Thematic Cartography and Geovisualization

Terry Slocum is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Kansas where he taught cartography and statistics for 35 years, and chaired the Department of Geography for 8 years. His research interests have included data exploration, map animation, visualizing uncertainty, stereoscopic displays, history of thematic mapping, and color usage on maps. He has published in numerous refereed journals, including Cartography and Geographic Information Science, Cartographica, The Cartographic Journal, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Journal of Geoscience Education, and Journal of Geography. Professor Slocum has been affiliated with six grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, and received two Teacher Appreciation Awards from the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kansas. He has chaired 14 dissertation and thesis committees and served on more than 75 dissertation and thesis committees.Robert B. McMaster is Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, and Professor of Geography, at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities. His research interests include automated generalization, environmental risk assessment, Geographic Information Science and society, and the history of U.S. academic cartography. He has authored or edited seven books on cartography and GIS, and his papers have been published in The American Cartographer, Cartographica, The International Yearbook of Cartography, Geographical Analysis, Cartography and GIS, and the International Journal of GIS. He served as editor of the journal Cartography and Geographic Information Systems from 1990-1996. He has served as President of the United States’ Cartography and Geographic Information Society, President of UCGIS, and Vice President of the International Cartographic Association. Robert served a three-year term on the National Research Council’s Mapping Science Committee (2005-2008). In 2010, he was named GIS Educator of the Year by the University Consortium on Geographic Information Science. In 2013 he was named Fellow of UCGIS.Fritz Kessler is a Teaching Professor with Penn State. His teaching interests span cartography, statistics, and geography of health. His research focus spans several topics in cartography that include map projections, geometric and geopotential datums, history of thematic mapping, and data exploration. He has published in numerous refereed journals, including Cartography and Geographic Information Science, Cartographica, Cartographic Perspectives, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Journal of Geography, and GeoJournal. He also coauthored a book with Dr. Sarah Battersby (at Tableau) titled Working with Map Projections: A Guide to their Selection. He is a former President of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) and a board member to the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS). His cartographic background is not limited to academia but has evolved through a several professional positions including Ohio University’s Cartographic Center, USGS Water Resource Division, Intergraph Corporation, R. R. Donnelley and Sons, and the University of Kansas’ T. R. Smith Map Library. Hugh Howard is a professor of GIS at American River College in Sacramento, California, which hosts one of the largest GIS programs in the nation. He is the GIS Coordinator, Geosciences Department Chair, and currently teaches five GIS courses, including Cartographic Design for GIS. Hugh earned his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Kansas specializing in cartographic design, and developed an expert system software application to aid students in designing better maps. In 2019, he won an Excellence in Education award from the California Geographic Information Association (CGIA), and a Lifetime Achievement in Geospatial Two-Year College Education award from the GeoTech Center (an NSF-funded National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence). Hugh has worked as a cartographer for the U.S. Forest Service, the City of San Francisco, CB Richard Ellis, and Cartographics. He also taught GIS and managed GIS labs at Stanford University and San Francisco State University.

• Chapter 1. Introduction, Chapter 2. A Historical Perspective on Thematic Cartography, Chapter 3. Statistical and Graphical Foundation, Chapter 4. Principles of Symbolization, Chapter 5. Data Classification, Chapter 6. Scale and Generalization, Chapter 7. The Earth and Its Coordinate System, Chapter 8. Elements of Map Projections, Chapter 9. Selecting an Appropriate Map Projection, Chapter 10. Principles of Color, Chapter 11. Map Elements, Chapter 12. Typography, Chapter 13. Cartographic Design, Chapter 14. Map Reproduction, Chapter 15. Choropleth Mapping, Chapter 16. Dasymetric Mapping, Chapter 17. Isarithmic Mapping, Chapter 18. Proportional Symbol Mapping, Chapter 19. Dot Mapping, Chapter 20. Cartograms, Chapter 21. Flow Mapping, Chapter 22. Multivariate Mapping, Chapter 23. Visualizing Terrain, Chapter 24. Map Animation, Chapter 25. Data Exploration, Chapter 26. Geovisual Analytics, Chapter 27. Visualizing Uncertainty,Chapter 28. Virtual Environments and Augmented Reality

Interest in professional cartography has decreased since the 1980s at the expense of newer and emergent geographic information systems (GIS) software and related technologies. However, the fourth edition of this classic cartography textbook features significant additions made since its previous edition (2009) and reclaims geographic analysis as the realm of digital cartography. This text is admirably comprehensive in describing the development of the field of modern cartography from the 1950s to the present and surprisingly current in its engagement with the latest research. The text is organized into three main parts covering, respectively, principles, techniques, and geovisualization. The principles section covers foundational cartographic topics, including symbolization, classification, map projections, and map production. The techniques section covers choropleth maps and more advanced approaches, including highly informative chapters on intelligent dasymetric mapping (IDM) and multivariate mapping. The geovisualization chapters (part 3) include the most significant additions, including details of geovisual data analytics, map animation, and virtual environments. This edition clearly conveys the relevance of digital cartography to the emerging field of data science and will continue to be a required resource for academic programs offering the GIS specialization. This latest version is a teaching resource for undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals offering entrée to the classic and latest cartographic innovations.C. A. Badurek, SUNY CortlandOverall, to my mind, this impressive book stands far above any other cartographic textbook available. I rec­ommend it as required reading for every GIS/cartographic program across academia… and will remain a rich and relevant resource of cartographic and geovisualization knowledge for some years to come.Daniel G. Cole, Smithsonian Institution, published in Cartographic Perspectives #103, 2024 (full review https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/view/1919/2283)Slocum, McMaster, Kessler, and Howard have done an excellent job in both updating the previous edition and adding new material. This is a first-class textbook that I recommend without reservation. Thematic cartography and visualization are, in my view, increasingly important topics. The basic elements of cartography remain central, but students must be exposed to the latest cutting-edge visualization techniques, which this volume does very well.Fraser Taylor, Carleton University, published in Cartographica, Vol. 59, No. 2, 2024 (full review https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/cart-2024-0011)The long-awaited update of this book is welcomed. It provides a good overview of many developments in recent cartographic research in a manner that is accessible to upper-level undergraduate students or (post-)graduate students. Its breadth might mean that students need to purchase only one book for multiple courses. For those cartographic practitioners who may have come to the discipline from another industry and who are looking to increase their technical knowledge, this is also a fine reference that introduces the scholarship that sits behind many mapping techniques. Amy L. Griffin, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia – Published in the International Journal of Cartography, 05 Nov 2024 (full review: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23729333.2024.2423320)