Georg GARTNER | Markus JOBST
(Research Group Cartography, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria)
Keywords: cartography, communication, spatial presentation, stylized reality
Abstract:
In this presentation it is argued, that maps are most efficient in enabling human users to understand complex situations and that this function becomes even more important in the realm of more and more sensors and respectively data being available. As maps can be understood in a modern sense as tools to order information by their spatial context they are interfaces between data and humans which several functions, such as enable human users to interact with data, to answer location-related questions, to support spatial behaviour, to enable spatial problem solving or simply to be able to become aware of space and to gain awareness and understanding the role of cartographic interfaces and visualisation techniques in context of newest media is crucial for all domains dealing with spatial data.
Modern Cartography can be characterized as a domain making use of ever more new modern technologies for all parts of the spatial data handling processes, including data acquisition (e.g. UAVs currently), data modelling (e.g. service-oriented architectures, cloud computing), data visualisation and dissemination (e.g. Location-based Services, augmented-reality). In this context maps have become not only visual instruments but also tools for interaction and synchronisation of knowledge.