Report of the 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop Report of the 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop at Lenk im Simmental (Switzerland), 11–15 February, 2008 Christian Häberling, Lorenz Hurni ETH Zurich, Institute of Cartography, Zurich, Switzerland From February 11 to 15, 2008, the 6th edition of the tra- of the event, which took place at Lenk im Simmental. Lenk ditional ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop took place is a small village in the Bernese Alps, and is situated in a for the fi rst time in Switzerland. Th e workshops focused on wide valley north of the Wildstrubel massif (Fig. 1). It is mountain-related topographic and thematic aspects and surrounded by mountains with altitudes between 2000 and their depiction on maps and map related representations. 3500 metres. Th e skiing areas of Lenk are connected to Every second year since 1998, cartographers and represen- those of the famous ski resorts of Gstaad (west) and Adel- tatives of other fi elds related to cartography and GIS (like boden (east) by aerial passenger tramways and chair lifts. geology, natural hazards, tourism, biology, etc.) are meeting in an inspiring mountain region to discuss their current sci- Th e sports and recreational complex KUSPO (“Kurs- und entifi c projects and work. Sportzentrum”) was selected as workshop location (http:// www.kuspo.ch), providing a convenient infrastructure and Under the lead of Prof. Lorenz Hurni, the Institute of Car- an advantageous accommodation (Fig. 2). Th ese conditions tography at ETH Zurich was in charge of the organisation Fig. 1: View towards the upper end of the Simmental (Image: C. Häberling, Zurich). 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop Mountain Mapping and Visualisation • 273 Report of the 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop Fig. 2: Conference room (Image: C. Häberling, Zurich). made it the ideal place for a successful meeting of both pro- Th e 34 presentations were structured in the following fi ve fessionals and friends. main thematic blocks: „Physical Geography“, „DEM and Terrain Modelling“, „Relief Depiction“, „History“ and During the whole week, the weather was perfect with blue „Multimedia and Mobile“. skies and very mild day temperatures. For all participants, these conditions enormously inspired the discussions and In the “Physical geography” block, a number of scientifi c activities. mapping and cartography projects as well as case studies from all over the world were described in detail (Michaela Almost 60 participants and single-day guests from 15 coun- Kinberger, Uni Vienna; Manfred Buchroithner, TU Dres- tries participated at the workshop (Fig. 3). Besides long- den; Giorgio Vassena, Uni Brescia; Richard Ladstätter, TU term members of the commission, also many new experts Graz; Sabine Stäuble, Uni Lausanne). Other presentations attended the workshop. We are therefore very pleased and covered concepts for terrain evaluation or monitoring tech- hope for an increasing interest in the Commission on Mountain Cartography also in the future. Th e workshop niques (Igor Drecki, Uni Auckland; Melanie Kunz, ETH and its participants were honoured by welcome addresses of Zurich; David Th eler, Uni Lausanne). Finally, developments William Cartwright, the President of the International Car- of new interactive map and 3D-visualisation applications tographic Association (ICA), and Stefan Arn, the President were discussed (Alexander Th imm, Swiss National Park; of the Swiss Society of Cartography (SGK). Karel Kriz, Uni Vienna; Christophe Lienert, ETH Zurich). Th e workshop was comprised of three diff erent kinds of In the session „DEM and Terrain Modelling“, projects mak- presentations: classic presentations by the participants talk- ing use of latest laser technologies or high resolution satellite ing about their latest scientifi c results and developments, image data (Julien Vallet, Helimap.ch; Kirsten Wolff , ETH short presentations according to the Pecha-Kucha system Zurich) as well as new approaches for the visualisation of (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha) covering hidden geological structures (Peter Jordan, Böhringer AG) production processes and new products, and last, a small or for the derivation of contour lines for small scale maps map and relief exhibition allowing to show and compare the (Anna Leonowicz, ETH Zurich) were presented. A presen- newest map products (Fig. 4). tation by Maria Pla and Blanca Baella (ICC, Barcelona) 274 • Mountain Mapping and Visualisation 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop Report of the 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop Fig. 3: Participants at the 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop at Lenk (Switzerland). (Image: K. Kriz, Vienna). focused on requirements for database-driven relief represen- Th e session on the history