructed that shows how it looked like originally.

The facsimiles of several globes are already placed in the Virtual Globes Museum developed by Prof. Márton at the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics.

The creation and diffusion of geographical information have considerably increased over the last few years. In order to benefit from this information as much as possible, either to carry out better analysis or to study the temporal evolution of georeferenced data, users have expressed a strong need to couple – or to integrate – their data with other data provided both by producers or other users. The need to integrate historical data is particularly expressed. This need can be easily explained by the fact that historical data contains invaluable information which is often unmapped or not represented in current maps or data. Historical data is thus particularly of interest to ecologists (study of forest evolutions, comparison of ground occupation on various dates, study of climate evolution, etc.), archaeologists and historians, and also to research scientists who work in the field of simulation (research of evolution rules based on historical data).

The goal of all these actors is first to digitize historical data, then to integrate it into a recent georeferenced framework and finally to vectorize it in order to get a meaningful result. In this context, our paper focuses on the integration of vectorized historical geographic data into current georeferenced frameworks. A user-centred approach is proposed to take into account both users knowledge and users constraints.

Users are not necessarily familiar with the georeferencing process, notably with spatial transformations (affine transformations, Helmert transformations, transformations based on a gravitating model, triangulation and rubber sheeting, second or higher order polynomial transformations, thin-plate spline method, etc.). The system would therefore propose the "most adapted" transformation in regard to user needs and the most adapted mathematical way to solve the given problem (even if a least squares adjustment is traditionally used to solve the problem). "Most adapted" means here that the transformation has to satisfy different kinds of constraints. In our proposal, the objective is to minimize distortions and to take into account some possible user constraints.

On one hand, distortions have to be quantified to know how a transformation can accurately map all control points. This can be done by computing the Root Mean Square (RMS) error based on the residual errors (a residual error is the distance between the target control point and the associated transformed source point). This indicator gives a good assessment of the consistency and the accuracy of a transformation between the different control points. Nevertheless, even if the RMS error is low, some residual errors can be particularly significant (e.g. due to a misplaced control points). In this case, a couple of control points can be removed to improve the transformation.

On the other hand, users sometimes need to use georeferenced data for other tasks than those which simply consist in overlapping several layers, e.g. to analyse the orientation of geographical features. The transformation has in consequence to minimize as much as possible length, angular or surface distortions. Information would in this case be added to the system, for example "an affine transformation implies that straight lines remain straight, parallel lines remain parallel, rectangles may become parallelograms".

To go further than the classical georeferencing process, we propose to introduce two additional steps. Firstly, to tackle the fact that the georeferencing process is generally based on a global transformation without consideration of local distortions, we propose solutions of local spatial adjustment. Secondly, knowing that historical data is often available by geographical area and that each area is represented by a map sheet, we raise the problem of connections management between different map sheets.

We illustrate our work through the example of a Cassini map georeferencing process, showing in particular that several georeferencing methods are possible according to users needs.

The digital cartographic heritage contains various aspects that have to be considered in order to guarantee sustainability and long-term preservation. These aspects span from media-based actions to content-related and semantic documentations as far as software and hardware dependent topics. This complex network of dependencies relate to procedures that try to overcome technical restrictions and grant access to digital geoinformation. Mostly these procedures are mapped in processes and describe needed actions.

On the other hand process management in IT as well as business offer methods to develop manageable process procedures and get rid of redundant processes. Furthermore the interplay of procedures offer tools for business case modeling that build up on efficiency and effectiveness. This contribution tries to introduce management methods to digital cartographic heritage. Are methods from IT and business adaptable to cartographic heritage? Therefore the complexity of an exemplary set of processes within digital cartographic heritage should be shown, special characteristics of geo- and cartographic processes should be defined and the importance of longterm availability within geo-processes depicted. The considerations of this contribution will give an overview on helpful actions within the management of digital cartographic heritage.

