Cartography in Geomatics Curriculum – The Czech Example

This paper describes the actual cartographic courses in geomatics curriculum of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (UWB) in the Czech Republic – their state-of-the-art, proposed changes and future plans. The proposed changes are based on changes in cartography and geomatics, too, experience in geomatics education and feedbacks from students and graduates. The purpose of this paper is not only to introduce our cartographic courses and geomatics curriculum, but also to arouse a discussion and to offer, share and gain inspiration, experience and knowledges. Last but not least there is an attempt to the emphasis of the importance of cartography in geoinformation sciences.

Why does the geomatics curriculum of UWB and its cartographic courses serve as an example of the relation of cartography and geomatics and an example of significance of cartography? Studies of geomatics in the Czech Republic have been founded in 1995 at the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. But a teaching of geo-related sciences at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen has longer history. Czech cartographer Jiri Pysek had founded studies of mathematical cartography at the Faculty of Education in 1991.

Geomatics have continued mathematical cartography, therefore cartographic courses have played an important role in geomatics curriculum always. Presently there are three main specializations at the study programme Geomatics: surveying and cadastre of real estates, geographic information systems and cartography. Just cartography represents the one of connecting links of all three specializations – the need of visualisation of spatial data via cartographic methods. (Baranova et al., 2007), (Geomatika, 2007-10)

Cartographic courses in geomatics curriculum of UWB
International organization for normalization (ISO) defines geomatics as "scientific and technical interdisciplinary branch focused on collecting, distributing, storing, analyzing, processing and presenting of geographical data or geographical information" (Sima, 2007). Geomatics represents the characteristic interdisciplinary scientific branch. Geomatics deals with collecting, distribution, storing, analyses, processing, interpretation and visualisation of spatial data and geographical information.

Those data comes from many different sources and are collected by various ways of surveying, cosmical surveying, mapping, cartography, remote sensing and photogrammetry. For their processing, administration and analysing information technology GIS is used. From the view of cartography it is important that the final representation and distribution of collected and processed spatial data is managed by cartographic methods and tools. (Cerba et al., 2009)

UWB geomatics curriculum offers two types of cartographic courses – the courses directly focused on cartography, geovisualization and mapping (e.g. thematic cartography, computer cartography, mathematical cartography, mapping, topography mapping etc.) and the courses applying the cartographic, mapping and geovisualization pieces of knowledge for a construction of outputs of analyses and/or collected data sets (e.g. introduction of geographic information systems and other GIS courses, application of computer technology in surveying, cadastre of real estates etc.). There are also some other courses (e.g. computer graphics, geodesy, photogrammetry, remote sensing etc.) marginally using some methods or approaches of cartography. (Baranova et al., 2007), (Geomatika, 2007-10), (Cerba et al., 2009)

The following list shows the actual content of cartographic part of geomatics curriculum in the UWB.

• Mathematical cartography 1 – Form of Earth solid, reference surfaces, deformations laws, kinds of projections. Conical, cylindrical, azimuthal projections. Polyconical projection. Significance of geodesic line in cartographic projection, geodesic curve.

• Mathematical cartography 2 – Problem formulation in mathematical cartography, first quadratical form and consequences. Theory of projection, class of orthogonal projections (TJ2) and properties, kinds of projections in TJ2. Optimisation and classification of cartographic projections, choice of projection for different purposes.

• Thematic cartography – Cartography as the science, contents and cartographic conveying tools in the map of medium and small scales. map language, map symbols, visual variables, map stylistics. History of cartography till the 18. century. Thematic maps in the Czech Republic at medium and large scales.

• Computer cartography – Terminology of computer and Internet cartography. Maps on the Internet, e-publishing, web publishing and their specifics for cartography. Markup languages in computer cartography – spatial data formats, schema languages, transformation languages, graphic structures. Accessibility of computer and Internet maps.

• Cartographic reproduction and polygraphy – Development of reproducing and printing technology in relation to maps and plans duplicating. Reproducing photography, copying technology. Special printing technologies, reprographic technologies.

