ANALYTICAL CONCEPTS IN EARLY COMPUTER CARTOGRAPHY

AND LATE NATIONAL TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING IN THE UNITED

STATES
Dalia Varanka

United States Geological Survey

Mid-Continent Geographic Science Center

With the exception of a few individuals, academic and government researchers in the United States started the transition from
manual and photo-assisted techniques of cartography to computer-assisted cartography and geographic analysis in the 1970s.
Although collaboration between government and academic cartographers started from the beginning of this transition, these two
groups developed differing concepts, practices, and technology. This heritage is still present in concepts of a mapping infrastructure
for the country today. This study examines the transition of the national topographic survey to new technologies within the context
of its institutional past and how that legacy affected government domestic mapping in contrast to the effect of the contemporary
academic cartographic research.

EARLY ANALYTICAL CARTOGRAPHY IN THE DIGITAL TRANSITION

In the last quarter of the 20th century, cartographers predicted that the digital transition in mapping would have the following affects:
the speed and efficiency of map-making would be increased, with a subsequent fear of unemployment. They also expected
cartography theory would develop more quickly (Morrison, 1977). New mapping technology challenged researchers to call for a
redefinition of what constitutes cartography (Morrison, 1974). This paper will examine topographic mapping in the digital transition
and analyze the changes that a cartographic form, whose importance is international in scope and has lasted for centuries, took as a
result of the introduction of computers and related technologies. This paper examines what topographic mapping changes occurred
as a result of the digital transition, and whether or not these changes are in response to the implementation of digital technology, or
to the social role of topographic mapping. What applications does research aim to address, and what analytical methods were
implemented with topographic mapping, in either data or functional form? In the United States, topographic mapping was
performed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a designated science research organization. Thus, its work is compared relative to
academic mapping because of the mutual research mission.
The United States was not the leader in the digital transition in cartography. Digital mapping is believed to have started as early as
the 1960s, before the USGS had plans to implement new technology. In 1973, the Commission on Automation in Cartography of the
International Cartographic Association met in Hungary. A review of the final report of the Commission states that many countries
contributed reports of varying, but about equal, quality (Monmonier, 1976). Most of these early projects are closed, though some
research problems are still unresolved. One topic investigated in depth by the ICA Commission was generalization, still a major
research topic that persists today.
Other avenues for the dissemination of transition problems in cartography included journals such as The American Cartographer
(later called Cartography and Geographic Information Science) and Cartographica. Analytical methods were found more often in
Geographical Analysis. A quick review of the professional literature indicates that in general, mathematical methods in cartography
were practiced earlier in geography. Cartography was dependent on computers to imbed mathematical analysis in the cartographic
form, with or without associated attribution. In the United States, statistical cartography has been practiced since at least 1800 in
conjunction with the U.S. census (Friis, 1974), but took on a more contemporary meaning after the Quantitative Revolution of the
late 1950s and 1960s. Projections were studied for many centuries as a topic of cartography. Also tied to geodesy, early image
analysis addressed questions of applicability and registration to cartography. Some concepts of analogue cartography translated
directly to digital cartography. Digital methods of imitating existing cartographic techniques, such as drawing the line work or map
symbology, were practiced from the beginning of the application of computers. The idea of maps as a geographical information
storage device brought mapping databases into the same coincident concept as the graphic image. The greater use of attribution for
analytical functions is a primary way that geographic information systems (GIS) software became differentiated from analytical

