Project (2009-2011) >> Publications

Abstract: Das Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es, ein Instrument für die Bewertung von sowohl fachspezifischen regionalen Geographie-Lehrbüchern als auch allgemeinen Texten, die den geographischen Raum und seine Teile präsentieren, vorzustellen. Dieses Instrument wurde „Karte der Frequenz von geographischen Namen“ genannt. Die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen dieses Instruments werden am Beispiel des Vergleichs der Gebietsrepräsentation der Region Nord-West-Böhmen in tschechischen Geographie-Lehrbüchern für Grundschulen aus verschiedenen Zeitperioden demonstriert. So wie die Geographiedidaktik als eine wissenschaftliche Disziplin an der Schnittstelle von Pädagogik, Didaktik und Geographie steht, vereint das Instrument „Karte der Frequenz von geographischen Namen“ die traditionellen methodischen Ansätze von pädagogisch-didaktischen Lehrplananalysen mit Methoden der kartographischen Visualisierung und mit einer geographischen Betrachtung des Raumes. Autoren und Autorinnen von Geographie-Lehrbüchern verwenden bei der Präsentation und Beschreibung von Teilen des geographischen Raumes eine spezifische Art von Fachbegriffen – die sogenannte geographische Namenkunde. Geographische Namen sind mehr oder weniger stabile Begriffe mit einer inneren Bedeutung, die eine bestimmte Vorstellung (Image) der Orte und der Gebiete implizieren. Durch ihre Verwendung tragen wir dazu bei, diese innere Bedeutung zu verbreiten und auch eine Beziehung anderer Menschen zu den Orten und Gebieten zu herzustellen. Verschiedene soziale Weltsichten betonen unterschiedliche Werte und schätzen verschiedene Teile des geographischen Raumes; deshalb verwandelt sich im Laufe der Zeit auch die Präsentation der Orte und der Gebiete. Durch die „Karten der Frequenz von geographischen Namen“ gewinnt man eine Vorstellung von der räumlichen Ausgewogenheit bzw. Unausgewogenheit der Präsentation der dargestellten Gebiete, also von der Bevorzugung bestimmter Gegenden vor anderen und einer vorsätzlichen Hervorhebung oder Außerachtlassung von bestimmten Aspekten oder Merkmalen des Raumes.

Keywords: Geographical Names Frequency Map, mental map, Geography Textbooks

Abstract: To create valuable output, people must learn from mistakes, learn to evaluate the results of their work and, thus, not to repeat their mistakes. There are many ways of assessing products arising from human activity, i.e. cartographic works as well. Verbal assessment (reviews, references) is the most common one. It usually includes the list of positive and negative aspects of the product, or a multi-criterion assessment containing a system of value parameters of the work, usually numerical. This assessment is usually done by more or less experienced experts. What does the user think, though? It is desirable to find an adequate way of assessment assisted by the user. It is the user who is the ultimate recipient of the product. Apart from standard sociological approach using questionnaires, surveys or managed interviews, there are possibilities with high independence potential in the area of potential semantic differences in the researcher´s and the respondent´s perception. These are represented by various tasks given to individuals or groups concerning cartographic works or an analysis of user mental maps based on the users’ experience with cartographic works.

Keywords: assessment of cartographic works, viewpoints of assessment, methods in assessment, map quality, user-friendliness

Abstract: The use of mental maps in geographical instruction has been presented a number of times on the pages of Geografické rozhledy. This article presents mental maps as a universal tool for teaching about local regions, evaluating an area and indicating the regional identity of students. Advantages of mental maps, beyond their relatively simple application, include the development of a broad range of geographical skills and the integration of a wide variety of instructional methods. The authors provide a number of suggestions for instructional application.

Keywords: local identity, student preferences, areal evaluation, mental maps, local regions, GIS

Abstract: Aim of the study is the map as one of the visual models of (not merely) reality, that speaks its language and content. If the map is seen as an image, it is not only the result of a more or less objective recording of area, but also the expression of the individual, respectively culture, from which the relevant individual comes from. The study is based on research, within which mental maps of individuals of selected cultures (Czechia, Western Europe, New Guinea) were studied. This research has shown, inter alia, a gradual cultural unification of map styles and in its findings is also apparent conflict between cultural originality and international cartographic conventions, although this fact lost none, as it seems, utility value of maps.