Geographical information systems as a spatial tools are parts of most dynamized topics in current science. Raising development of new technologies complicates the implementation of GIS into education at primary and secondary schools. New technologies are also core challenges for teachers (difficulties in teaching them) and for young pupils as well. Another hedge is the (mostly very high) price. Our paper presents interactive educational project held at Institute of Geography, Faculty of Science at Masaryk university in Brno. We use results from research based on old maps as a platform for practical and dynamic GIS oriented presentation at secondary and primary schools. Focusing land use and cultural landscape changes makes possible to use interdisciplinary topics of non-traditional (dynamic) GIS tools and connect presentation with current human and physical geographical themes as well as cartography, informatics, computer science/graphics and history. Chosen open source architecture enables quality, free of charge, dynamical unfolding and legal platform for deeper excursus into the spatial data work. Project includes DVD with presentation, free geodata sets and illustrative open source (or freeware) software as well as user guides. Paper shows dynamical use of GIS tools for basic introduction in to geoinformatic applications, which are available for all students. It also illustrates cooperation through levels of primary, secondary and tertiary education which results in application of no-cost dynamic GIS tools in the educational process.

Old maps are obviously part of the cartographic heritage, but we have also contemporary cartographic products both in paper and in digital form. The fact that a relatively large proportion of paper and digital maps is perished due to technical failures or due to the omitted archiving is not well-known for nowadays users.

Orienteering maps are special types of maps. Their size is relatively small (A4 to A3). They are usually not available for sale (it is difficult to define the price), and the maps are only used at one event. For large events offset printed maps are used, but for smaller events and trainings only inkjet or laser printed versions are produced. In every country where the orienteering sport is practiced, the national federations or their commissions create a database that lists all the available maps. Some orienteers also collect these maps. Do we have chances and methods to preserve these products? Whose obligation is the preservation of these special products? Although these maps are worth preserving, they are not really known by ordinary users. Nevertheless, the orienteering maps are part of the cartographic heritage.

Historical maps for Wallachia allow multitemporal analysis for different purposes. The paper tries to compare the quality of these maps within a case study, developed in a GIS environment, regarding the Campulung Depression, a representative area for the Northern Wallachia. The first reliable document is the Specht Austrian Map (1791) because it offers a complete overview of the land cover (mainly forests and settlements) together with roads, stream networks etc. The low quality of geometric properties is a feature of this map. More reliable is the Szatmary Map (since 1856), useful in digital format, but quite limited in terms of geometric properties.The highest quality maps, easy to integrate in digital format are the topographic maps starting since 1900-1904 (Romanian topographic map, Army shooting map), 1910 (Austrian topographic map) and then maps since the 1940s (US Army topographic map). These were integrated into a GIS project and the result was successful (in Stereographic 1970 Projection with S-42 Romania Datum). We compared them with the contemporary map (topographic map since 1981), but our interest was to coregister and compare these maps with  SRTM 30 data as well as satellite data (Landsat imagery, 2000, with supervised classification performed) and recent ortophotos (since 2005).The main conclusion is that the maps are more on more reliable for land cover analysis starting since the beginning of the 20th century. Comparing and overlaying this data we discover that land cover changes were relevant during the last century (since 1904) but these were spectacular after 1950s: orchards development in organized farms, industrial districts developments, deforestation and building development within Campulung town and the villages around.

This paper focuses on the use of GIS with historical maps of the Bologna plain. A. Chiesa was entrusted, in 1732, by the Senate of Bologna to create a geographical map of the entire plain, with particular reference to the waterways, in order to provide an overall view and to plan considerable land reclaims.

After digital acquisition, the maps were georeferenced in a new two-stage technique, using the international UTM-WGS84 datum. The elements contained in the maps were digitized using different layers: points for settlements, polylines for the waterways and polygons for marshes. A database was created to complete the digital representation.

These data were compared with the current hydrographic situation. The main interest is the understanding of the relations between paleochannels and micromorphology, in order to prevent hydrogeological risk.
The study of the A. Chiesa maps is important to understand the evolution of toponyms, to highlight the centuriation and as a decisional support in  territorial development plans.
The popularization of the digitally obtained layers over a topographic regional map must be carried out using a webGIS application that is accessible and immediately understandable by the general public.

This paper focuses on the use of GIS with cadastrial-like historical maps of Bologna district. These maps, known as Cabrei, were ordered by wealthy landowners to unequivocally define the actual boundaries of their possessions. These maps also included important crop and land use information as well as rural edifices, macerating vessels, shafts and natural elements. These maps, drawn by land surveyors (between the XVI and XVIII century), besides being extremely precise, constitute great artworks.
After digital acquisition and smart cataloguing, the maps were georeferenced with a new two-stage technique, using the international UTM-WGS84 datum.

