The Impact of Geographic Technology Through the Ages
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works School of Arts & Sciences Theses Hunter College Spring 5-6-2021 Digital Earth: The Impact of Geographic Technology Through the Ages Mishka Vance Huq CUNY Hunter College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/734 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Digital Earth: The Impact of Geographic Technology Through the Ages by Mishka Vance Huq Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geoinformatics, Hunter College The City University of New York 2021 May 6, 2021 Dr. Sean Ahearn Date Thesis Sponsor May 6, 2021 Dr. Shipeng Sun Date Second Reader Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank her advisor, Dr. Sean Ahearn, for his mentorship throughout the fulfillment of this degree as well as her thesis development and the writing process. The author also wishes to thank her second reader, Dr. Shipeng Sun, for his guidance. In addition, the author would like to acknowledge the faculty and staff of the Hunter College Department of Geography and Environmental Science, and the New York Public Library. Lastly, the author wishes to thank the Society of Women Geographers for their support and fellowship. 2 Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Geographic Technology .............................................................................................................. 7 The (Geo)Information Age.......................................................................................................... 9 Contributions and Scope ........................................................................................................... 12 Part One: The World ..................................................................................................................... 15 The Map .................................................................................................................................... 15 Early Geography ....................................................................................................................... 17 The Dark Ages of Geography ................................................................................................... 19 The Golden Age of Islam .......................................................................................................... 20 The Age of European Exploration ............................................................................................ 25 Mercator Chart .......................................................................................................................... 27 Determining Latitude and Longitude ........................................................................................ 29 The Discovery of Longitude ..................................................................................................... 32 Mapping the Modern World ...................................................................................................... 36 Part Two: The State ...................................................................................................................... 42 Urban Geographies .................................................................................................................... 42 Information at a Distance .......................................................................................................... 46 Information Warfare .................................................................................................................. 49 Restrictive Mapping .................................................................................................................. 54 The Age of Computation ........................................................................................................... 57 Remote Sensing ......................................................................................................................... 60 Global Positioning ..................................................................................................................... 63 New Practices, Perspectives, and Challenges ........................................................................... 65 Part Three: The Personal ............................................................................................................... 72 Ubiquitous Cartography ............................................................................................................ 72 Maps on the Web....................................................................................................................... 72 Google ....................................................................................................................................... 74 Democratization of Access to Geographic Information ............................................................ 78 Location-Enabled Devices ........................................................................................................ 80 Location-Based Services ........................................................................................................... 82 3 People as Sensors ...................................................................................................................... 84 Location Data Surveillance ....................................................................................................... 87 Part Four: The (Geo)Information Society ..................................................................................... 90 The End of Geography .............................................................................................................. 90 Big Data Societies ..................................................................................................................... 90 Discussion and Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 93 References ..................................................................................................................................... 97 4 List of Figures 1. Babylonian map of the world, ca. 600 BCE. ............................................................................ 16 2. Ptolemaic world map reproduction, ca. 1460 ........................................................................... 18 3. Hereford mappa mundi, ca. 1300 .............................................................................................. 20 4. Abbasid Dynasty and trade routes, 750-1258 ........................................................................... 21 5. Al-Idrisi’s map of the world, Tabula Rogeriana, 1154 ............................................................ 23 6. Portolan chart, 1552 .................................................................................................................. 26 7. Mercator’s map of the world, 1569 ........................................................................................... 27 8. Wright-Molyneux world map, 1599 ......................................................................................... 28 9. Earliest map identifying America by name, 1507 .................................................................... 37 10. Transatlantic slave trade, 1501-1900 ...................................................................................... 40 11. Original gerrymander map, 1812 ............................................................................................ 43 12. John Snow’s map of cholera outbreaks in London, 1855 ....................................................... 44 13. Fire insurance map showing Hunter College, 1955-1956 ...................................................... 45 14. Earliest surviving aerial photograph, 1860. ............................................................................ 47 15. Topographic map of Central Park, 1947 ................................................................................. 52 16. HOLC redlining map, 1937 .................................................................................................... 56 17. Photograph of ENIAC............................................................................................................. 58 18. Landsat 8 satellite imagery of Qilian Mountains in China, 2020. .......................................... 61 19. Xerox PARC Map Viewer default world map view ............................................................... 74 20. Google Earth web interface .................................................................................................... 77 21. Magellan NAV 1000 commercial GPS receiver, 1988 ........................................................... 80 22. Socially-sensed land use map of Atlanta, Georgia ................................................................. 86 23. Fictional town Agloe, New York, 1948 .................................................................................. 95 5 Introduction In his 1992 book, Earth in the Balance, politician and environmentalist Al Gore conceptualized a digital representation of the entire Earth that would allow users to navigate through