of mountain mapping started tations for topographic maps. with a biographical presentation of the Swiss topographer and cartographer Jacot-Guillarmod (1868–1925) and his Th e sessions on „Relief Depiction“ covered the broadest infl uential cartographic cliff representations (Hans-Uli variety of presentations. First, the needs of mountain map Feldmann, swisstopo), followed by a presentation about the users, especially members of Alpine Clubs, concerning the cartographic tradition and the latest technological devel- accuracy and symbolisation of topographic maps were evalu- opments at the Institute of Cartography of ETH Zurich ated (Martin Gurtner, swisstopo). Two authors were dealing (Lorenz Hurni). Alistair Pearson (Uni Portsmouth) reported with the evolution of classic relief maps or perspective views about laser measurements and geometric analysis of the for diff erent cartographic purposes (Alex Tait, International accuracy of a historic relief model. Mapping; Martin Gamache, National Geographic). Similar, but more technically oriented projects covered the develop- A session on multimedia application and mobile devices ment of new tourist maps with an integrated shaded relief for mountain mapping comprised presentations about Web (Roger Smith, Geographx NZ; William McNulty, National applications for data acquisition (Dusan Petrovič, Uni Lju- Geographic; Tom Patterson, US National Park Service). bljana), spatial communication using Google tools, (Karel David Schobesberger (Uni Vienna) presented an evaluation Kriz) and accessibility visualisation (Adrian Weber, ETH of the use and eff ectiveness of 2-D or 3-D representations in Zurich). Furthermore, an implementation of GPS technol- National Park maps. Loïc Gondol (IGN Paris) talked about ogy for mountain mapping and tour planning was demon- tests for new cliff drawings and scree representation in topo- strated by Juan Galera (Uni Leon). graphic maps. Th e latter method could be compared with scree representations generated by a software developed by Th e topics of the eight short presentations, which were Bernhard Jenny (ETH Zurich). Tibor Tóth (Tóth Graphix) grouped in two sessions, were obviously more diversifi ed. demonstrated his relief shading methods using Photoshop Th e authors covered topics like representation principles of and a tablet device. Stefan Räber (ETH Zurich) presented rock representations (Jürg Gilgen, swisstopo), tourist map- various physical relief depiction techniques, including the ping activities in Romania (Gabriela and Marin Ilies, Uni production of physical relief models with modern comput- Cluj-Napoca), the historic development of panoramic maps er-driven drilling machines for an Earth Science exhibition (Arne Rohweder, Gecko Maps), mobile trekking guide at ETH Zurich. devices for the Rwenzori National Park, Uganda (Constante 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop Mountain Mapping and Visualisation • 275 Report of the 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop Fig. 4: Exhibition of mountain maps (Image: C. Häberling, Zurich). Bonacina, Uni Brescia), smart interactive maps (Nathaniel event on Wednesday evening, many newly formed interna- Kelso, Th e Washington Post), Multidate habitat mapping tional teams were establish to master this challenging sport. approaches in Quebec (Guillaume Fortin, Uni Moncton), Finally, the „Raclette dinner“ – a traditional Swiss cheese a topographic map of the Tatra Mountains (Rafal Jońca, RJ dish – was very much appreciated by everyone on Th ursday Carto) and traditional hill-shading for digital maps (Gizella evening (Fig. 6). Bassa, Gizimap). All papers and contributions for the workshop will be pub- A new kind of discussion forum was tried out for the fi rst lished in the workshop proceedings in Summer 2008. Th e time in the workshop series and immediately attracted the contributions will also be accessible on the commission special interest of the audience due to its topic: Th e new website. graphic design of the National Swiss topographic maps. Led by Lorenz Hurni (ETH Zurich), Hans-Uli Feldmann Th e next ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop will be and Martin Gurtner (both swisstopo), the participants dis- organised by Gabriela and Marin Ilies (Babes-Bolyai Uni- cussed vividly the new structure of the map content with versity of Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and will take place in new object classes and the displayed design specimens with Borsa in the Maramures Mountains, Romania on 1–5 Sep- diff erent symbolisation and labelling options. tember 2010. Th e workshop was accompanied by various social events For more information about the workshop please visit the and activities which fostered the personal contact among website of the ICA Commission on Mountain Cartography the participants (Fig. 5). On Tuesday evening, the wel- (http://www.mountaincartography.org/).