The main purpose of this paper is the evaluation of the landscape transformations through almost four centuries by superimposing old maps on current aerial images. Three different categories were identified, according to the number of the likeness point number (high, medium and low correspondence).

It is also possible to exploit these maps for historical research, the study of toponyms and the evolution of rural settlements.
With this powerful informative instrument it is possible to discover the landscape invariants and to highlight the rural architecture: this is necessary to draw up territorial development plans that can valorize and preserve typicalities of the countryside.
The popularization of cabrei over current topographic maps has to be done using a webGIS application which is accessible and immediately understandable by the general public.

The paper presents an overview of land use and land cover maps elaborated and published in Poland. The authors discuss major early 20th-century publications and then review projects undertaken since WWII, pointing out the use of satellite imagery as a new source of data for land use mapping. Numerous attempts at drawing up land use maps were made in the period between World War I and World War II. Most of them are presented in the paper.

Authors also discuss contemporary land use mapping programs pursued by national authorities or by international organizations in Europe (including in Poland). Part of them has employed old maps like a main source of data. The outcome of work performed in Poland under the CORINE Land Cover program is presented, and also the land cover classes in Polish Topographic Database, General Database as well as land and buildings register are discussed.

Hydrographic Institute of the  Croatia is successor to the Hydrographic Office of the Austro-Hungarian Navy established in Trieste in 1860. This year marked the beginning of an organised hydrographic survey in Eastern Adriatic. Throughout its 150-year long production of navigational charts and publications, the Hydrographic Institute has built valuable collections of its own charts at different scales, and nautical publications. It also keeps in its holdings nautical charts received on exchange basis from related institutions both in Europe and worldwide, covering not only Eastern Adriatic but also other sea areas all over the world.

As the chart production and hydrographic survey are heading towards new technologies, the idea of a HHI museum has been devised in order to preserve its cartographic heritage and old methods of chart production. Layout of the museum will include historical charts, old instruments and aids, materials formerly used in the process of chart production from the hydrographic survey to the final product. The museum, to be situated in the HHI building, will give its visitors an insight into the past and present of nautical cartography.

Inside the frame established by the Council of the European Union about Digital Libraries, we are creating a complete and multilingual database on Spanish ancient cartography. The database includes digitised atlases, as welll as maps at different scales, views and nautical charts, and is being associated to a GIS. The database allows to identify and to compare easily the cartographic documents of an historical period, as well as the different surveying and drawing techniques that have been applied in each case.An accurate knowledge of the coasts and the ports of the foreign nations has been an essential target for the different historical sea powers, whose naval war strategies mainly depended upon it. The Spanish Mediterranean coast has been particularly important since the early times of the ancient historical cultures, that settled there their colonies and built fortresses until the 19th century.We have focused our search on the spheric nautical charts of this coasts that were drawn at the 18th and 19th centuries, in order to compare those that were produced by the Spanish cartographers with those produced by other European naval powers as England, France and Italy. And as a case study we have chosen the series of the spheric nautical charts of the Javea Bay (Alicante, Spain).We have applied some modern GIS tools to the digital images of the charts such as the georeferencing, in order to superpose the different seashores and their depictions. This search has evidenced the particular targets of each Nation, their cartographical techniques and their accuracy.Through those comparisons we can expose some concluding remarks, as the strong accurate methods applied by Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel in 1789 in his Atlas Marítimo de España (Atlas of the Spanish Coasts), where he followed the experiences of the french cartographers La Hire and Picard.

The sheets of the Danube Mappation were surveyed between 1823 and 1845, leading by the Management of Water and Construction. The leader-engineers were Mátyás Huszár, Pál Vásárhelyi and finally Ottó Ferenc Hieronymi. It shows the Danube and its riverside very accurately from Dévény (now Devín in Slovakia) to Pétervárad (now Petrovaradin in Serbia). The map represents the river itself, as well as the streets of towns and villages, steeples, small streams and canals, forests and the specialized signs of water measurement.
The map was drawn on sheets with a size of 28×22 Viennese inches. Its scale is 1 Viennese inch to 50 Viennese fathoms that is 1:3600 in metric system. Therefore the dimension of one sheet is 1400×1100 Viennese fathoms on terrain. In metric system it is 2655,077376×2086,132224 m. The coordinates was described in Cassini projection. The central point of the coordinate system was the old observatory of the Gellérthegy in Buda (now Budapest in Hungary). The ellipsoid which had been used for the triangulation was the Zach-Oriani combined ellipsoid.

