Neglected Treasures: Linking Historical Cartography with Environmental Changes in Java, Indonesia

@article{Lukas2015,
  Title = {Neglected Treasures: Linking Historical Cartography with Environmental Changes in Java, Indonesia},
  Author = {Lukas, Martin C.},
  Editor = {},
  Journal = {Cartographica The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization},
  Year = {2015},
  Pages = {141-162},
  Volume = {50},
  Doi = {10.3138/cart.50.3.2891},
  Abstract = {The historical cartographic material of insular Southeast Asia provides significant potential for research into historical environmental changes. Yet most of this potential has not been realized. This article explores the historical cartography of the Segara Anakan lagoon region on Java's south coast in the context of a shoreline change analysis. It shows how historical cartography supports the analysis of environmental changes and vice versa. Thoroughly exploring the cartographic history of the target region helps to maximize the temporal scale and resolution of analysis; provides insight into the gradual development and replication, but also the ignorance, of cartographic knowledge; and supports an appraisal of the maps' reliability, all of which help to avoid analytical pitfalls. Complementing a quantitative analysis of more recent, relatively accurate cartographic material with a qualitative analysis of very early, less accurate maps and map-makers' records allows the temporal scale of historical environmental research to be extended further into the past. At the same time, it exposes the limits and pitfalls of historical cartographic analyses of environmental change. The author's analysis of the early maps of the Segara Anakan lagoon shows how information from complete but relatively inaccurate maps was repeatedly reproduced by map makers for about a century, while information from more accurate but incomplete maps was consistently ignored.},
}

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lukas, Martin C.
TI  - Neglected Treasures: Linking Historical Cartography with Environmental Changes in Java, Indonesia
T2  - Cartographica The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
PY  - 2015
SP  - 141-162
VL  - 50
DO  - 10.3138/cart.50.3.2891
AB  - The historical cartographic material of insular Southeast Asia provides significant potential for research into historical environmental changes. Yet most of this potential has not been realized. This article explores the historical cartography of the Segara Anakan lagoon region on Java's south coast in the context of a shoreline change analysis. It shows how historical cartography supports the analysis of environmental changes and vice versa. Thoroughly exploring the cartographic history of the target region helps to maximize the temporal scale and resolution of analysis; provides insight into the gradual development and replication, but also the ignorance, of cartographic knowledge; and supports an appraisal of the maps' reliability, all of which help to avoid analytical pitfalls. Complementing a quantitative analysis of more recent, relatively accurate cartographic material with a qualitative analysis of very early, less accurate maps and map-makers' records allows the temporal scale of historical environmental research to be extended further into the past. At the same time, it exposes the limits and pitfalls of historical cartographic analyses of environmental change. The author's analysis of the early maps of the Segara Anakan lagoon shows how information from complete but relatively inaccurate maps was repeatedly reproduced by map makers for about a century, while information from more accurate but incomplete maps was consistently ignored.
ER  -