If a man’s face is his autobiography and a woman’s face her work of fiction, as Oscar Wilde wrote, then a country’s face is nothing but its map.
Cartography — or the science of map-making — is among the earliest human endeavors to chart out the world and understand it. The spirit of human ingenuity, unquenchable zeal, and the desire to make sense of the broader world and connect with it led to this.
Maps have accompanied the rise and fall of empires, the discovery of new lands, and the drawing of boundaries, along with vanishing of the old and forging of the new. They have been central to the human story in its sublime beauty as well as dismaying horror.
There’s no history without maps. And not just history. More than anything else, cartography defines the ambiguous past and delineates the chaotic present.
Eric Hobsbawm divided modern history into four ages. History of cartography can be likewise divided into different eras. Maps capture the zeitgeist of an era like very few artefacts do. From rudimentary forms of maps made on caves, to the age of Herodotus, to Papal Bull and Magna Carta, to the dawn of colonialism, and the final unravelling of empires and the beginning of national liberation movements, maps narrated it all.
With the digital age, maps received a new boost through GIS and geospatial data. The utility increased and extended to all human avenues. Today we have reached a stage where mapping is everywhere and is connecting, powering, and advancing almost everything, from the humdrum to the spectacular, and from the banal to the ground breaking.
‘An Ode to Maps’ sounds too mawkish a tribute to something that changes forms and constantly reinvents itself. Maps are a palimpsest of humanity, with multiple layers of knowledge, history and experience adding on forever.
Let’s look at the roller-coaster ride of cartography
Ancient Greeks are said to be among the first to use maps for navigation. The philosopher Anaximander was an ancient pioneer of map-making. Herodotus, known as father of history in the west, was also an accomplished early mapmaker.
The known world of that time depicted ancient Greece as the world’s center along with its outer flanks. All of that is buried in the pages of time now with a geographic redolence.
Ptolemy started designing maps using a coordinate system of latitudes and longitudes that were known at that time. This system, with modifications, continued till centuries later, and a modern avatar of it is still used today.
Ancient China is credited with a lot of vital innovations, from paper to gunpowder to compass. As the vast ‘Middle Kingdom’, Chinese emperors patronized map-making to ensure that they know from where threats could emanate along with finding the best route for traders to carry their wares.
In the fourth century BC, China made maps using wood blocks and silk. Some of the ancient Chinese maps depict settlements as well as undulating landscapes and dizzying physical terrain.
Chinese cartography progressed under different dynasties and reached its pinnacle around mid-1500s when a comprehensive atlas was produced using a grid system.
Niall Ferguson summarized the history of British empire as a story of pirates, planters, missionaries, mandarins, bankers, and bankrupts. But long before the freebooters and the privateers sailed in the torrid seas, it was the explorers, navigators and intrepid merchants who set out to discover new regions. The human quest for enterprise and exploring the unknown predated glory to the crown.
Donis map projection, or equidistant parallels and meridians meeting towards the poles, was invented by Nicholas Germanus in the 15th century. Around the same time, the first map of Americas was prepared by Juan De Carlos, a fellow sailor of Christopher Columbus.
A few years later, a Portuguese named Dieago Ribiero created a map that showed Pacific Ocean and the boundaries of South and Central America.
Mapping coincided not just with the colonial project but with the story of innovation and migration, of national formations and pan-national consciousness.
Arguably, the most widely used term in modern cartography that’s taught in schools and colleges, and is the standard in mapping projections today. If you feel some countries and continents appear over-bloated and others shrunk, then blame the projection.
Named after Flemish cartographer Geradus Mercator, it was a revolution in modern map-making. It standardized the practice of representing south pointed downwards and north upwards, while keeping directions intact.
Technological advancements post the industrial revolution further led to new inventions in cartography and refinement in map-making. National mapping agencies such as the Ordnance Survey and the United States Geological Survey have been at its forefront since their inception.
GIS, or the Geographic Information System, is the immersive art of pinpointing any location anywhere on the map. It’s the fulcrum of digital economies and a vital enabler of multiple sectors. It powers our vision, reveals what’s hidden, helps arrange patterns, and is a key driver of tomorrow.
For the sake of a better analogy, it can be said that the development of GIS was akin to the digital and computational revolution combined in geography and cartography.
The development of GIS started in the 1960s, coinciding with other pathbreaking innovations such as semiconductors, computing, the space program, or the mostly overlooked modern containerization that’s crucial to logistics today.
All these developments were to transform the world and kickstart a new era, and GIS was the thread that linked all of them. Convergence may seem like a worn-out trope today, but the role of GIS in enabling true tech convergence cannot be understated.
Great things often have nondescript beginnings and a forgettable trajectory, until their value skyrockets and they become household names. The story of GIS is the same.
What started as a Canadian government commissioned project to manage natural resource inventory in 1963 is today worth billions of dollars, powering sectors from last-mile delivery to infrastructure and defense, pivoting the dawn of Industry 4.0 and the era of interoperability.
Roger Tomlinson, a Canadian Geographer, is both the pioneer of GIS and the man who coined the term while working on the Canadian government project.
