1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910818963103321

Autore

Monmonier Mark S

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2008

ISBN

1-281-96599-5

9786611965990

0-226-53404-9

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

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

Classificazione

RB 10223

Disciplina

912/.1946

Soggetti

Coastal mapping

Environmental monitoring

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

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

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.