The Hungarian Society for Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing is a non-profit professional organisation founded in 1956. Its aim is - among others - to further scientific development in Hungary in the field of surveying, land administration, mapping (cartography), GIS, photogrammetry and remote sensing. One important activity of the Society is to take the responsibility of national membership - through its national committees - in the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and the International Cartographic Association (ICA).
One special activity of the Society is conferring Honorary Membership to distinguished foreign personalities of the profession with outstanding merit in fostering relations between the Society and the international community. In the cartographic field such an occasion happened on 9th December, 1997, when the Society had the pleasure and satisfaction to present the General Director of the Institut Cartografic de Catalunya and Vice President of ICA, our friend Mr Jaume Miranda i Canals with the certificate declaring him Honorary Member of the Society.
The Hungarian National Committee (HNC) of ICA, representing public and private mapping as well as scientific and educational institutions in cartography, meets at least once a year. Entrusted with the actual membership responsibilities in ICA, it regularly discusses developments within the Association. By nominating Hungarian members to the Commissions and Working Groups it is actively involved with these bodies too. It has always taken special care to represent Hungary at ICA's General Assemblies anf Conferences. Hungary has always been keen to participate at ICA's international exhibitions. Thus at Stockholm in 1997 33 items from 12 mapmakers were exhibited, and 52 items from 19 publishers were sent for the Ottawa 1999 map exhibition.
2. OFFICIAL MAPPING
2.1. The Department of Lands and Mapping of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Regional Development (MARD)
The Department of Lands and Mapping (DLM) of MARD continues to be top governmental controlling body of surveying and mapping activities in Hungary according to Act No. LXXVI of 1996, which entered into force in 1 March, 1997. The regulation rules also that military surveying and mapping is controlled by the military mapping agency (see under a separate heading), and stated that further cooperation (division of responsibilities) between the two ministries should be ruled by a joint ministerial order. The order has put responsibility for topographic mapping of scales smaller than 1:10,000 up to 1:250,000 into the hands of the minister of defence.
Primary aim of the Act has been to secure the availability of base maps of the country, that would be suitable, among others
To achieve these aims official base maps (both large-scale and topographic) have to be produced, maintained and supplied for user demand. The new state basic maps have to be created, stored and supplied in computer-based digital form.
DLM is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of national geodetic control networks as well as supplying data from them, for large scale base mapping including cadastral maps, for land registration, land protection and valuation, for topographic mapping of selected scales, and for remote sensing in general.
The Department of Lands and Mapping is organised into three divisions:
DLM is controlling and supervising an institutional network of 115 district land offices, 20 county land offices, as well as the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing (FÖMI). The overwhelming majority of the staff of this network is therefore engaged in cadastral, title registration, land assessment and surveying activities, with little cartographic activity in the sense proposed by ICA. National surveying and cartographic activities are performed by the FÖMI institute.
2.1.1. Cartographic Activities in the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing (FÖMI)
In the Hungarian Institutional structure FÖMI, acting under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development, is the civil national, governmental body that performs operational, technical and administrative as well as research and development tasks of surveying, mapping and remote sensing. It is responsible for the supervision of government contracts in mapping and cadastre. Main activities of FÖMI are as follows:
Approximately 60 000 cadastral map sheets cover Hungary from scale 1:1000 to 1:4000. Part of the sheets are in different projections, mapping systems and datums (Uniform National, stereographical, cylindrical etc. projection systems). About 4 % of the sheets are available in digital form.
In 1997 started the National Cadastre Programme. The aim of the program is to produce digital cadastral maps for an area of 3 million hectares coming from land privatisation. This programme is being separately funded by the Ministerial Commissioner's Office for National Cadastre Programme, from credit budget guaranteed by the Hungarian Government.
The performance is based on using a euroconform national standard MSZ 7772-1:1997 on digital base map and the respectively suited instructions.
Administrative Boundaries Database of Hungary Data capture of administrative boundary sites (according to EUROSTAT compatible NUTS level) based on surveyed co-ordinates is in progress in co-operation with Land Offices, co-ordinated by FÖMI. The database can be used in statistics, regional planning, as well as agricultural and land related management.
Topographic Mapping
In line with the Act on Surveying and Mapping Activities that came into force 1 March, 1997 responsibility for topographic maps is divided between Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development, Department of Lands and Mapping (MoARD/DLM) and the Mapping Agency of the Hungarian Defence Forces (MA of HDF) as follows:
The status of the topographic map sheets in the Uniform National Mapping System (EOTR) ordered by MoARD is as follows:
The revision of these maps is inevitable with special attention to the 1:10 000 scale sheets. In frame of the EU-Harmonisation Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture, the 1:100 000 scale EOTR sheets have been digitized. Recently, the following products of the Digital Topographic Database (DTT-100) are available:
| contour lines (84 sheets, 100%), | |
| planimetry 84 sheets, 100%), | ||
| hydrography (84 sheets, 100%), | ||
| colour prints (84 sheets, 100%), | ||
| contour lines (84 sheets, 100%), | |
| planimetry (58 sheets, 70%), | ||
| hydrography (58 sheets, 70%), | ||
| ||
A strategic plan of digitizing and receiving the 1:10 000 scale topographic base maps of Hungary has been elaborated. The pre-standard MSZ 7772-2T on 1:10 000 scale digital topographic maps has been prepared.
Recently a Hungarian Topographic Program (MToP) is being prepared in co-operation of the civilian and military mapping and some non-governmental organisations.
Database of Geographical Names (FNT)
FÖMI is also responsible for the registration and supply of officially approved geographical names. The FNT database contains about 80 000 names of administrative units, relief, hydrography, natural conservancy areas shown in the 1:100 000 topographic map series.