cartography. Computer-assisted cartography can be considered to be at one end of a range, and perhaps analytical cartography at the
other, of the full potential to exploit the capabilities of computers.
Analytical cartography is only a part of the general field of computational geography and as a synthesis of, and with strong ties to,
geography, mathematics, and computer science. In this historical period, the concept of GIS will be included synonymously by
referring to its same theoretical, if not technological, meanings. The term analytical cartography and perhaps its strongest statement
as a sub-discipline is attributed to an article by Waldo Tobler in the 1970s (Tobler, 1976), but mathematical measures were applied
to the map design for psycho-perceptual studies before then (Monmonier, 1974). Toblers intention was to forge cartographic
techniques for geographical analysis. The key topics that Tobler introduced in the 1970s included multi-dimensional scaling,
geodesy, map generalization, and pattern recognition. The basic definitions of a map were reorganized based on the technological
state of its form (Moellering, 1977). For example, Tobler considered visualization, the traditional function of mapping, to be a data
reduction technique and a form of generalization rather than a type of graphic design. A verbal allegiance emerged for establishing a
scientific basis for cartography.
By 1980, books began to be published on computerassisted cartography. In many of these texts, references to previous computer
cartography articles or other literature were still few. The American Cartographer had published only a few articles on analytical
cartography between 1974 and 1983, though analytical methods found wide publication in a number of journals of geography.
Monmoniers early book (Monmonier, 1982) stresses basic database concepts and data models, set theory for overlay, local
operators for interpolation, matrix operators for transformations, and map surface feature design, and briefly mentions remote
sensing image analysis. Analytical cartography was further developed in the 1980s, expanding the number of topics in theory,
analysis, and implementation. In 1990, C. Dana Tomlin published cartographic modeling techniques that incorporated functions and
characterized locations (Tomlin, 1990). The difference in the development of computer-assisted cartography and analytical
cartography within this decade demonstrates remarkable growth in the discipline.
In 1974, the first AutoCarto conference met at USGS National Center in Reston, Virginia. A number of subsequent AutoCarto
meetings were sponsored, at least in part, by the USGS. Participants at the AutoCarto conferences contributed from a wide range of
government institutions, academic disciplines, and other nations. However, a gap between government and academic analytical
cartography has been noted (Tobler, 1976; Moellering, 2000). Clarke and Clouds writings of the historical roots of GIS in postWorld War II military geodesy and Cold War imagery (Clarke and Cloud, 2000) suggested the reason for this may be the clandestine
nature of government operations or the inclination of government personnel to continue their careers in government agencies instead
of academic departments. Other literature on the digital transition in cartography suggests the roles of personalities involved were a
key factor, and that intellectual creativity was nurtured in universities (Petchenick, 1988; Foresman, 1998). Both of these
explanations point to communities and professional cultures as a strong impact in structuring the resulting work. Interaction existed
for decades between principle actors in academia and government at conferences and in books of compilations of papers. Though the
USGS had a wide array of programs in the 1970s through the 1990s, the specific activities of a field office exemplifies topographic
mapping as a priority best. Cartographic products of various kinds were being produced at five National Mapping Division Centers,
but the Mid-Continent Mapping Center and the Rocky Mountain Mapping Center had the primary responsibility to produce
topographic maps. The developments discussed in this paper originated at the Mid-Continent Mapping Center, which still supports a
strong geographic information (GI) science focus.

THE AUTOMATION OF TOPOGRAPHIC MAP PRODUCTION

Topographic mapping is mapping done to a large enough scale to allow the map reader to recognize and depict cultural landscape
features and the shape of the land by using a consistent set of symbols. Topographic maps prepared to scale appear as early as the
sixteenth century and are rooted in, and often are still used for local navigational purposes (Harvey, 1980). National topographic
mapping once-over coverage, or the completion of a 1:24,000 scale quadrangle map series covering the entire United States was
carried out by the USGS between the late 1880s up to about 1991. Mapping began with surveyors going to the field with plane tables
and alidades, and after the 1930s, with aerial photographs to establish ground control and to classify features on the photography.
The photos were brought back to the stereoplotters introduced in the 1940s, as diapositives for photogrammetric compilation. As the
operator traced features from the diapositives, the pantograph traced ink on the scribecoat for map compilation.
New initiatives were launched by the National Mapping Division of the USGS headquarters in the mid- to late-1960s to move
topographic mapping toward cybermatics (computer automation). A long-range plan for mapping in 1963 by the Office of Research
and Technical Standards aimed to automate integral parts of the mapping program by 1965. Autoplot machines were installed in

