Between 1536 and 1601, at the request of the colonial administration of New Spain, indigenous artists crafted more than two hundred maps to be used as evidence in litigation over the allocation of land. These land grant maps, or mapas de mercedes de tierras, recorded the boundaries of cities, provinces, towns, and places; they made note of markers and ownership, and, at times, the extent and measurement of each field in a territory, along with the names of those who worked it. With their corresponding case files, these maps tell the stories of hundreds of natives and Spaniards who engaged in legal proceedings either to request land, to oppose a petition, or to negotiate its terms. Mapping Indigenous Land explores how, as persuasive and rhetorical images, these maps did more than simply record the disputed territories for lawsuits. They also enabled indigenous communities—and sometimes Spanish petitioners—to translate their ideas about contested spaces into visual form; offered arguments for the defense of these spaces; and in some cases even helped protect indigenous land against harmful requests. Drawing on her own paleography and transcription of case files, author Ana Pulido Rull shows how much these maps can tell us about the artists who participated in the lawsuits and about indigenous views of the contested lands. Considering the mapas de mercedes de tierras as sites of cross-cultural communication between natives and Spaniards, Pulido Rull also offers an analysis of medieval and modern Castilian law, its application in colonial New Spain, and the possibilities for empowerment it opened for the native population. An important contribution to the literature on Mexico's indigenous cartography and colonial art, Pulido Rull’s work suggests new ways of understanding how colonial space itself was contested, negotiated, and defined.

Containing some of the leading voices on Detroit's history and future, Mapping Detroit will be informative reading for anyone interested in urban studies, geography, and recent American history.

Presents a comprehensive guide to land navigation and offers instruction on choosing and using a compass, reading topographic maps, measuring distances, and navigation using the sun and stars as well as providing a fold-out map, drawings, and photographs.

Soil Mapping and Process Modeling for Sustainable Land Use Management is the first reference to address the use of soil mapping and modeling for sustainability from both a theoretical and practical perspective. The use of more powerful statistical techniques are increasing the accuracy of maps and reducing error estimation, and this text provides the information necessary to utilize the latest techniques, as well as their importance for land use planning. Providing practical examples to help illustrate the application of soil process modeling and maps, this reference is an essential tool for professionals and students in soil science and land management who want to bridge the gap between soil modeling and sustainable land use planning. - Offers both a theoretical and practical approach to soil mapping and its uses in land use management for sustainability - Synthesizes the most up-to-date research on soil mapping techniques and applications - Provides an interdisciplinary approach from experts worldwide working in soil mapping and land management

Through a detailed study of the work of three of the leading figures of the era - Augustus Petermann, Physical Geographer Royal to Queen Victoria; cartographer Charles Meredith van de Velde, who produced the finest map of the region at the time; and Edward Robinson, founder of modern Palestinology - the authors explore the complex cultural, cartographic and technical processes that shaped and determined the resulting maps of the region. Making full use of newly discovered archival material, and richly illustrated in both colour and black and white, Mapping the Holy Land is essential reading for cartographers, historical geographers, historians of mapmaking, and for all those with an interest in the Holy Land and the history of Palestine.

This book gives a comprehensive overview of all relevant elements in topography and their practical application. It elaborates on the classical representation of terrain on maps such as cartographic projections, together with their classification, scale, and geographical elements. It is richly illustrated with photographs, maps and figures, in which the theoretical explanations are clarified. Readers will become acquainted with the physical characteristics of the ground, i.e. tectonic and erosive shapes, the importance and classification of terrain, genetic (fluvial, abrasive, glacial, karst) and topographic types such as higher (mountains, hills, peaks) and lower terrain (valleys, fields). In addition, the book discusses cartometry and coordinate systems, orientation in space (geographic, topographic, tactical) including by means of maps, instruments and the night sky and elaborates new techniques and technologies such as aerial photogrammetric imagery, global navigation satellite systems and LiDAR. The book also includes methods for the practical execution of concrete measurement operations, such as determining position and movement on land with maps, compass and azimuth which makes it especially useful for practitioners and professionals, e.g., for landscape planning, military exercises, mountaineering, nature walks etc. As such it offers a valuable guide not only for undergraduate students but also for researchers in the fields of geography, geosciences, geodesy, ecology, forestry and related areas looking for an overview on topography. Uniquely, the book also features an extensive glossary of topographical terms.

Mapping and Forecasting Land Use: The Present and Future of Planning is a comprehensive reference on the use of technologies to map land use, focusing on GIS and remote sensing applications and methodologies for land use monitoring. This book addresses transversal topics such as urbanisation, biodiversity loss, climate change, ecosystem services and participatory planning, with the pros and cons of various aerial technologies in mapping and land use. It follows a multidisciplinary approach and provides opinions and evidence from leading researchers working in academic institutions across the globe. The book's second half moves from theory and research advancement into case studies, compiling global examples to provide real-world context and evidence of the techniques and applications. Mapping and Forecasting Land Use is a valuable guide for graduates, academics and researchers in the fields of geography, geographic information science and land use science who want to effectively apply GIS and remote sensing capabilities to mapping or wider land studies. Researchers in geosciences, environmental science and agriculture will also find this of value in utilising 21st-century technologies in their field. - Provides a guide to land use mapping technologies, including GIS and remote sensing - Covers a wide field of interdisciplinary subjects related to GIS applications in land use - Features global case studies alongside exploring theory and current research in the field

Throughout history the control of land has been the basis of political power. Cadastral maps - cartographic records of property ownership - played an important role in the rise of modern Europe as tools for the consolidation and extension of land-based national power. The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State: A History of Properly Mapping, illustrated with 127 maps, traces the development and application of rural property mapping in Europe and European colonies from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century. The authors go beyond traditional cartographic research, approaching the maps as political instruments rather than as simple geographical or historical tools. The result is an unprecedented examination of the political and economic forces behind the production of maps and advances in cartography, demonstrating how the seemingly neutral science of cartography became a political instrument for national interests. Beginning with a review of the roots of cadastral mapping in the Roman Empire, the authors concentrate on the use of cadastral maps in the Netherlands, France, England, the Nordic countries, the German lands, the territories of the Austrian Habsburgs, and the European colonies. During the seventeenth century, governments began to use maps to secure economic and political bases; by the nineteenth century, these maps had become tools for aggressive governmental control of land as tax bases, natural resources, and national territories. The culmination of extensive bibliographic and archival research made possible by the authors' considerable linguistic skills, this work draws from source materials in ten languages and spanning five centuries. It will remain thedefinitive source on the subject for years to come. The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State was awarded the 1991 Kenneth Nebenzahl Prize for the best new manuscript in the history of cartography.

Discusses different ways in which land can be shown on maps.