the areas in question. In other words, the cartographic prepa- 
ration is always the first phase of any development project; 
and if this phase is unnecessarily delayed 811 subsequent 
phases, like & chain reaction, will be in turn subjects of 
delays which, capitalized, can result in a loss of money which 
might amount to a multiple of the entire costs for the cartogra- 
phic operation. 
Exploration and exploitation of the world's natural 
resources and improvement of the world's agricultural potential 
for an accelerated food production are pr sent day's emergency 
measures to cope with 4w0 major Worldte problems, namely the 
undernourishment of large portions of the world's population 
and population explosion. It is recognized that already at the 
present time, more than half of the world's population is under- 
nourished and the world's populeidon instances faster than the 
food supply. To improve the situation; it is necessary to 
undertake large rural engineering projects in the immediate 
future and at the same time to start extensive natural resources 
development project to provide for the capital necessary for the 
improvement of agriculture, 
The question arises here to whether the present day's 
cartographic exploration progress can be considered as edeguate 
to provide the necessary data and the necessary map coverage