field offices by 1968 that plotted the neatline for the maps to an exact standard on scribe coat that became the base the
photogrammetrists used for drawing all other features in ink before scribing them by hand. They remained in use until at least 1977.
The Autoline device originally designed for redrafting manuscript maps came to be applied to the digitizing of published map
separates. Autoline was an adaptation of a milling machine to copy linework as an automated scriber (1965) then expanded to
capture digital data. However, autoline use decreased because problems with line intersections limited the application to contour
lines (McHaffie, 2002).
The beginning of the USGS investment in digital cartography began in 1971 with the purchase of the first digitizers and in-house
development of raster digitizing scanner. These events led to the development of Digital Line Graph (DLG) format for archiving
map data in digital format using a manually digitized arc/node structure. The Unified Cartographic Line Graph Encoding System
(UCLGES) was software that processed digital data digitized from existing topographical maps into DLGs, creating arc/node
structures as features were digitized. The Digital Line Graph data were available by 1975, but the system was slow. Topology had to
be manually organized before being coded by the software. The Automated Area Processing software developed at the USGS
automated topology, but other problems persisted. The operating system on the 1970s IBM computers had memory management
difficulties, and the output was directed to plotters, not to databases, to store digital features.
The Mid-Continent Mapping Center (MCMC) sought a process to speed up the production of maps. Automation of the actual
production process for maps began at MCMC in 1977 and 1978 with the work of John Powell and R.L. Brown, and continued with
work by Ken Boyko and Lynn Usery. This ultimately resulted in the Digital Cartograpic Software System (DCASS) for digitizing
during photogrammetric compilation and, later, in the cartographic editing process, the Graphic Map Production System
(GRAMPS), developed by Dallas Levitt and others. Kern-PG2 and Wild B8 stereo plotters were retrofitted with 3 axis digitizers
writing xyz coordinates to 9-track digital tape on Sel computers, and then to an Autoplotter to make a map. Digital data sets were
attributed by voice recognition or keyboard entry. The software automatically detected and corrected a number of data errors, such
as splitting lines at nodes of line intersections or correcting T intersections where the lines overlap or fall short of each other. This
was possible by using the attributes for comparisons between features. By compiling the digital features in a database, input for
further mapping came directly from the compilation, not the cartography process as with UCGLES (Boyko, 1984). GRAMPS
resulted in a viable automated capability for production of map separates, albeit only for the new provisional maps. In the early
1980s, DCASS and UCLGES were co-exiting productions systems, but the DCASS system was able to produce the first fully
digitally quadrangle map, of Birch Tree, Missouri, in 1983 (figure 1).
Implementing the digital procedures that were produced changed the production of other USGS products as well. Some of the
functions automated existing manual procedures, but other functions mathematically calculated new information. The integration of
contour lines and hydrologic drainages was accomplished with conformal transformations. The development of DCASS led to a new
way of producing Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). Using DCASS, DEMs became software interpolated in the map compilation
process (Boyko, 1982). The input to the process was scanned contour lines in two dimensions and, using bilinear interpolation,
calculated the z coordinate for elevation. The software could detect intersecting arcs and the adjacent areas, place a point in the
polygons, and clip off loose ends. The production of DEMs was contracted to industry, which adapted this method as the standard.
Also, mapping needs motivated the mapping center to invent innovative hardware for the production work. For example, the
engineering shop at MCMC built a digitizing system that filtered the number of points that were collected for contour lines.
Eventually, DCASS was converted to automated Pro Six mapping software when the hardware was updated to Data General
computers, and the system was implemented at other mapping centers. UCLGES became known as the DLG Processor when it was
rewritten for the super mini-computer. The MCMC continued to develop other new processes, but developments were stifled by
concerns about cohesion with existing national mapping strategy and plans. These innovations initially were supported at the
mapping center independently of USGS headquarters; as long as the regular mapping was accomplished, some part of the budget
was allocated to support innovation. However, mapping automation was also limited by mapping center management because of the
investments in traditional methods that were still useable. In the early 1980s, 80 to 90 percent of production was still traditional
manual technology. About 550 maps were produced this way in a year, compared to between 20 and 40 maps produced with
DCASS units. In 1985, the Mark II program began to implement digital technology for fully automated topographic map production.
The Mark II program was patterned after the Mark 85 and Mark 90 mapping at the Defense Mapping Agency. After Mark II was
abandoned in 1990, its remaining elements were revised into a process called RevPG. The first digital topographic map to result
from the RevPG program was the Park Ridge IL quadrangle, published in 1993. The photo was printed on the mylar and features
were digitized from the photo image. Printing technology for topographic mapping never became fully digital. The Scitex could
produce color digital copies, and later, negatives could be produced from digital files using an image setter.