Remote Sensing
Mission of the FÖMI Remote Sensing Centre (FÖMI RSC) is the research and development of technology for the application of remote sensing (RS) mainly in the areas of agriculture and environmental protection/nature conservation and to provide an efficient service as the National Distributor in the distribution, processing and utilisation of satellite and aerial remote sensing data. FÖMI RSC distributes all European, American and Russian satellite images and has contracts with EUROIMAGE, SPOTIMAGE and the Russian Space Agency.
A major contract was signed in 1993 between FÖMI RSC, the National Committee for Technological Development and the Ministry of Agriculture. The aim of the contract was to develop an experimental RS-based crop-monitoring system that can be efficiently used at local, county and national level. The National Crop Monitoring Project has given long term results in main thematic areas of crop monitoring, identification and mapping, area estimation, crop stage and development assessment, and yield prediction.
Participation in CORINE Land Cover Programme
The European Union's CORINE Land Cover project has been executed in Central and Eastern Europe as part of the PHARE Regional Environmental Programme. The project consists of mapping the land cover at scale 1:100 000 in accordance with a standard European nomenclature (44 categories). The methodology relies on interpretation of satellite images and storing the results in Geographic Information System. The database represents a basic tool for studies on the environment, impact assessment and regional planning. FÖMI Remote Sensing Centre is responsible for the implementation of the CORINE Land Cover project in Hungary, along with the co-ordination of the Ministry of Environment. As product of the project the 1:100 000 satellite image maps are available for the users in digital as well as in colour hard copy format, for the entire country.
2.2. Report on the Activities of Hungarian Military Mapping between 1995 and 1999
In 1995 Hungarian military mapping was represented by 3 institutions: the Tóth Ágoston Mapping Institute of the Hungarian Defence Forces (MH TÁTI), the Cartographic Centre of the Hungarian Defence Forces (MH KARTÜ) and the Mapping Service of the Hungarian Defence Forces (MH TÉSZ), a direct commanding element of the former two. The latter was subordinated to the Directorate of Operations of the General Staff. In 1996 these three were unified into a common organisation, named Tóth Ágoston Mapping and Military Geographic Institute of the Hungarian Defence Forces and, soon in the same year, named the Mapping Agency of the Hungarian Defence Forces (MH TÉHI), the general director of which is, at the same time, the chief of the Mapping Service of the Hungarian Defence Forces.
Between 1995 and 1999, the military mapping service has continued its earlier production activities. Its basic aim has been the establishment of NATO compatible mapping products in support of the interoperability of the Hungarian Defence Forces.
The production of orthophoto city-maps according to NATO specifications, i.e. with a UTM grid and standard marginal information in two languages, as well as the production of the digital topographic mapping database in scale 1:50 000, begun in the first half of the 90's, have continued. The revision of the 6 sheets of the uniform NATO JOG (Joint Operation Graphics) map series covering Hungary has started.
By overprinting the maps accepted for use in HDF, the interim maps of 1:50 000 and 1:100 000 scales for the period of preparation for joining NATO, have been produced for the whole country. They are overprinted with a UTM grid and specified marginal information.
The formation of MH TÉHI brought about important changes. It was appointed directly under the control of the Chief of the General Staff and provided with administrative uthority by the Act on Surveying and Mapping activities (1996) and its Execution Orders.
Administrative authorities of MH TÉHI:
On the occasion of the 1100-year anniversary of the Magyar Conquest a book was published with the title "The Chronicle of Military Maps" and a travelling exhibition on mapping was organised for civil and military organisations around the country.
With the collaboration of civilian experts, the military mapping service have prepared the Hungarian Topographic Programme (HTP), which aims at the digital transformation of the national topographic map series.
The Minister of Defence, partially responsible for topographic mapping, issued a resolution in December 1998, according to which HTP would have a 6-year duration and a funding of HUF 10.7 billion and would start in the year 2000.
The aim of HTP is to establish a uniform, digital topographic database of the country and to derive digital cartographic databases for topographic maps in different scales.
The main task for 1999 is the elaboration of national standards for HTP by civilian and military participants. These standards will serve as a basis of HTP starting in 2000. For its funding, apart from home resources, an application was submitted for PHARE support as well.
On 4th February 1999, MH TÉHI celebrated the 80th anniversary of the foundation of independent Hungarian military mapping.
On this occasion, the Mapping History Museum of MH TÉHI was extended with an instrument-show and with the addition of exhibits from the history of the last 20 years.
Publications on the occasion of the anniversary
MH TÉHI have laid stress on basic and post-graduate education of their experts. In preparation for joining NATO, many of the officers and civilian employees have learnt foreign languages, especially English.
The staff have studied at different technical colleges and universities. In 1995 a new department, Mapping and Military Geography, was opened at the Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence (ZMNE).
Further education has been organized through in-house training courses and self-education as well as at the Budapest Technical University Postgraduate section. A 3-year course for military engineering was organized at the same University. Now the second class is running with 9 students.
There have been language courses and professional training courses held in the USA, Canada, Germany, France and Great Britain for students from MH TÉHI.
As fas as possible, MH TÉHI have participated in international civil and NATO/PfP conferences, too. They have regularly participated in the work of the NATO standardization working group.
It is outstanding that MH TÉHI had the opportunity to hold the NATO/PfP mapping workshop on 3rd February 1999, where a number of countries, members of PfP as of today, gave accounts on their preparations and results in connection with their NATO accession.
MH TÉHI have been represented at national programmes of geodesy, photogrammetry, cartography and geo-informatics, and have given professional demonstrations at their facilities over their results and products.
Scientific research
MH TÉHI is a prioritized research site of military science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). In recent years many people working for the Agency have achieved Ph.D. degrees and since 1998 two have been studying for qualifying for a candidate's degree at ZMNE University.
