比较地图学在中国的研究与进展

The Study and Development of Comparative Cartography in China

本文阐述了比较地图学在中国的形成和近几年的发展过程,介绍了这一科目的内涵及其在中国地图科学研究中的实质存在与作用,描述了比较法功能在研究成果中的体现,然后简要介绍了一些具体课题中比较方法的应用与成果。作者指出:进一步研究比较地图学将推动地图学的更好发展。

Comparative cartography, a new discipline of cartography is shaping itself when an extensive development in comparative studies of branches of learning is in fullswing. In the past decade, a series of nationwide cartographic conferences were held in China. At the conference held in Dalian, China in 1987, Chinese scholars put forward the basic concept of comparative cartography for the first time. Later on, a special paper entitled 'Methods of Comparison in Cartography, Its Embodiment, Contents and Significance' was published in the only professional journal in China—CARTOGRAPHY (1988). Since then, the study of practical use of the methods of comparison in different cartographic disciplines has being carried on, and quite a few achievements in comparative study in various fields of cartography have been made, which constitute the essential contents of comparative cartography. In 1989, the term 'Comparative Cartography' was adopted in the special publication on natural science and technology terms for Surveying and Mapping Branch. This publication was approved by China Committee for Unifying Natural Science and Technology Terms as national standard. This is a strong indication that comparative cartography was confirmed in China's cartographic academic circle. At present, the study of comparative cartography has been spreading widely in map use, cartographic set models, map classification, etc., and its methodological superiority is gradually manifested, and the theory and practice of comparative cartography may be expected to develop more rapidly in the years to come.