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the resources available continue to decrease due to inflation and complex 
forces in the budgetary process. The appropriations for USGS standard 
quadrangle mapping, measured in constant dollars, have been almost level 
for 20 years. During the same period, NMD personnel resources have 
decreased from a work force of about 2,200 to about 1,800, but about 300 
represent additions from reorganizations that have brought additional 
responsibilities to the NMD. Thus, the personnel resource loss for 
comparable mapping activities is higher, more like 25-30% in 20 years. 
The cost of an "average” 1:24,000-scale map has continuously risen but, 
in constant dollars, the increase is very slight. 
The NMD, like other national mapping organizations, has maintained pro 
ductivity by selectively introducing more efficient automated techniques 
and equipment into the mapmaking process. However, the basic process 
has not changed greatly since photogrammetric compilation techniques 
replaced placetable compilation about 40 years ago. At the same time, 
some of the more expensive phases of the process, such as field operations 
have been reduced to the bare minimum and complete revision, has been 
substituted by interim revision and orthophotos. The concept of a provis 
ional map has recently been introduced (Roney, J.I., 1982) to save time 
and money in the preparation of maps of previously unmapped areas. It 
is doubtful if further major economies can be gained by such adaptations 
without degrading the integrity of the basic cartographic data. 
A third trend in mapping is the increasing number of maps requiring re 
vision, especially in metropolitan areas where mapping tends to be more 
expensive. In 1947, when the Division was undergoing the transition 
from planetable to photogrammetry, only 4.8 percent of the conterminous 
United States was covered with 1:24,000-scale topographic maps (3080 
maps covering 175,872 mi^). At the end of fiscal year 1981, there was 
coverage for 77.2 percent of the same 48 States (40,900 maps covering 
2,331,497 mi^), and a significant amount of the remaining area has 
recent orthophotoquad coverage. A major objective of the NMD is to 
complete the 1:24,000-scale coverage, but the trends in mapping costs 
and resources available seem to continually place the goal at least 5 
years away. Meanwhile, the large number of maps prepared during the 
past 35 years are at various stages of obsolescence and many have under 
gone multiple partial revisions. 
The final trend shown on figure 1 is the demand for custom maps and the 
matic maps, which is increasing not only in the number and variety of 
themes desired, but also in the short delivery times requested. Many of 
these special maps require different map projections and different levels 
of content than can be derived from existing base maps. 
Trends in ADP 
Meanwhile, there are several trends, shown in figure 2, that are signif 
icantly affecting all types of ADP. The first is the ever-decreasing 
cost of hardware which is also becoming more compact and powerful. 
Against this gain is a second trend, the increasing cost of writing and 
maintaining software. This is leading to industrywide development of 
modular, standardized software packages that can be plugged into many 
applications by multiple users. A third trend is the decreasing cost 
and expanding volume of data storage leading to the prospect that it may 
soon be possible to afford truly massive on-line data storage at trivial 
cost. The fourth trend is the recent and explosive growth in Very Large 
System Integration (VLSI) where single chips now have more capability 
than entire computers of a few years ago.