Results of scientific research have been published at conferences, in professional publications and at other forums.
Research work in cartography has included the digital revision of maps and modernisation of thematic maps. MH TÉHI have participated in the activities of standardisation working groups on national civilian and NATO accession events.
In other areas of mapping and geodesy, like photogrammetry or geo-informatics, research is going on to establish the new digital mapping system based on modern geodetic, geo-informatic and photogrammetric achievements in Hungary and to derive a cartographically edited topographic and thematic map series.
Research has also been done in the subject of military geography according to demand of the Hungarian Defence Forces. This has resulted in publications, videos and other materials both for military and civilian uses.
National and international connections of MH TÉHI
The connections have been significantly widened recently both in military and mapping areas.
MH TÉHI have active contacts with the Department of Lands and Mapping of the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development, the mapping departments of Hungarian universities and other R+D organisations. They also keep in touch with the Ministry of Transport, Telecommunication and Water-Management, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and with leading national companies of geo-informatics and mapping.
Links to military mapping services extend to 17 countries on different cooperation levels. Six of these are NATO members, nine are members of the Partnership for Peace.
In the future MH TÉHI plan to expand their connections to civilian and military Mapping organisations of other NATO/PfP members.
Main objectives
Main tasks
3. PRIVATE MAPPING
3.1. Activities of Cartographia Ltd.
Before 1990 practically the only map publisher of the country was the state-owned Cartographia Company founded in 1954.
The scope of activities of the firm, which was originally set up with the purpose of producing maps for schools, had gradually been completed by surveying. At the time of the transition year of 1990 it was also producing large-scale maps (cadastral maps, utility maps) as well as topographic maps (from surveying to printing). Besides these surveying maps the company was supplying primary and secondary education and the general public with various maps and atlases.
Following the transition from command to market economy the Ministry of Agriculture, representing the proprietor, has formulated the objective of privatizing the company. However this big firm of about 1,000 staff, similar in its activities to the geographical institutes of several western European countries (eg. IGN of France and Spain, Ordnance Survey of Great Britain), but no longer obtaining any government contracts, was unfit for sale.
The company had to get rid of its surveying units and be transformed into a smaller map publisher. The state enterprise, with a staff of 130 and with its own printing facilities, was transformed into a limited liability company named Cartographia Ltd. on 1 January 1993. It is presently the largest cartographic publisher in the Hungarian map market. Its privatization has however, not been completed, due to changing government privatization strategies and to changing legislation in the subject.
Besides the earlier traditional manual techniques since 1993 Cartographia has increasingly turned to computerization. Map production in this respect is primarily done on PC equipment with AutoCad softwares, as well as their graphic programmes (Freehand, Corel) are also used.
Until 1996 the firm had sold his maps through some distribution companies. In 1996 Cartographia Ltd. set up his wholesale warehouse. From this year it has been working with three own territorial map agents.
The company continues to publish school maps: three types of geographical and three historical atlases are available at present. In 1998 a new atlas of history and in 1999 a new atlas of geography for secondary schools were published. The company has a geographical as well as a historical wall map series for schools.
A total of 1,5 million copies of road, tourist or city maps and atlases are published each year for the general public.
Recently the manual and digital cartography live together in the company. Our main products, maps of Budapest, and Hungary were made by computer. These maps and atlases can be used for GPS navigation.
Making multimedia products was a significant step in the life of our company. The first CD atlas was the Budapest Atlas in 1996. In 1997 the Hungary CD Atlas, in 1998 the Hungarian towns CD Atlas were published. This year we will transform our World Atlas into a CD Atlas form.
Last year we developed a new type of product for walking tourists.
Walkers use regularly a tourist map, a guide book about the built environment and a book about the proposed, recommended footpaths. We combined these three products and published them together. The new tourist (walking) atlases have had a great success.
The company did not do business with guidebooks until 1992. Since then it has adopted and translated for use in Hungary 39 volumes of the Automobile Association of the United Kingdom and began to publish its own Hungarian guidebook series too.
In the last four year period some school atlases also won prizes on the Hungarodidact Exhibitions.
Some other maps won awards at the Competition "Lovely Hungarian Maps".
3.2. Some interesting features of private cartography in Hungary (Characteristic news of the period 1994-99)
Digital is beautiful
We can confirm, that nearly all new Hungarian maps are now made by computer: small inset maps in books, lexicons, illustrations in newspapers, handy maps of medium sizes, heavy atlases and the biggest size wall maps. There are only some corrected maps of Cartographia, and GiziMap still having originals on astralon or other plastic materials, but also these firms are putting their existing map fond into computer step by step.
It is also to underline, that the leading firms have been using non cartographic programs for many years already. For example DIMAP has produced on PC (among tens of other maps) a very well selling Budapest map (1:27.000), Budapest atlas (1:20.000) and road atlas of Hungary (1:250.000) using AutoCAD and Autoscript. The reason: this method could be used by relatively small capacity computers in 1991-93 (in the time they have started), and now it would cost too much time and money to change the system. DIMAP's people still hope on arising of new universal, Windows compatible (but not too expensive) cartographic softwares, which will allow them to use the data they have developed till now with AutoCAD.
CORELDRAW is another favourite program for many cartographic firms, first of all for smaller ones and beginners. DIMAP makes maps and illustrations sized maximum 50 x 70 cm, but e.g. NYÍR-KARTA produces standard maps sized B1-A0 using the latest versions of Corel and speedy PC-s with enough big RAM capacity. Also huge size (2 x 3 m) unique and "personalized" wall maps can be plotted out from data in Corel.