Keywords: cultural diversity, cultural unification, map style, mental map, cross-cultural research

Abstract: Na počátku 20. let minulého století ing. Josef Křovák vytvořil jako předseda triangulační kanceláře zobrazení, které mělo při převodu obrazu zemského povrchu tehdejšího Československa do roviny co nejméně zkreslovat úhly a vzdálenosti. Od roku 1933 bylo toto zobrazení používáno jako definitivní a stalo se základem pro souřadnicový systém S-JTSK používaný ve státním resortu. Ačkoliv se území našeho státu od té doby mnohokrát změnilo, Křovákovo zobrazení je dodnes stálicí v rámci zobrazování území České republiky. Vzhledem k tomu, že je základní digitální vektorová geografická databáze České republiky (ArcČR) realizována právě v Křovákově zobrazení, naučili se čeští uživatelé GIS toto zobrazení používat prakticky pro všechny své mapové produkty. Bohužel skoro nikdo neřešil vhodnost či nevhodnost tohoto zobrazení pro mapy menších měřítek, které se používají například v geografii. Autor příspěvku poukazuje na to, jak může používání Křovákova zobrazení v mapách menších měřítek díky tomu, že není orientované na sever, negativně ovlivnit mentální mapu českých uživatelů mapových produktů. Dokládá to i výsledky šetření mezi uživateli. Zároveň upozorňuje na neopodstatněnost používání tohoto zobrazení v mapách malých měřítek, kde je požadavek na délkové zkreslení v řádu maximálně desítek centimetrů irelevantní. Konečně navrhuje možnosti řešení za použití osvědčených kartografických zobrazení nabízených v produktu ArcGIS.

Keywords: Křovák projection, GIS, pupils, cognitive map

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Abstract: This article presents the possibilities of assessments of mental maps using geographic information system tools (GIS). At first, it is necessary to define which mental maps and under what conditions they can be assessed in GIS. Also presented are several different methods of assessing shape and positioning accuracy of mental maps, which are based on GIS methods. The methods have been created with emphasis on the highest possible versatility and automation of the assessment process. For each proposed method, its advantages, disadvantages and potential applications are discussed. In the conclusion, the appropriateness of general use of GIS in this field is under discussion.

Keywords: mental map (sketch map), GIS, assessment of accuracy

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Abstract: This article presents a study which observes the notions of Czech elementary and secondary school students’ about the spatial layout and geography of Czechia. Findings of the study’s three basic phases are presented in the article: a contents analysis of the students’ individual mental maps; an analysis of the accuracy with which the students depicted Prague, the capital city, within these maps; and an analysis of the maps expressing where students would prefer to live. A special characteristic of this study is its focus on the cartographic representation of the results. The first phase of the study makes use of aggregated mental maps; the second uses GIS to measure aberrations in the locating of Prague on individual mental maps from Prague’s “correct” location; and the third again uses aggregated mental maps and employs a map key to represent student preferences for specific locations.

Keywords: mental map, geography education, cartographic representation, living preferences, Czechia

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Abstract: This paper presents a method for assessing cartographic products by means of users’ mental maps, as well as the results of a study that applied this method. The method was tested on maps developed by leading Czech producers of tourist maps. The basis for this assessment were mental maps of two regions in Czechia – Český ráj and the Krkonoše Mountains – created by subjects in response to a questionnaire (161 respondents created 483 mental maps). The resulting material was then used to produce “aggregated mental maps” corresponding to specific hiking maps and regions. On the basis of the aggregated mental maps and aided by a multi-criteria assessment, results for respective maps were measured and presented together with concrete recommendations regarding specific elements of the maps’ contents.