Figure 1. Birch Tree, Missouri. The first digitally produced USGS topographical map.

Concurrently, the USGS was developing many systems for natural resource management (see Guptil and others, 1990) within the
Geography Program, a separate institutional entity from topographical mapping, that was established after the introduction of
computers. One particularly notable project for its complex capabilities was the Geographic Information Retrieval and Analysis
System (GIRAS) land use/land cover project (Mitchell and others, 1977). This system offered overlays of political boundaries over
land use data, and statistical aggregation of areas. The National Atlas project implemented automatic feature selection according to
changes in cartographic scale. The sources for these and other computer cartography solutions often were academic papers from
quantitative geography, especially smoothing and filtering routines. These projects aligned themselves more closely to academic
analytical cartography than the traditional topographic mapping, which operated under a long heritage of such national mapping
projects.
Further research on mathematical cartographic analysis for topographic mapping was hindered by production demands, where
prototype products were incorporated before developers were satisfied. Production objectives stunted the full attention that further
research demanded. By continuing to focus on topographical and land use/land cover inventorying, analytical cartography became
just a narrow part of USGS mapping applications. Analytical cartography was practiced from the start of the digital transition, but
the USGS focused on automating the topographic mapping process rather than quantitative geography. A primary cause leading to
the gap was technical and theoretical developments and capabilities versus the programmatic demands and user needs. The
topographical mapping model is justifiable to Congress and the public, but cartographic science research was not proposed. The
National Mapping Division acted as a data provider, not a science research organization. The greater contribution that Federal
topographic mapping made to GI Science may lie in the free and available data that may account, according to some writers, for
fueling the GIS industry in the United States.
However, work on other topics in the discipline of cartography, such as cartographic design, visualization, and education declined as
well. The digital transition in topographic mapping eliminated the scribers job and demanded many more computers. The
theoretical expectation in social science of the effects of automation on labor processes, in this case the cartographers, was that
technology would lead to a decline in the skills of the map makers (McHaffie, 1993; 1995). The digital transition did not diminish
the role of labor, but turned it toward solving the problems of a new technology rather than the old one. Cartographic work changed
from direct interface with the map to using the computer as an intermediary tool. However, internal retraining programs focused on
turning that labor to the intellectual demands of computing rather than design, the difference being that the direct interface with the
map changed to using the computer as an intermediary between human and map. The decline in human aspects of mapping
coincides and may have been affected by the increase of attention to the rise of computer methods.

DIRECTIONS IN ANALYTICAL CONCEPTS OF 21st -- CENTURY TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING

As mapping became more automated, local agencies and businesses became less reliant on USGS data for their GIS and mapping
systems. As production became more locally developed, USGS innovations to coordinate GIS as a national infrastructure resource,
such as the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata standard, took years for the GIS industry and other disciplines to
widely adopt. Moving more greatly into a role of national coordination of spatial data resources, the national mapping program for the
21st century, The National Map, is planned to be built from distributed Internet data sites compiled largely by local and state GIS
organizations. The stated research goals are topics in support of this new structure and focused on data integration and conflation
problems, generalization, standards, and quality assessment.
In 2004, mapping functions were partitioned from the USGS Geography Discipline to the USGS Geographic Information Office,
which will coordinate The National Map, Geospatial One Stop, and the FGDC. This aligns topographic mapping with analytical
cartography again, but maps, both directly as government publications and as data for private map publishers, will mostly be used for
general, relatively simple uses. Such a split is present in academic cartography, too. Universities supported cartography programs with
quantitative methods before the digital transition, but that situation is reversed today. Geographic research conducted by the USGS
Geography Discipline offers analytical methods that complement other science branches. The formation of a geography research
agenda is in greater recognition of the ubiquitous role of human beings on the landscape, previously treated as rather distinct natural
science disciplines of geology, biology, and water studies. A research program for GIScience in this context is currently being
developed (USGS 2005).
Thanks are extended to E. Lynn Usery, Kenneth Boyko, Jeffrey D. Spooner, Eric K. Anderson, Barbara S. Poore, Emitt Witt, and
Kathleen Laub for comments and help in writing this paper, and David Perdue for assistance with graphical presentation. Any use of

trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S.
Government.

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