TOP-O-GRÁF (then also Ábel and Kárpátia) have started (1992) with FreeHand on MacIntosh and they have been using this software till now with big success for any type of cartographic, tourist related and graphic products. They have now several computers with combined platforms (PC-Mac), so having the newest version of FreeHand they can more easy transform materials from PC into Mac or from Mac into PC. This is the technical base for cooperation between firms having data on different platforms. FreeHand seems to be very popular not only in Hungary, Ukraine, Romania and other Eastern European countries, but also in many Western Europe, what is very important for the export of Hungarian cartographic services (row data, or ready maps).
The first copy of the "cartographic" software OCAD for business use was bought by Cartographia in 1991. But now this program is very popular in our part of the World, because it is very cheap (some 400 USD) and made by a cartographer for cartographers. So OCAD "thinks" like a traditionally skilled specialist and the most important aim of the software is to produce multicolour map originals for printing. Beside of Cartographia PannonCart, Map StŁdi˘ and other firms operate with Hans Steinegger's masterpiece. OCAD 7 (planned for February 1999) will ensure also the compatibility with FreeHand.
Explosion in map production
In the period before the Barcelona General Assembly we reported about the big quantity of smaller size city maps and regional maps produced by the new cartographic formations. Beginning with 1995 the newly established cartographic firms produce already bigger maps including the maps and atlases of Budapest and Hungary.
It is very characteristic for our country, that the best selling titles are the maps and atlases of Budapest, the yearly "consumption" of these two titles can reach 2-300.000 copies. That is why many of new firms try to cut a piece from this "sweet pie". The first such publication was the map of Budapest 1:30.000 (DIMAP-Szarvas-Freytag 170.000 copies in 1995-96). This best selling map has now the 4th edition and an enlarged format (1:27.000). Then (1995-98) also Cartographia (1:25.000, 1:27.500, 1:28.000), Pannoncart/Kasza (1:30.000) and TOP-O-GRÁF (1:33.000) have published new Budapest city maps, which are now offered in different forms and under different covers. We have here listed only the maps covering the whole territory of Budapest, because it would be impossible to list the tourism oriented titles covering the inner part of the town.
Back in the eighties we had the only Budapest atlas of Cartographia, then in 1992 the Bertelsmann owned Officina Nova (with RV Stuttgart) came out with the big atlas of Budapest and environs (1:20.000 covering 72 communities!), which had a very big success because of the good legibility and poligraphical quality. Also the spiral binding was positively accepted by the Hungarian public. In 1995 both Cartographia and DIMAP-Szarvas-Freytag have issued each a new Budapest atlas at scale 1:20.000. All these atlases have since that time new editions, but we have also other atlases on the market: TOP-O-GRÁF/Freytag (1:20.000, 1:25.000), Cartographia 1:25.000, so we can think, that our capital has now the best offer on large scale maps and atlases.
Similar situation is with the maps and atlases of Hungary. Officina Nova started with the large scale map and atlas (1:300.000) in 1991-92. Then in 1995 Cartographia published an atlas 1:200.000, later in 1998 1:250.000 and 1:360.000. DIMAP-ERMAP-Szarvas-Freytag in 1997 have printed an atlas 1:250.000. In 1998 TOP-O-GRÁF and NYÍR-KARTA brought out a new style atlas of Hungary at scale 1:360.000. The so called HungaroGuide (Magyar Almanach) is a hard covered book-like product (with a map section of Hungary 1:360.000 and Budapest 1:18.000) has already the 6th edition. Now we have at least 5-6 different atlases (1:200-580.000) and the same number of road maps (1:450-500.000) systematically on the market.
There is also a new style product available on the Hungarian market: the so called city atlases of counties. HISZI-MAP Ltd has started this series in 1995. Each volume contains large scale maps (1:10-20.000) of all communities (100-300) of a given Hungarian county or a region. At the beginning of 1999 the series are completed: all 19 counties and the Balaton region have city atlases. Some volumes have already more editions and the most important county (Pest, i.e. the Budapest region) has already two different atlases (HISZI and Kasza-Topopress).
In the meantime also a city atlas of Hungary has been published and it has now already the 4th edition. This volume contains a road map of Hungary (1:360.000) plus 170 city maps. The very successful publication is a common product of Z-Press (publisher) and TOP-O-GRÁF (cartographers).
There is a number of new type maps, which we have not had earlier. Cartographia and NYÍR-KARTA have published maps (1:100.000) of the river Tisza for recreational, biking and water sport purposes (1995-98). PAULUS issued large scale canoeing maps of the river Danube (1:25.000), biking-tourist maps (Along Danube from Vienna to Bratislava and Budapest) in 1996. FRIGÓRIA Publishers has now 9 biking guides with maps, some of them have already more editions.
The most successful series of TOP-O-GRÁF is the so called "Zseb Top" (Pocket Top in English). Each city map in this series has been folded to credit card size and they have on the back a county or regional map. There are now nearly 100 different Hungarian titles available, but also the first Romanian items are also published (Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest). The very nice small maps are loved not only by map collectors, they are accepted also by many of one-day-tourists, and they are very popular on the so called premium market (many firms buy them with their own cover for promotional and marketing purposes).
Taking into consideration the success of the Budapest atlases map publishers have started in 1998 the production of spiral bound atlases of the largest cities of Hungary (DIMAP-Szarvas: Győr 1:10.000 and Székely: Pécs 1:10.000). I am sure that Szeged, Miskolc and Debrecen also will get such atlases in the nearest future. We can confirm, that after the mentioned maps and atlases the private cartographic firms will publish also large scale 1:20-50.000) tourist maps and medium scale (1:100-250.000) regional and biking maps. So the competition becomes stronger and stronger.
Go East!