The georeferencing of map sheets is based on the sheet labelling system. It shows the location of the individual sheets from the central point, so the coordinates of the corners for all map sheets had been calculated. The error of georeferenced mosaic is between 5-10 meters.

Claudius Ptolemy "Geographia" is a fundamental geographic and cartographic work of the 2nd century A.D. which influenced European cartography of the Renaissance. Ptolemy can be considered as one of the first who gave a "concrete" cartographic evidence to the region of central Europe a part of which is covered by today's territory of the Czech Republic. In this paper we deal with the study of the correspondence between coordinates of geographic place positions given in "Geographia" for the region of "Great Germania" and their depiction on drawn maps, comparing ancient Ptolemaic representations with recent maps which recall Ptolemy's toponymy and identification of ancient toponyms with their modern counterparts.

The Second Military Survey in the territories of the former Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy was done between 1806 – 1869. Its purpose was to remove the defects of the First Military Survey (gross position errors and cartographic representation defects of objects in maps) and contribute to a well-arranged map for the entire monarchy.

In the territories where the cadastral survey was completed (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, etc.) the outcomes were exploited for the military survey. Reduced and generalised planimetric content of the cadastral maps and cadastral triangulation were used to outline the planimetric content of the Second Military Survey. This assured an improved positional accuracy and better work economy. The territory of Bohemia was surveyed between 1842 – 1853 (267 handwritten colour sections 1:28 800), Moravia and Silesia between 1836 – 1840 (146 handwritten colour sections 1:28 800). Nowadays, the map originals are stored in the Vienna Kriegsarchiv (military archive) department of the Austrian State Archives.
The aim of this contribution is to describe the methodology of hypsometry and determination of elevations displayed on the Second Military Survey maps of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. The accuracy of the elevations has been analysed. Attention is paid to the portrayal of hypsography on the maps.

The main task of the Urban Archaeology of Vienna consists of research – documentation – conservation – information. From 1410 up to now more than 2500 archaeological sites from the prehistory to modern times are documented in Vienna. Most of this sites are geo-referenced and so it was possible to integrate them into the Vienna Archaeological GIS (VAGIS) for internal use. At the same time the Urban Archaeology and the Department for Architecture and Urban Design started in 1996 the project “Wiener Kulturgüterkataster” collecting relevant geo-referenced data about the urban development of Vienna and also integrating the GIS data from VAGIS. In 2000 most of the data were transferred in the Internet. In 2004 the web portal “Wien Kulturgut” (www.kulturgut.wien.at) replaced finally the project “Wiener Kulturgüterkataster”. “Wien Kulturgut” – the new digital cultural heritage cadastre of Vienna – allows the approach to essential characteristics of the city. A collection of maps offers information about the historical and the urban development. The web portal put the Urban Archaeology of Vienna in the position to inform various departments of  the Vienna City Administration  as well as the public about archaeological areas (e.g. for assessment of environmental effects or public information in general). At present the application consists of five topics including archaeology which covers data about archaeological sites, ancient settlement areas and streets and 3D models of the Roman legionary fortress. Further more the first-time digitisation and transformation of the “Franziszeischer Kataster”, – originally drawn from 1817-1861 – is part of the application. In our lecture we will show the possibilities of digital documentation for historical research.

The old maps of the Holy Land were prepared by the various cartographers in many countries since XV century. These maps present not only the historical value but they constitute a very valuable material for special analysis and studies. It is possible to compare the maps compiled in the same period by different authors and to compare the maps related to the same territory but elaborated in the various historical periods. Such analysis can be focused on the presentation of the Bible events or on comparative analysis of the geographic content of such maps. There are many geographic elements on such maps, which can be taken under consideration, but one of the most important is the hydrographic network which can be treated as one of the most stabile element which generally did not change within the long historical period.

