3.1. Report of the Activities of the Department of Cartography, Roland Eötvös University of Budapest (ELTE), between 1991-1995

The three basic duties of the Department are as follows:

• university-level training of cartographers,
• training of cartographic knowledge to future teachers of geography,
• supplying of maps, aerial photographs, space images and professional advice for educational and scientific activities of the university's Faculty of Sciences.

Subjects of the cartography syllabus that require other professional qualification than that held by the Department staff are taught (entirely, by holding special courses, or by reading a few lectures) by noted Hungarian and foreign scholars. 17 Hungarian and 7 foreign experts have contributed to the training of cartography undergraduates between 1991-1995.
Training activities of the Department were expanded in the 1994-1995 schoolyear by the enrolment, within the Postgraduate Degree School of Earth Sciences, of 3 postgraduate students studying for their Master's Degree.
Within the past four years 5 students and 2 staff members took part in foreign training projects at German and British universities in the frame of TEMPUS co-operation.

2. Training

The first independent university department of cartography was established in 1953. The first training syllabus was prepared in 1955, and it formed the basis of the training of Hungarian cartography students until the early 1970s.
In 1973 cartography training was changed as part of the general reform of university training. Cartography training continued to be a 3-year course, but the earlier geography-directed basic training was replaced by a two-year basic course held for students of both cartography on the one hand, and geology and geophysics on the other. The six-semester (3-year) cartography professional training was a new option for students of higher classes of geology, geophysics, meteorology, geography (both teachers and specialists), lasting only up to 1982. The simple reason for discontinuing this form of training was overloaded timetable: weekly number of classes have reached 40-45, which was impossible to attend for students without overlaps.
The Hungarian Act on Education of 1986 has made it possible that cartography training become a 5-year course. The first 10-semester course was launched in the 1988/89 schoolyear.
During a 5-year cartography course students attend a total number of 2670 classes in 32 subjects, completed by 6 weeks of field training.

Teaching of processes and methods of computer-assisted cartography (automated surveying methods, computer graphics, computer-controlled technologies, hypermedia) are secured by technical acquisitions of the Department (EDM, digital levels, GPS receiver, Intergraph-ArcInfo GIS equipment and software, Silicon Graphics workstation, Apple-McIntosh equipment, IBM PCs), by the group of departments (GIS workstation) and by the university (scanner, imagesetter).

3. Research

The Department has undertaken research in the following three fields of subjects:
3.1. Aspects of representation in thematic cartography (digital maps - electronic atlases)
Major results:

• Electronic Atlases, ICA Seminar, Budapest 1993, 184 pp, 5 maps (published by assistance of Cartographia Ltd.),
• Atlas of Central Europe, 1945 (electronic facsimile), Püski Publisher, Saint Stephen's Society - ELTE, Budapest, 1993, 411 pp., 171 maps (with English text),
• Environmental Atlas of the Ráckeve Resort Area, KDKV - ELTE, Budapest, 1993,
• Political and Economic CD World Atlas, ELTE - Cartographia Ltd. - Rudas & Karig, Budapest, 1994.

• Projection Optimalization In Geographic Cartography, With Special Regard to Hemispheric or Larger Presentation of the Earth, MTA-ELTE, Budapest, 1993.
• Cartography and Hypermedia? New Trends In the Teaching of Cartography. In: Electronic Atlases, Budapest, 1993, pp 97- 102.

• The Multi-lingual Gazetteer of the World Oceans:

  Gazetteer of the Arctic Ocean, Budapest, 1993.

  Gazetteer of the North Atlantic, Budapest, 1993.

  Gazetteer of the North Pacific, Budapest, 1993.

  Gazetteer of the South Atlantic, Budapest, 1994.

  Gazetteer of the South Pacific, Budapest, 1995.

  Gazetteer of the Indian Ocean, Budapest, 1995.
  (Published by assistance of ICA Working Group on Marine Cartography).

• Sebastian Münsters Amerika-Karte. Basel 1540 - Budapest 1992. 6. Kart. hist. colloq., Berlin 1992. Reiner V., Berlin 1994. pp. 31-37.

István KLINGHAMMER
Professor and Head of Department,
Department of Cartography,
Budapest

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