After the big social changes (early nineties) we have changed also the main direction of our cartographic activity: more and more maps of eastern countries have been made by Hungarian c artographers. GiziMap started in 1992 with Estonia 1:400.000, it was followed by Latvia 1:400.000, Ukraine 1:1.200.000, Macedonia 1:260.000. All these maps had succes both in the depicted region and also among the named cartographic firms: Freytag-Berndt, Bartholomew, Map Link and others have published their own versions of the maps of Mrs. Gizella Bassa. In the series were published also Caucasus 1:1.000.000 (1996) and Central Asia 1:3.000.000 (1999). The first maps were scribed on astralon, but Central Asia has been made already on computer (with FreeHand). The next item in GiziMap's series should be Yugoslavia 1:500.000.
Many Hungarian cartographers try to take part in mapping of Romania. The reason is: there is big demand for nice and good quality maps, but there is not enough cartographic knowledge, the technical base (computers, copying and printing machines) and also the necessary capital are missing. The "ice-breaker" was DIMAP early 1990 (several weeks after the revolution in Romania)with the famous map of Transylvania 1:500.000, which shows all historical names of the settlements in Hungarian and German (beside of the now official Romanian forms). This map has already 6 issues with a general run of 100.000 copies, and it is used as "the map" of that part of the country. Freytag-Berndt (Vienna) and Cartographia have been distributing this map since 1997 under their cover.
Among others Cartographia and TOP-O-GRÁF have produced (1995-99) a lot of high quality city maps (e.g. Cluj-Napoca, Gheorgeni, Oradea etc.). DIMAP has started in 1996 a series of small touristic maps 1:15-50.000 (St-Anna lake, Padis, Harghita etc). Cartographia with Ábel Ltd (later Kárp´tia) have published (1997) a large scale tourist information and road map (1:250.000) of Secuimea (Szék;elyföld, or land of the Székelys = themostly Hungarian speaking region of Romania). The map had 3 editions in 2 years (altogether 25.000 copies printed).
All the mentioned maps were produced by in Hungary residing cartographers in very close cooperation with Hungarian speaking citizens of Romania. These people delivered the local data and they are also distributing the maps in Romania. The same was the situation with the best selling and best quality road map of Romania 1:700.000, compiled and published by Ábel and Kárpátia in 1997. But later also a Romanian distributor (JIF) has joined to distribute this map, because there is no other good map offered in Romania. Also the named Western firms (like RV, Mair, Ravenstein) have old and not too exact maps of smaller scale (1:750-800.000). But Freytag-Berndt (Vienna) have bought special runs of Kárpátia's map for World distribution through their channels.
Map distribution in Hungary
There are different centralized all country distribution channels and many smaller ones. About Cartographia's activity you will find information in an other article of this report, that is why here only the other firms will be regarded.
Stiefel (Ingolstadt) has founded his Hungarian firm (Stiefel Eurocart Ltd) already in 1991 and at once their built up a distribution net for school wall maps, wall maps for business. Each agent of Stiefel controls a special part of the country, like it has been functioning since many years in nearly all western countries. Beside of selling Stiefel's own sortiment the agents are very active also on the so called premium market, and they serve their client with customized wall maps, mapped wall calendars, atlases and handy maps, writing and mouse pads.
Freytag-Berndt Budapest Ltd. has developed out also a centralized distribution based on the activity of two oldest private map-sellers and the big choice of the maps from Freytag Vienna. This new distribution trust is very active on the petrol stations (some 500 sales points in the country) and they offer not only Freytag's articles with Hungarian cover, but also the most important Hungarian products too (large scale tourist maps of Hungary, Hungarian city maps, maps and atlases of Budapest and Hungary etc.).
Térképvilág (Map World) has a very special role, because this firm tries to store all possible maps, globes and guides: cca 3-4.000 different titles from Hungarian and foreign publishers they have generally on stock. Mairs, Falk, RV, Ravenstein, Freytag-Berndt, Collins-Bartholomew, Michelin, Polyglott, Baedeker, Berlitz, LAC Firenze, Scan Globe are to mention among the biggest represented European firms; Ábel, Cartographia, DIMAP, HISZI, Kárpátia, MI ( MB, NYÍR-KARTA, Stiefel-Eurocart, TOP-O-GRÁF, Techno-Globus, PannonCart, Paulus, Szarvas, Well Press, Z-Press, Zéta and many others are the Hungarians. That is why Map World can have still more than 1.000 clients (retail map shops, book shops, stationeries, hotels, newsstands etc.) Also the biggest Hungarian petrol station net (MOL with some 600 sales points) is the official client of Térképvilág.
Magyar Térképház (the Hungarian Staedte Verlag) has also own agents for the distribution of the some 100 Hungarian city maps, but their green covered maps are also distributed by nearly all (and above mentioned) centralised channels. Also the free lance distributors like the MH city and regional maps, because having the local maps they can sell also other products in the given city.
Most of private cartographers and map publishers (we have an estimated number of 100-200) try to sell their own products through all possible channels, such as map distributors, book distributing firms and local sales points.
Szarvas András Cartographic Agency
Established in 1991 we had two main tasks: to have the best selling and nicest titles for the Hungarian market and to bring all Hungarian maps and map related goods into the World market. Our catalogue of Hungarian maps has a circulation of 3-5.000 pcs all over the World (book fairs, direct mail, IMTA venues etc.). The catalogue includes the official topographic, geologic maps, digital products and of course the available private maps of Hungary and the surrounding areas.
For further information:
Szarvas András Cartographic Agency
H-1149 Budapest, Répássy Jeno u. 2. IV. 27.
3.3. An Example to small Hungarian Cartographic Publishing Houses: Abel's Cartographic Ltd.
Abel's Ltd. was founded in the fall of 1996, but its members are noted cartographers among the Hungarian professional community (Imre Faragó, Ábel Hegedűs).