• Mapping – History of creating the maps and plans at large scales. Cadastral mapping based on scientific knowledge. Application of the results of large scale mapping to the compilation of topographic maps. State Map of the CSR. Technic-Economical Mapping. Maintenance and updating of large scale maps. The Large Scale Basic Map. Cadastral Map. Thematic large scale maps. Geodetic documentation of completed constructions. Survey sketch and updating of digital cadastral maps.

• Topographical mapping – Topographic maps and their typical features. History of topographic mapping. State base and thematic map series at medium scales. Methodology of topographic map evaluation. Historical and up-to-date methods of planimetric and altimetric survey in topographic mapping. Forms of terrain relief. Methods of topographic map updating till 2000 and now. Fundamental Base of Geographic Data. Digital terrain model – methods of creating and its applications. Cartographic processing and editing of state map series – conventional and digital technologies.

Cartography in the scope of geomatics curriculum of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen is still focusing on increase of practical activities, upgrading of supporting materials, link between other courses and including solutions to joint projects. Students can apply and verify their cartographic skills not only during exams, but also by the cooperation on various projects (e.g. maps for handicapped, mapping of the temporal development of hiking routes, geovisualisation of Jewish cemeteries, algorithm development of isolines from triangulated irregular network etc.).

Changes and future plans
During the creation and updating of geomatics curriculum and cartographic courses in geomatics study programme in UWB we continually ask ourselves.

1.Are changes in content of cartographic courses necessary?

2.Is it meaningful to teach standard cartography for geomatics experts? Or should we focused only on some selected parts of cartography?

Continuous changes of the content of geomatics courses including cartography courses are necessary without question. Because these courses must reflect current tendencies in geomatics, mapping, geovisualisation and education and requirements of job markets. Our improvements and changes are inspired by topics described in Research Agenda of International Cartographic Association (Virrantaus & Fairbairn, 2007).

The third information revolution is the second reason for changes of geomatics curriculum and cartographic courses. The third information revolution represents the main general change in last years and decades. Cartography is significantly influenced by development of information technologies (IT) including web solutions. It could have seem that cartography will loose its significance and it will be only some kind of service for visualization of spatial data.

But IT have brought many new cartographic and cartography-related products, which are very popular and must be still developed, improved and integrated with education. Except paper maps the current cartography works with products like electronic maps and atlases, web and/or mobile applications, 3D models of landscape or buildings, scene animations, virtual reality models and geoimages of multimedia character, products of context cartography or temporal mapping.

Do geomatics experts need cartographic education? We think so, because all possibilities of practical applications of geomatics experts necessitate the knowledge of cartography and its methods of visualization of spatial data. All results of geomatics activities (e.g. GIS analyses, remote sensing, sensor measuring, field survey etc.) are mostly accessible in the form of maps or related products (e.g. plans, 3D model, globes, etc.).

Maps and other related products represents models of real world. They make possible to eliminate margin components of real world, to emphasise important objects or to interconnect phenomenons and events without real relationships. Therefore such products represent very attractive and intelligible conversion of complicated spatial data to graphic view.

The following list contain some concrete changes of cartographic courses of geomatics curriculum of UWB, which will be realized in the near future.

• In the framework of changes we prepare new courses – Cartographic visualisation of geodata (focused on practical cartography and geovisualization), Cartographic methods of processing of geodata (basics of cartographic projections, transformation of reference systems), Methods of thematic mapping (modern methods of building and updating of thematic maps), Information technologies for geodata (web services, mobile applications) and History and development of cartography (presently there are only some fragments of cartographic history divided in different courses).

• Application of information technologies, geoinformation technologies and web technologies. The term cartographer means the capability to continuously integrate and use new technologies (Zentai, 2009). We are dealing with portal solutions (map portals and education portals), map servers, application of XML (Extensible Markup Languages) and related technologies. Our experts also participate on development of some open source products like Geoserver. In the future we would like to present our cartographic outputs more through web services (Web Mapping Service, Web Coverage Service or vector visualization of spatial data provided by Web Feature Service).