Keywords: assessment of cartographic works, hiking maps, mental maps

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Keywords: Cartographic letters, Papua-New Guinea, report

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Abstract: This study concerns an interdisciplinary analysis and interpretation of those mental maps created by pupils of an elementary school in the village of Yawan. This village is found in the province of Morobe in Papua New Guinea. The introduction provides an explanation of the context for the creation of these maps, i.e. a broader anthropological investigation in the village during the summer of 2009. As this study has an interdisciplinary character, the authors attempt to perform a comprehensive analysis of the maps. The cartographical focus of the study concerns map language, style, content, and other approaches to map composition, including in some cases its accuracy in terms of comparison with a photograph of the corresponding village. From an anthropological point of view, the goal is to contextualize mental maps within the ethnographic community of Yawan. Finally, the psychological analysis and interpretation of these mental maps focuses on them primarily as creative artefacts with regard to the use of drawing materials, colours and shapes in the drawing of maps.

Keywords: mental maps, anthropology, psychology, culture, Papua-New Guinea, Melanesia

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Abstract: The issue of mental maps on one hand, and assessment of cartographic works on the other are relatively well-known and have been discussed by a relatively high number of authors. However, is it possible to interconnect the knowledge and use it meaningfully? The paper tries to find answers to this question. Its primary objective is to reveal the users’ wishes and ideas about the content of maps. A proposal for the procedure of assessment of cartographic works in terms of aesthetics and user-friendliness is introduced, making use of mental maps by users. The question to what extent mental maps can be utilized as decisive for the finalisation of results is still left unanswered. Nevertheless, the paper presents one of input propositions of a research project carried out at the Charles University in Prague.

Keywords: mental maps, assessment of cartographic works, user-friendliness

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Abstract: The article deals with analysis of mental maps which were obtained by questioning athletes – orienteering runners. Using the prerequisite of measurability of their sports performance, it is possible to measure the accuracy of assessment methods of mental maps. Thirty mental maps were acquired via a two-section questionnaire; they were assessed with the help of two methods – frequency measurement and determined weights and criteria. The results of the first method were visualised using software into aggregated maps which enable an overall view. The second method provides individual point of view on each athlete and their performance abilities. Comparison of both methods proves the initial hypothesis.

Keywords: mental maps, cartographic assessment, orienteering, aggregated maps

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Abstract: Natural hazards still bring today’s society relatively high loss in property, unfortunately, sometimes even in health and life. Numerous physical-geographical surveys are dedicated to floods and flood risk issues, various detailed models and flood maps are created among others. On the contrary, the relatively small amount of research projects is devoted to the social perception of flood and flood risks, although a number of experts and municipality representatives realize that to cope with these events, people’s attitudes are crucial. Willingness of people to engage, cooperation between inhabitants and municipality representatives as well as social interest in natural hazards are important for effective solutions. The paper aims to present the results of research project supported by the Czech Science Foundation, which deals with social perception of flood risk and used mental maps of inhabitants as the significant methodological tool. During a questionnaire survey around 300 mental maps of inhabitants from two small Czech settlements were acquired. Both settlements have significant experiences with floods in recent years. Therefore, it could be assumed that the emotions experienced during flood events are still vivid. The respondents identified in the map, based on their subjective opinion, safe/dangerous locations and they located into the map a set of possible/implemented flood prevention measures they were familiar with. The approximate location of the respondent’s residence and its influence on the respondent’s perception of flood risks were monitored. The aggregation and the analysis of acquired data were managed in ArcGIS using Spatial Statistics Tools, similarly to our previous studies.

Keywords: natural hazards, emotions, floods, mental maps, social perception

Abstract: The paper deals with the issue of perception and delimitation of Central Europe (CE). The first part introduces and discusses basic concepts and conception of CE which might be found in the selected parts and might be considered crucial in this respect. Attention is then focused on the possible differences in the perception of CE from the perspective of individual nations and to interpret what might cause these differences. The following empiric part of the study compares previous theoretical knowledge and assumptions of real results of the research. The research was carried out through a questionnaire survey to collect the mental maps of selected individuals. The respondents of the research were senior high school students and first-year university students from eight CE countries. Their task was to mark the borders of CE based on their subjective perception onto the European map. A total of 490 mental maps were taken, analyzed, and aggregated into the GIS map outputs. The final part compares and interprets the results, i.e. map outputs which were obtained through this probe of individual countries. The authors reflect on the questions of how and why the results differ in individual states and to what extent they match hypothetical assumptions of the “national” perception of CE space.