Their maps are made on MacIntosh computers by Freehand and other programmes.
The company specializes on the production of maps of Hungarian regions (e.g. hikers' maps) as well as of areas in neighbouring countries popular for Hungarian tourists (the Transylvanian parts of Romania, Slovakia). Most notable among its publications is the map of Székelyföld, or Secuimea (central and eastern Transylvania) with place names in three languages (Romanian, Hungarian, German). This unique map had been missing in the market for the past 50 years. It has also come out with new school wall maps of Harghita and Covasna Provinces with bilingual geographical names, wich have been produced on order of the Romanian provincial educational boards and can be considered as the first ones of their kind in the Transylvanian Basin.
The company has also produced a road map of Romania at scale 1:700,000, containing the largest number of place names among similar products of this scale. Other maps of the company include city and tourist maps of Transylvania (Cluj/Kolozsvár, Harghita and Gurghiu/Görgényi Mountains).
Considering maps of Hungarian territories they primarily include town and hiking maps (Visegrád, Tihany, Csongrád County etc.).
Map production activities were taken over by the Kárpátia Térképműhely Kft. (Carpathia Map Workshop Ltd.) led by Mária Bohnet and Imre Faragó. Abel's Ltd. has since concentrated its activities on publishing, marketing and trade.
4. EDUCATION
4.1. Cartographic Activities of the Department of Cartography of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (ELTE)
Historical Overview
The department is the only place where one may obtain an advanced (university or college) degree in cartography in Hungary. Founded in 1953 as a part of the Faculty of Sciences of ELTE, its first class of cartographer students graduated in 1957. Students of geography, geology, geophysics and meteorology, who had also taken up cartography in their syllabus after their second year of study, obtained the title of "Cartographer univ." after a three-year course in cartography. This curriculum scheme was valid until 1982. The independent five-year cartographer course was introduced in 1988, whose syllabus was dramatically modified in the early '90s with the inclusion of computer technology. A postgradual PhD course of 6 semesters has also been offered since the early '90s.
The department moved to a new site in 1998 following the completion of the campus of ELTE.
Members of ICA Commissions and their major publications:
István Klinghammer, Professor and Chair, member of the ICA Commission on Education and Training
Publications:
Klinghammer, I.: A föld- és éggömbök története (A history of terrestrial and celestial globes), Eötvös Publisher, Budapest, 1998, pp. 108, 89 illustrations
Klinghammer, I. - Pápay, Gyula - Török, Zsolt: Kartográfiatörténet (A history of cartography), Eötvös Publisher, Budapest, 1995, pp. 189, 75 illustrations
Klinghammer, I.: Magyarország térképi ábrázolása (Cartographic presentations of Hungary) In: Magyarország földje, Pannon enciklopédia, Kertek 2000 Publisher, Budapest, 1997, pp.20-38, 41 illustrations
Klinghammer, I.: Die Notwendigkeit und die Ziele eines Europa-Atlas (The need for and objectives of an atlas of Europe), Kartographische Nachrichten, Bonn, 1996, Vol. 46, No. 4. pp. 133-137.
Klinghammer, I.: - Gercsák, Gábor: Földrajz, távérzékelés, térképezés (Geography, remote sensing, mapping) in: Földrajzi Közlemények, Budapest, 1996, Vol. CXX(XLIV), No.4 pp. 271-275, 5 tables
Klinghammer, I.: A magyar térképészet Lázár deáktól napjainkig (Hungarian cartography from Secretary Lazarus to the present) In: Magyar Tudomány, Budapest, 1997, Vol XLII, No. 9, pp. 1037-1056, 4 illustrations
Dr. Zsolt Török, member of the ICA Commission on Map Theory.
Publications:
Török, Zs.: Salaam Almásy. The biography of László Almásy. Eötvös University Press, Budapest, 1997.
Török, Zs.: The beginnings of Hungarian cartography. In: Karátson D. (Ed.): The land of Hungary. Pannon Encyclopaedia. Kertek 2000, Budapest, 996, pp. 20-25.
Török, Zs.: The map of Lazarus and the beginnings of modern cartography. In: IMCoS Journal No. 71. pp. 5-9.
Török, Zs.: Voyages on paper: Early modern representations of geographical space and the age of discoveries. In: Vasco da Gama. Homens, Viagens e Culturas - International Conference, Lisboa, 1998, pp. 25-26.
Coronelli-Török 110 cm diametre terrestrial globe 1996 (The new edition of Vincenzo Coronelli's 3 1/2 feet diametre terrestrial globe of 1688 produced by the original technology.)
Dr. László Zentai, member of the ICA Commission on Visualization
Publications:
Zentai, L.: Számítógépes térképészet (Computer cartography). Source material ITC, NL.: modules jointly developed by ITC/CSLM (College of Surveying and Land Management, Hungary) and partially funded by PHARE HU 94.05, Székesfehérár, 1997.
Zentai, L.: Magyar helységnév-azonosító szótár (Glossary of Identified Hungarian Placenames with maps). Talma Publisher, Baja, 1998, pp. 936, 64 maps.
Zentai, L.: (some maps of) Atlas of leading and 'avoidable' causes of death in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Hungarian Central Statistical Office Publishing House, Budapest, 1997.
Zentai, L. et al.: (maps, project manager) Tardy, János [ed.]: Magyarországi települések védett természeti értékei (Protected national monuments of Hungarian settlements). Mezőgazda publisher, 1996.
Dr. Reyes Nunez, member of the ICA Working Group 'Cartography and Children'.
Publications:
Reyes Nunez, J.: (some maps of) Atlas of leading and 'avoidable' causes of death in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Hungarian Central Statistical Office Publishing House, Budapest, 1997.