As the result of the preliminary review of the old maps of the Holy Land several maps elaborated in various periods and by the various authors were selected for analysis. The hydrographic network constitutes a spectacular element of the geospace of this territory. To these elements belong: lakes, rivers and the shore line of the Meditterranean Sea. The most characteristics are: Lake Hule, Lake Genezareth and the Dead Sea. The main river Jordan is connecting these lakes. There are huge rivers which were in the ancient times such as Jarmuk, Jabbok, Arnon and which are the eastern tributaries of Jordan River and Kishon which discharges into the Mediterranean Sea. The cost line of the Mediterranean Sea and the hydrographic elements are very often citied in the Holy Bible.
Above mentioned hydrographic elements were taken for comparative analysis on the selected maps. To the oldest maps belong the maps prepared by Ptolemy in 2nd century but printed in 16th. From 15th century the map edited by Barnard Beydenbach in 1497 was analyzed. 16th century is represented by the map elaborated by Antonio Salamanca in 1548. From the same century the map compiled by Abraham Ortelius was selected. The same map was edited by Gerhard Mercator in 1619. At the end of 16th century, in 1593 Gerard de Jode elaborated another map of the Holy Land. From 17th century the two maps prepared by William Janszon Blaeu in 1640 and by Visscher Family in 1650 were compared.   From the end of 18th century there is a map compiled by Gilles de Vaugindy and edited in Paris in 1793. The first topographical map was edited in 1818 by Piere Jacotin in Paris.

The preliminary analysis indicated that the geometry of above mentioned maps is not coherent, hence it was not possible to perform classical geometrization and the maps were approximately transformed to the same scale. This process allowed comparing the hydrographic network and the seashore of Mediterranean Sea. Probably these elements were drawn on the basis of very rough sketches prepared by explorers or pilgrims to the Holy Land. In the paper the shapes of lakes were compared and graphically presented. The biggest differences appear in the presentation of the Dead Sea. Also the comparison of the water courses indicated that there were drawn very roughly and not properly. The Mediterranean seashore has various shape and the biggest differences occurred in the presentation of the gulfs.

The performed analysis indicated that in many cases, the wrong presentation of the hydrographic network on one map was repeated on the maps prepared by the other authors. Furthermore it was noticed that in the same period the authors from various countries applied various geographic reference data for map compilation. The proper presentation of the hydrographic network can be observed on the maps compiled in the end of 18th century and in 19th century, when the maps were based on the topographical surveys performed on this territory by French and later on by the British surveyors.

Müller’s map of Bohemia is one of the most important maps in Czech history. It is not just beautifully and well made, but it shows many characteristics of historical landscape in surprising detail. The manuscript map was finished in 1720 by Johann Christopher Müller and is the last piece of “one-man cartography era” in Czech lands. The map was engraved on 25 copperplates by Michael Kauffer and finished in 1722.

The aim of our project is thorough analysis of this map. The most important information on the old map is the spatial position of point symbols (towns, villages), line symbols (rivers, roads) and area symbols (water areas). These symbols are usually compared with current situation. Using this method we can explore changes of water bodies or water network, changes of settlement (e.g. disbanded villages), changes of major travel routes. The crucial problem of this approach is georeferencing raster images into some well defined coordinate system. We solved this problem by creation of the full vector data model of the map. Once we have complete vector model of the map, we can test many combinations of ground control points (only towns, only roads crossings etc.) and many types of transformation.

In the first phase of the project we reconstructed the original dimensions of the map sheets. Due to the shrinkage of the paper, old maps are usually distorted. We measured original copperplate engravings and transformed the data into these dimensions. After that we merged the data of all 25 map sheets together. Then the database was designed and created. Notice that more than 15000 point symbols were digitized. Using ground control points from the database we transformed the Müller’s map of Bohemia into the Czech national coordinate system (S-JTSK). Now the data can be joined into environmental applications as a GIS layer. Furthermore, we can perform many GIS analyses with vector data to get information about 300-year-old landscape (e.g. population density analyses were performed). Digital data of the map will be distributed via internet and web map services (WMS in the case of georeferenced raster image and WFS in the case of vector database).