Keywords: Central Europe, spatial perception, mental maps, spatial concepts, GIS analysis

Abstract: The issue of regionalization of the world from macro level (macro-regions) to the micro level (local regions) belongs to the geography of relatively traditional and permanent circuits in terms of current projects and research. Also, because of this, there are currently already a number of concepts of regionalization, which are conceptually more or less connected to their bearers, i.e. their thinking and origin. These concepts have become an integral part of cultural expression and as such should be seen always in the context of the nation, of which the author or authors of these concepts originated, i.e. the historical and cultural contexts. In terms of regionalization of Europe it is quite usual to shape regions on the principle of steady state borders and any differences within states are to be overlooked. The states in their concepts then usually behave as indivisible entities. In this context, there are a number of issues, such as to what extent do these concepts correspond to the ideas of individuals from different European countries in their mental maps? Does the stability of the region manifest itself somehow in mental maps, and if so, how? Is it possible to trace the origin of the authors of these mental maps, etc.? The aim of this paper is to present a relatively unconstrained (free) regionalization of Europe by using the example of setting the boundaries of the region “Central Europe”. The origin of the term “Central Europe” is connected with the so-called Vienna Congress, which took place in 1814–1815. For our study, this region was chosen as an example because it is a relatively less stable region within Europe and even the experts are not of the same opinion on the definition of the unity (see e. g. Battaglia, 1960, Schenk 1995, Szucs 2001, Wandycz 2004). It is particularly associated with the so-called principle of European duality (Nováček 2012), because the boundaries of “two Europes” often went right through this region during the historical development. A questionnaire survey was the chosen method of this case study, related to the acquisition of mental maps of respondents. In the survey, the respondents marked the borders of Central Europe onto the European map containing only the border states. The boundaries of “Central Europe” which they marked may or may have not respected the boundaries of existing European states. The participants were students of the last year of secondary schools, respectively of first year university students from selected areas. The samples come from Austria, Czechia, from the former East and West Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. Special thanks to colleagues from their respective departments for their help, without whom this research could not have been carried out. Based on the analysis carried out in ArcGIS for Desktop 10.2 using the tools of extension Spatial Statistics, the influence of the respondent’s origin on the resulting mental map has been proven (Saarinen 1988). It was also shown to affect the stability of the region defining the resulting aggregated mental map. The influence of regional stability has also been shown to define the resulting aggregated mental map. The correlation of concept origins with mental maps has only been partially proven, which can be ascribed to the fact that the amount of the compared concepts was not large.

Abstract: Aim of the oral presentation is the map as one of the visual models of (not merely) reality, that speaks its language and content. If the map is seen as an image, it is not only the result of a more or less objective recording of area, but also the expression of the individual, respectively culture, from which the relevant individual comes from. The study is based on research, within which mental maps of individuals of selected cultures (Czechia, Western Europe, New Guinea) were studied. This research has shown, inter alia, a gradual cultural unification of map styles and in its findings is also apparent conflict between cultural originality and international cartographic conventions, although this fact lost none, as it seems, utility value of maps.

Keywords: cultural diversity, cultural unification, map style, cartographic creation, mental map, cross-cultural research

Abstract: Although the interdisciplinary study of the cultural aspects of cartographic creation has in the recent past been dealt with in an indirect manner, for example by J.B. Harley and D. Woodward in the project “His-tory of Cartography”, the question has not as yet been adequately taken up on a complex level. The author of the present study attempts a more com-plex approach in his treatment of the problem. This paper includes a theo-retical introduction devoted to map contents, map style and map language, which together represent the greatest potential cultural differences embod-ied by a map, considered here in its role as a depiction of reality and a visual manifestation of culture. A portion of the study focusing on method assess-es the procedures employed in the formation of cognitive and mental maps by users and map creators. These maps may be used to discover cultural specifics of cartographic creation. The final portion of the study presents the findings of a field study of the mental maps of school children from Czechia, Western Europe and the village of Yawan (Papua-New Guinea).