Reyes Nunez, J.: (some maps of) Európa regionális természetföldrajzi atlasza (Regional atlas of physical geography of Europe). Eötvös publisher. Budapest, 1998.
Reyes Nunez, J.: (some maps of) Ázsia regionális földrajza (Regional geography of Asia). Eötvös publisher. Budapest, 1998.
Reyes Nunez, J.: 35 maps as illustrations in various issues of the weekly "Élet és Tudomány" in 1997 and 1998.
Reyes Nunez, J.: "Cartographic Education of Children in Hungary: Experiences and Ideas". In: Proceedings of the Joint Seminar on Maps for Special Users, pp. 149-153. Wroclaw, Poland, 1998.
Dr. Mátyás Márton member of the Commission on Marine Cartography.
With a cooperation of the Commission on Marine Cartography of the International Cartographic Assocaiation the Department of Cartography of the Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest) works are underway on the Multilingual Gazetteer of the Geographical Names of the World Ocean. Since 1992, seven students have written their master's thesis on this theme. At present Associate Professor dr. Mátyás Márton and PhD student András Dutkó, are working on this gazetteer.
The following parts of the gazetteer have been completed so far: - the small-scale maps of the World Ocean, showing the undersea relief; - the list of the names of the different seas and bays, used in different languages; - a list of the names of the different classes of undersea features, used in different languages; - a multi-level system of undersea regions; - the list of the different names of the undersea features. This list contains the names of about 5000 features and it is due to be extended continuously. This list and the multilevel system of undersea regions can be read on the World Wide Web.
We intend to make an interactive map of the undersea geography of the World Ocean. We want to publish our results on a CD-ROM.
With a cooperation of the International Hydrographic Bureau dr. Mátyás Márton and András Dutkó work on the English/Hungarian version of the Standardization of Undersea Feature Names at our Department too. The work is almost ready.
5. MAP ROOMS, LIBRARIES
5.1. Progress report of the Map Department of the National Széchényi Library
(1995-1999)
The Department holds the largest collection of Hungarian cartographic materials from the earliest medieval prints to the latest CD maps. It also keeps as its cherished treasures a number of foreign medieval maps.
Cataloguing / processing
The adaptation to the internationally introduced ISBD/CM (International Standard Bibliographical Description) can be mentioned as the first and foremost change in the life of our Map Department during the last four years. Our Department had to make pioneering work with preparations for the adaptation of this standard in Hungary. Without the adoption of ISBD/CM our collection would not have been able to continue its international datachange contacts. At cataloguing in the Szchnyi Library, the DOBIS/LIBIS computerized integrated library system has been used up to the present. It is hoped that from the second part of the year 1999 the AMICUS integrated library system will be introduced. From this time onwards the Map Departent's materials will be processed by computer following the norms of the AMICUS system. According to our plans, not only the newly incoming materials are going to be read into the database but parallelly those earlier cartographic documents published before 1850. The nation-wide introduction of the ISBD/CM standard will probably have to wait until the year 2000.
Changes in collection policy
According to a decesion made in the Széchényi Library, cartographic CD-ROM documents will belong to the Map Department's field of interest; however, the services on these materials will also be accessed through network.
Conservation policy
The conservation of maps witth regard to their often specially large sizes, is an important and often hardly surmountable problem. Having made encouraging tests, we have prospects for scanning and recording in CD of the most valuable parts of our holdings. This will open the possibility for reaching the most valuable items of the Collection through the net.
Exhibitions
From 1995 onwards the exhibition series titled "Lovely Hungarian Maps" has been organized each year by the Map Department. These exhibitions offer a good survey of Hungarian cartographic products of the previous year. Apart from that the Department prepares 2-3 temporary exhibitions from its materials annually. Further information: The prospectus of the Map Department and its collection can be reached on homepage http://www.oszk.hu at "Special Collections".
5.2. The Cartographic Collection of the Maproom of the Hungarian Institute and Museum of War History
In its present form the Maproom of War History was founded in 1954. The backbone of its total collection was made up of two sets of earlier materials:
- a collection of fifty thousand items rightfully belonging to Hungary was transferred from the War Archives /Kriegsarchiv/ of Vienna to the Royal Hungarian Archives of War History /later: War Archives/ after the First World War;
- a set of sixty thousand objects of the Royal Hungarian Cartographic Institute /later: Defence Mapping Institute/ was founded following the First World War.
The collection of the Maproom grew steadily partly by old maps /heritages, materials of other discontinued collections/, partly by new acquisitions /military map series, aerial photographs, other civil maps/. The total collection now numbers nearly 500.000. items /maps, atlases, globes, relief maps, professional journals, books, aerial photographs/, and by sheer size it constitutes the largest cartographic collection in Hungary.
Those military maps which were forbidden to give to the researchers, because they had "secret" qualifications, are free for research from 1992. Nowadays we have no classified maps in our Maproom.
Subdivision of the Cartographic Collection
The majority of maps are grouped according to the following geographical-regional divisions:
- maps of the heavens, of the world - historical, geographical atlases;
- maps of the continents
- maps of cities and their vicinities, travel guide books
- maps of war history - maps showing battles, campaigns, military events - are further grouped according to chronological order, following the classification of major historical epochs.