During the same time, a man named Howard Fischer at the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics was also playing a ground-breaking role in the evolution of the fledgling GIS. In 1964, Fischer created a computer mapping program known as Synmap. A year later he founded the Harvard laboratory which followed a truly interdisciplinary ethos and included scientists, planners, geographers as its members.
In 2019, journalist Charles C. Mann wrote a book, intriguingly titled The Wizard and the Prophet. It was about a pioneering agronomist and a leading ecologist and how their clashing visions shaped the future of the modern world.
Similarly, the saga of GIS is also incomplete without two remarkable individuals who played a seminal role from its genesis to its mass adoption. Here, there were no competing visions, but complementary efforts and aligned mission.
Hailed as the Father of GIS, Roger Tomlinson’s vision was to use computers to collate and merge all the natural resources data of Canada’s provinces. He developed the first GIS in 1967 for the Canada Land Inventory and mentored the GIS fraternity for long. He was also inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and served as Chairman of the International Geographical Union GIS Commission for 12 years. He was also the president of the Canadian Association of Geographers.
The other person in the story is Esri Founder Jack Dangermond. Forbes called him ‘Godfather of Digital Maps’ in 2016 and he’s also widely referred to as the ‘Godfather of GIS’.
As an entrepreneur, Dangermond was the trailblazer in recognizing the enormous potential of geospatial and digital maps. Esri was the lone shining star in GIS for many years. Often called the Microsoft of GIS, Esri’s ArcGIS is of great utility for everyone from city planners, business enterprises, environmentalists, community health professionals, to first responders in emergency outbreaks.
One of the significant factors that contributed to the global reach of digital maps and the rise of invaluable location economy that is today at the core of pathbreaking innovations, was the United States opening GPS for civilian use.
Initially released for public in 1993 but deliberately scrambled for ‘security reasons’, which led to inaccuracies in pinpointed location, by 2000, the US government did away with all the constraints. This was a momentous decision that led to more than tenfold increase in GPS accuracy for civilian applications and enabled the rise of modern navigation systems and Location-based services, making it possible for GPS to be in every low-range smartphone around the world.
On came Google Maps in 2005, which, for the first time, used a mix of aerial photography, satellite imagery, and local street maps. This was another milestone as it completely democratized the power of maps and location intelligence.
Today, digitalization has converted smartphones into everything from a chaotic bulletin board to a barometer of civic agitation and rumblings. Digital maps and location intelligence is a thriving industry now that undergirds the sprawling network of connectivity unlocked by the internet and the smartphones.
Google Maps and other detailed maps have emerged at the core of the gig economy as well as the new platform-as-a-service business model. From route optimization for a food delivery to estimating footfall at a cinema hall or shopping mart, the combination of location intelligence and digital maps is at play.
In 2011, Google added the Indoor Maps feature, which was quickly followed by many others in the fray. Indoor Maps provide the accurate mapping layout of the interiors of any building, residential area, public complex, or large establishments. It helps in contingency planning, emergency response as well as increases efficiency and saves time for businesses.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, GIS and location intelligence played a key role in everything from tracking, tracing, caseload visualization, city monitoring and managing supply of essential goods.
‘Data being the new oil’ has become hackneyed to the point of exhaustion. But what’s noteworthy is the role of GIS and digital maps in refining, processing, and analyzing data.
To borrow another analogy from the oil industry — it’s the distillation of the raw data via tools such as GIS that yields customized outcomes from fields as varied as supply chains, logistics, manufacturing, retail, analytics, customer relationship management and any other form of mapping or spatial prediction.
With the increasing convergence between tech players and their bid to outdo each other and exceed customer expectations, adoption of GIS/ geospatial has transcended sectors and industry verticals. Be it surveyors, mapping agencies, marketeers, planners, geeks, traders, or travelers, the world without digital maps is inconceivable.
Maps have always been at the core of mankind and its companion through ages, as we have seen. So, it’s banal to repeat for whom they were meant – humans, of course, goes the obvious answer. But HD (High Definition) maps have radically redefined that. These are centimeter accuracy level, highly precise maps, designed for autonomous vehicles, made using data gathered using LiDAR, Radar, GPS, cameras, and other sensors. These maps are updated real-time using ultra-high-speed connectivity and can be used for predictive analytics as well. The global HD maps market size is expected to hit USD 17 billion by 2028.
From smart mobility to IoT-driven future of logistics, all hinge on HD maps. A normal HD map comprises of five layers: real-time layer, map prior layer, semantic layer, geometric map layer, and base map layer. One of the main difficulties currently in creating HD maps is that they require ultra-high speed and bandwidth to transfer enormous amount of data in real-time. Once 5G arrives on the scene, HD maps will receive a fillip.
When Rise of Machines, singularity, or fully automated age of IoT, connected devices and robotics is deemed to be the future, how can maps be behind in adapting to it?
Just like our forefathers used maps for wayfaring, for migration, and to look for safe zones in case of calamities, in the future, autonomous vehicles, with the help of HD maps, will ensure that we commute safely and goods are delivered to the last mile in the most optimized manner. It will reshape identity, behavior, and mobility yet again as all past mapping evolutions did.
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