the large volume of cartographic information is extracted from aerial 
photographs and processed using manual and photomechanical procedures. 
Above all, the final map product is a graphic designed for human inter 
pretation. 
Digital cartography is being used to embrace not only the procedures and 
equipment being adopted for automated cartography, but also the concepts 
associated with interpreting and analyzing cartographic data in a 
virtual digital domain. The latter concepts go beyond the preparation 
of graphic maps by automated techniques and require a consideration of 
the merger of cartographic data into geographic information systems. 
Digital cartography will require an almost revolutionary reexamination 
of the entire cartographic process and the rules and standards by which 
data are interpreted. 
TRENDS IN MAPPING, ADP, AND DIGITAL CARTOGRAPHY 
In the following series of illustrative graphs I have attempted to focus 
on some of the significant trends in mapping, automated data processing 
(ADP), and digital cartography that seem to have major importance. 
These trends are due more to a historical series of conditions and tech 
nological events rather than any particular technical capability. As 
such they represent an inexorable framework that strongly influences the 
rate and direction of the transition from analog to digital cartography. 
Trends in Mapping 
What I believe to be four of the most significant trends affecting topo 
graphic mapping are shown in figure 1. The cost of preparing conven 
tional line maps has been increasing primarily due to labor costs while 
Figure 1.—Trends in mapping 
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