• Distance learning and e-learning. Now many documents, presentations, links, examples and other materials (mainly in Czech) are at disposal on the server www.gis.zcu.cz/en. These materials are still updating. In the future we would like to test and apply modern e-learning technologies like web 2.0 solutions (e.g. sharing documents and collaborative work), audio and video conferences or robust e-learning systems.

• Professional education and lifelong education. The importance of lifelong education is still growing. Therefore we prepare programmes and courses (focused on geomatics, geoinformatics, digital cartography etc.) connected with professional education of geomatics experts, surveyors, state administration and geography teachers. These activities are using materials mentioned in previous item of this list.

• The cartographic research in geomatics department is and will be focused on following activities (except above mentioned web services and markup languages): Visualisation of dynamic data sets and thematic geodatabases, transformations of reference systems, georeferencing and presentations of old and historical maps through web solutions, data modelling (including ontologies) in cartography, development and improvement of new cartographic methods and approaches including the education methods and evaluation of new cartographic products. The research of the Geomatics section (including above described cartographic research) is focusing on temporal aspects of geomatics in general.

• It is still important to be focused on practical activities, relationships between other (not only geomatics) courses and cooperation including solutions to joint projects.

• The presentation of our department, geomatics curriculum and cartographic courses is last but not least. We want to design and build the new version of web pages using the web 2.0 technologies (e.g. RSS, GeoRSS, blogs, social networks etc.). These pages should be personalized to make possible to provide information to our students, former and potential students, geomatics experts and public too. In the term of international cooperation it is necessary to create also the English and German version of our web pages.

Conclusion
Any present-day GIT expert and geomatics engineers does not get along without maps and other cartographic products. Because cartographic outputs form the basis of the majority of geoinformation processes and these products are most often evaluated and of course shopped by public.

Therefore common cartographic education is still very important in the term of geomatics curriculum. It should not be replaced by some “simplified or limited cartography” focused on selected cartographic methods and rules applied in current software products. The document “Cartographia Catholica” (Cada & Cerba, 2009) describes some common points to improve cartography and cartographic education:

• reduction (not replacing) of rules, methods and approaches, which are useless or meaningless in the context of modern cartography,

• interconnection of cartography with other scientific branches, but also with public,

• integration of new technologies, methods and approaches.

The knowledge of cartographic rules and books should not be the result of cartographic education. Cartographic education should lead to the ability to design and construct a map or map-related products. Such product must keep all cartographic rules but above all it must satisfy all user requirements. The education in the field of cartography is very important in the light of overall improvement of cartographic culture and standards.

References
1.BARANOVA, M., CADA, V., CERBA, O., JEDLICKA, K., JEZEK, J., SIMA, J.. 2008. Studies of Geomatics at the University of West Bohemia. In Proceedings 1. Sofia: International Cartographic Association, 2008. s. 133-137. ISBN 978-954-724-036-0.
2.CADA, V., CERBA, O. 2009. Cartografia Catholica. In 18. kartografická konference, Olomouc, 2009.
3.CERBA, O., JEDLICKA, K., JEZEK, J. 2009. Geospatial Data Visualisation in Geomatics Curriculum. In 24. International Cartographic Conference, Santiago, Chile. International Cartographic Association, 2009.
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5.SIMA, J. 2007. Geomatics And Geoinformatics In Modern Information Society – Projection Of New Trends Into Their Curricula At The University Of West Bohemia In Pilsen [online]. In Scientia Est Potentia – Knowledge Is Power, FIG Commission 2 Symposium, Prague (Czech Republic), 7-9 June 2007. Resource http://gama.fsv.cvut.cz/data/geoinformatics/2007/06/07-09/papers/Jiri_Sima__Geomatics_and_geoinformatics_in_modern_information_society.doc.
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