Coast lines : how mapmakers frame the world and chart environmental change / Mark Monmonier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Monmonier, Mark S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coastal mapping.

Environmental monitoring.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 228 pages) : illustrations, maps

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the next century, sea levels are predicted to rise at unprecedented rates, causing flooding around the world, from the islands of Malaysia and the canals of Venice to the coasts of Florida and California. These rising water levels pose serious challenges to all aspects of coastal existence-chiefly economic, residential, and environmental-as well as to the cartographic definition and mapping of coasts. It is this facet of coastal life that Mark Monmonier tackles in Coast Lines. Setting sail on a journey across shifting landscapes, cartographic technology, and climate change, Monmonier reveals that coastlines are as much a set of ideas, assumptions, and societal beliefs as they are solid black lines on maps. Whether for sailing charts or property maps, Monmonier shows, coastlines challenge mapmakers to capture on paper a highly irregular land-water boundary perturbed by tides and storms and complicated by rocks, wrecks, and shoals. Coast Lines is peppered with captivating anecdotes about the frustrating effort to expunge fictitious islands from nautical charts, the tricky measurement of a coastline's length, and the contentious notions of beachfront property and public access. Combing maritime history and the history of technology, Coast Lines charts the historical progression from offshore sketches to satellite images and explores the societal impact of coastal cartography on everything from global warming to homeland security. Returning to the form of his celebrated Air Apparent, Monmonier ably renders the topic of coastal cartography accessible to both general readers and historians of science, technology, and maritime studies. In the post-Katrina era, when the map of entire regions can be redrawn by a single natural event, the issues he raises are more important than ever.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ONE. DEPICTION AND MEASUREMENT

TWO. DEFINITIONS AND DELINEATIONS

THREE. NEW WORLDS AND FICTITIOUS ISLANDS

FOUR. TRIANGLES AND TOPOGRAPHY

FIVE. OVERHEAD IMAGING

SIX. ELECTRONIC CHARTS AND PRECISE POSITIONING

SEVEN. GLOBAL SHORELINES

EIGHT. BASELINES AND OFFSHORE BORDERS

NINE. CALIBRATING CATASTROPHE

TEN. RISING SEAS, ERODINGSURGE

ELEVEN. CLOSE-UPS AND COMPLEXITY

TWELVE. EPILOGUE

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-214) and index.

ISBN:

9786611965990

9781281965998

1281965995

9780226534046

0226534049

OCLC:

567944133