Within the territorial divisions there are the following thematic classes:
- general political, administrative maps
- physical maps
- special thematic maps
One of the most important parts of the collection of the Maproom is made up of the military series based on detailed field surveys, showing both Hungarian and foreign territories. In Hungary only the Maproom possesses complete series of the so-called first /1772-1784/, the second /1806-1869/ and the third military surveys /1869-1884/. The original coloured manuscript sheets of the first and second military surveys are kept in the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna. Until recently the Maproom has had black and white copies of the originals in the same size. At present the original is being photocopied in colour through the work of the Representative Office of the Hungarian Institute and Museum of War History in Vienna, in the Kriegsarchiv. Usefulness, aesthetic value of these copied maps are all but identical with those of the original ones. The work will be finished in this year. The collection consisting of the military series published by the Royal Hungarian Cartographic Institute, established after the First World War, can also be considered as complete, both for basic survey and derived scales. The Maproom's collecting interests also cover military series of different scales and publishing years published after the Second World War in a different mapping and projection /Gauss-Krűger/ system. The 120.000-piece collection of aerial photographs also has considerable value. A smaller part of them was made before the Second World War, while most of them are copies of air photos made for mapping purposes during the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
Basic registration arrangement of materials of the Maproom has been put into effect. Better orientation among materials is assisted by a recording system, various study aid tools and index maps which are continually actualized. Computer processing of the collection has also started. Lists of geographical names of most sheets have also been processed, alphabetically arranged and printed /close to 30.000 items/. Further plans call for the computerization of the complete recording system.
The collection grows by some 4-5 thousand new items yearly, a smaller part of them being old maps, new books and other publications, while most of them are deposit copies of military series.
The Maproom, as a public collection, is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday to Tuesday. The number of research people is about 700-800 in a year. Black-and-white and colour photo and xerox copies of maps are available on order. The Maproom took part in the organization of different exhibitions of the War History Museum, by lending maps.
Publications /limited circulation/ of the Maproom in recent years include:
- Series of military maps of Hungary from 1782 to 1950 - study /manuscript/ -26 pp., 29 pp. supplements, 20. pp. maps
- Introduction to the Maproom of War History (MWH) - study- /manuscript/ -25 pp.
- Catalogue of Trianon border maps. 173 pp.
- Manuscript maps in the MWH /about 900/. 80 pp.
- Catalogue of the city and its vicinity maps of Budapest. 68 pp.
- Catalogue of the railway maps of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 35. pp.
- War history maps referring to Hungary in the MWH. 30. pp.
- Maps of the 1848/49 Revolution and War of Liberation in the MWH. 80 pp.
6. RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
6.1. Cartographic activities at the Geographical Research Institute (Research Centre for Earth Sciences) Hungarian Academy of Sciences (GRI HAS) between 1994 and 1999
GRI HAS is an important workshop of thematic mapping in Hungary. All the three scientific departments of the Institute are involved in map design as maps are sources, intermediary and final products (epitomising research results). Maps are produced both by the traditional method and by computer-assisted techniques.
At the Department of Physical Geography a database has been being built using topographic and thematic maps. Through manipulation of the assembled data catchment scale soil erosion modelling and mapping is carried out. Query on the studied areas (a subcatchment of Lake Balaton and another one on the Danube-Tisza Interfluve) is made using GIS techniques. Similarly, environmentally sensitive areas are identified and ground water modelling is performed.
Case studies prepared by the Department of Geomorphology have dealt with problems of hazardous waste disposal (primarily that of radioactive wastes of minor and moderate activity) and thematic mapping has served these purposes. Geomorphological surveying and mapping of alternative disposal sites (three locations in Hungary) was carried out at a scale of 1:10 000. Apart from the above applied studies the trend of fundamental research includes works on updating the Geomorphological map of the Carpatho-Balkan Region in international co-operation. The department takes part in applied urban geographical studies, too, e.g. of changes in ground water conditions in a district of Budapest owing to urban development in general and the hazard posed to the construction of underground garages in particular.
A traditional field of study of the Department of Social and Economic Geography is ethnic geography with a special reference to the Carpathian region, a topic which several books and articles have been devoted to, with many map inserts. An Ethnic Map of Transylvania was published in 1997- using computer-assisted procedures - by the Department of Cartography GRI HAS based on the 1992 census data and containing historic outline with an extensive explanation on the reverse. A similar ethnic map of Slovakia is under preparation. Also studies in geography of religions, elections, industry, crime, tourism, (international) migration, unemployment, transport and telecommunications were richly illustrated by maps. Some of these investigations are part of comparative urban studies on eastern-central European cities (Warsaw, Cracow, Prague and Budapest) in international co-operation. A mental map survey of Hungarian secondary grammar school pupils' image on Italy was executed in 1998.
A nation-wide survey has been carried out to support investigations as preparation of Hungary to join the European Union. Water management problems, transport conditions and touristic potential were outlined and illustrated on respective maps by alternative Euroregions of the country, according to the requirements of the Union.
Last sheets of supplementary series of the National Atlas of Hungary covered environmental problems using a 1992 database and were published in 1996. Computer-assisted editing and design, fair draught and colour separation were the responsibility of the Department of Cartography, scanning and printing were done by Cartographia Ltd. Works on the Atlas have been cancelled due to lack of financial support. Information on the National Atlas of Hungary was presented on the meeting of the ICA Commission of National and Regional Atlases (Bassa, L. Farkas, Z. and Keresztesi, Z.: National Atlas of Hungary: Recent Developments. Proceedings of the Seminar on Electronic Atlases II., Prague, July 31-August 2, 1996, ICA Comm. on Natl. and Reg,. Atl.).
The management of the GRI HAS kept on making significant investment in computer hardware (workstation, PCs, scanner) and software (Arc/Info) during the inter-congress period. Now the Department of Cartography is one of the best equipped workshops in computer mapping in Hungary. Due to these investments graphic quality of recent GRI HAS publications such as books in English: Hungarian Minorities in the Carpathian Basin (1995), Seismic Safety of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant (1997), Ethnic Geography of the Hungarian Minorities in the Carpathian Basin (1998), Windows on Hungarian Geography (Studies in Geography in Hungary, vol. 29, 1998) and of the richly illustrated periodical of the Institute (Geographical Bulletin) has increased considerably.
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