Are there still maps to be made?

One of my colleagues hates to tell people what he does for a living, because being a cartographer he usually gets one of three responses: the polite and occasionally genuine “Wow that’s interesting, I’ve always loved maps”; the wasn’t really listening “Photographer, ooh I’d love to be a photographer”; or the argumentative “Have all of the maps not already been made?”.

The kind of circumstances which require you to tell somebody what you do for a living often occur round the side of a mate’s barbecue, or in the kitchen at a friend’s party. Even though these may not be the most vital of conversations, the rage that this third answer generates wouldn’t be out of place in the most heated debates at the UN. “Well have all of the tables not already been made?” is usually his first counter, which can throw all but the most adept of small talker.

Certainly the question’s worth exploring. Last week saw the publication of a new edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, one of the biggest and most expensive books found in any UK bookstore today. Can it possibly be as relevant to us today as an atlas from twenty years ago was then? Have all of the maps not already been made, and indeed published in many generations of previous atlases? What could such a book possibly tell us enlightened 21st century humans about the world that we didn’t already know?

Well for one thing it could tell you that the country of Myanmar has a new joint capital called Nay Pyi Taw located in its jungle interior. Of course to really be interested in that you’d have to be one of the less than 25% of the UK population who already knows where Myanmar is (the other 75% thinking it is still called Burma even though its name was changed back in 1989). Other political changes like the recent break up of Serbia and Montenegro into separate countries have required the reclassification of boundaries on map pages, as well as new states and territories information.

But while an atlas clearly has to keep up to date with man’s geo-political tinkering, it is the more alarming influences of man which really challenge the cartographers. The new edition of the Times Comprehensive has seen the redrawing of many of the coastal areas of the world. Sea level change, whether man-made or not, has demanded new mapping to be created for areas as far afield as Bangladesh, China, and Alaska.

The relentless urbanization of the planet (the UN has estimated that for the first time ever August 2008 will see more than 50% of the world’s population living in cities) also forces cartographers to constantly refine the boundaries of the world’s major urban areas. No mean feat: China alone contains over a hundred cities with populations of more than a million souls. And this ever increasing population doesn’t just cause cities to grow – it demands massive infrastructure projects which have seen fertile valleys flooded to create reservoirs; lakes drained of their precious water; railway lines snaking across Tibet.

To maintain all of this information, keep it up to date and put it down onto the page (or as happens more and more these days, up onto the screen), in a clear accessible way, is a constant challenge and one that the cartographer may never win. As the Senior Cartographic lecturer at university said to us on the first day of our undergraduate course, “For cartographers, near enough is never good enough”.

So have all of the maps not already been made? The answer is a resounding no. The cartographers creating the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World can be assured that the demand for up-to-date and authoritative maps is set to continue indefinitely.