Keywords: cross-culture research, mental maps, map stylistics, cultural specificities of artifacts

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Keywords: Křovák projection, mental map, Czechia

Abstract: This contribution presents part of the findings of the project Mental Maps: Object and Tools for Assessment, which was realized in the years 2009–2011 at Charles University in Prague. The project was divided into several parts. In view of the scope of this contribution, only two parts of the research are presented here. In the first part, the authors test their method of assessing cartographic works with users’ mental maps, using the example of hiking maps. Users of hiking maps (161 respondents in all) were given several tasks and questions about individual evaluated maps. Then they were each asked to draw their own mental maps while answering questions, without having immediate access to the actual hiking map to which the questions pertained. In order to eliminate subjective problems with drawing mental maps (weak spatial memory, impaired drawing ability, inexperience with cartographic works, etc.) a large sample of map users were selected to participate and the contents of their individual mental maps were aggregated. In the end, we took from the relatively extensive sample of mental maps (483 in all) as many “aggregated mental maps” as there were evaluated hiking maps. These aggregated mental maps, together with conventional multi-criteria evaluation, contributed to the final analysis of hiking maps with a listing of positives and negatives of particular evaluated maps. The second part of this contribution presents the part of the project dedicated to cartographic representation of the development of students’ imagination of the spatial arrangement of the land in which they live. Designed as a case study, it addressed only four schools (two grammar schools and two secondary schools), and the pairs consisted of one in the capital city of Prague and one outside of Prague. This allowed us to follow the differences in mental maps according to the age of the respondents and according to school district. Besides observing the students’ ability to accurately draw the position of Prague, this part of the research also examined their spatial conception of the geography of the Czech Republic (basic spatial arrangement of geographic objects). Last but not least, in outlined maps the student participants filled in their own preferences of where to live (where I would like to live and where I would not like to live). The result of this part of the research consists of aggregated mental maps for each school (the geography of the Czech Republic and drawing the location of Prague) and aggregated maps of preferences. A selection of the mental maps that were produced can be found on the project’s website: www.jackdaniel.cz/mentmap.

Keywords: mental map, assessment of cartographic works, GIS, geography education

Abstract: Cultural specificities can be identified in cartographic works. These specificities are closely related to the stylistics of cartography, i.e. styles of maps. This opens wide possibilities not only for an analysis of cartographic works from cultural studies point of view, but also for a global analysis of cultural differences. The paper outlines the possibilities of mental map analyses. These mental maps come from respondents from various cultures in order to come to a description of the cultural differences in the map language or content.

Keywords: mental map, cross-culture research, map stylistics, culture studies

Abstract: The article deals with analysis of mental maps (of orienteering runners) which were obtained by questionnaire. Using the prerequisite of measurability of their sports performance it is possible to measure the accuracy of assessment methods of mental maps. Mental maps were acquired by two-section questionnaire; they were assessed with the help of two methods – frequency measurement and methods of determined weights and criteria. The results of the methods were visualised using GIS software into aggregated maps.

Keywords: mental maps, cartographic assessment, aggregated maps, orienteering

Abstract: The issue of mental maps on one hand, and assessment of cartographic works on the other are relatively well-known and have been discussed by a relatively high number of authors. However, is it possible to interconnect the knowledge and use it meaningfully? The paper tries to find answers to this question. Its primary objective is to reveal the users’ wishes and ideas about the content of maps. A proposal for the procedure of assessment of cartographic works in terms of aesthetics and user-friendliness is introduced, making use of mental maps by users. The question to what extent mental maps can be utilized as decisive for the finalisation of results is still left unanswered. Nevertheless, the paper presents one of input propositions of a research project carried out at the Charles University in Prague.

Keywords: mental maps, assessment of cartographic works, userfriendliness, psychological aspects of maps, map use