Goals of Cartography and GI: Representation and Communication - A Primer of GIS: Fundamental Geographic and Cartographic Concepts - page 27

Carl Steinitz and Landscape Architecture
Landscape architects deserve special mention in the history of GIS. They were involved in
developing many of GIS's first key applications including techniques based on traditional
overlays of transparent thematic maps on a topographic base map. This overlay technique
allowed the landscape architects to provide a situational map that could be shown with spe-
cific themes (parks, schools, ecotones, etc.) and with composites of the themes. This
became a key part of GIS-based analysis. Ian McHarg was one of the key developers and
promoters of the overlay-based technique for planning. Carl Steinitz, a contemporary of
McHarg, stands out for his contributions to the development of overlay techniques, their
application, and documenting the history of overlay techniques in landscape architecture.
Further Reading
Steinitz, C., P. Parker, and L. Jordan. (1986). Hand-Drawn Overlays: Their History and Prospective
Uses. Landscape Architecture , 66 (5) 444-455.
ing the map and reusing portions of it for other purposes. GI can be used
over countless times, in different ways, to make different maps.
11. What makes maps so powerful?
Much that we know is known to us only through maps. The World, Asia,
the United States, even an entire city are places of which we can only expe-
rience a fraction of. Maps put selected portions of things and events from
the world into a comprehensible graphic format that communicates. Maps
are powerful when they successfully communicate what we didn't know
before.
Chapter Readings
Board, C. (1967). Maps as Models. In R. Charley & P. Haggett (Eds.), Models in Geogra-
phy (pp. 671-726). London: Meuthen.
Buttenfield, B. P. (1997). Talking in the tree house: Communication and Representa-
tion in Cartography. Cartographic Perspectives , 27 , 20-23.
Chrisman, N. R. (1997). Exploring Geographic Information Systems . New York: Wiley.
Dorling, D., & D. Fairbairn. (1997). Mapping: Ways of Representing the World .Edin-
burgh Gate, Harlow, UK: Addison Wesley Longman.
Gersmehl, P. J. (1985). The Data, the Reader, and the Innocent Bystander—A Parable
for Map Users. Professional Geographer , 37 (3), 329-334.
Kaiser, W. L., & D. Wood. (2001). Seeing through Maps: The Power of Images to Shape
Our World View . Amherst, MA: ODT.
Monmonier, M. (1993). Mapping It Out: Expository Cartography for the Humanities and
Social Sciences . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Monmonier, M. (1995). Drawing the Line: Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy . New
York: Holt.