Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change
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Overview
In the next century, sea levels are predicted to rise at unprecedented rates, causing flooding around the world, from the islands of Malaysia and the canals of Venice to the coasts of Florida and California. These rising water levels pose serious challenges to all aspects of coastal existence—chiefly economic, residential, and environmental—as well as to the cartographic definition and mapping of coasts. It is this facet of coastal life that Mark Monmonier tackles in Coast Lines. Setting sail on a journey across shifting landscapes, cartographic technology, and climate change, Monmonier reveals that coastlines are as much a set of ideas, assumptions, and societal beliefs as they are solid black lines on maps.
Whether for sailing charts or property maps, Monmonier shows, coastlines challenge mapmakers to capture on paper a highly irregular land-water boundary perturbed by tides and storms and complicated by rocks, wrecks, and shoals. Coast Lines is peppered with captivating anecdotes about the frustrating effort to expunge fictitious islands from nautical charts, the tricky measurement of a coastline’s length, and the contentious notions of beachfront property and public access.
Combing maritime history and the history of technology, Coast Lines charts the historical progression from offshore sketches to satellite images and explores the societal impact of coastal cartography on everything from global warming to homeland security. Returning to the form of his celebrated Air Apparent, Monmonier ably renders the topic of coastal cartography accessible to both general readers and historians of science, technology, and maritime studies. In the post-Katrina era, when the map of entire regions can be redrawn by a single natural event, the issues he raises are more important than ever.
Synopsis
In the next century, sea levels are predicted to rise at unprecedented rates, causing flooding around the world, from the islands of Malaysia and the canals of Venice to the coasts of Florida and California. These rising water levels pose serious challenges to all aspects of coastal existence—chiefly economic, residential, and environmental—as well as to the cartographic definition and mapping of coasts. It is this facet of coastal life that Mark Monmonier tackles in Coast Lines. Setting sail on a journey across shifting landscapes, cartographic technology, and climate change, Monmonier reveals that coastlines are as much a set of ideas, assumptions, and societal beliefs as they are solid black lines on maps.
Whether for sailing charts or property maps, Monmonier shows, coastlines challenge mapmakers to capture on paper a highly irregular land-water boundary perturbed by tides and storms and complicated by rocks, wrecks, and shoals. Coast Lines is peppered with captivating anecdotes about the frustrating effort to expunge fictitious islands from nautical charts, the tricky measurement of a coastline’s length, and the contentious notions of beachfront property and public access.
Combing maritime history and the history of technology, Coast Lines charts the historical progression from offshore sketches to satellite images and explores the societal impact of coastal cartography on everything from global warming to homeland security. Returning to the form of his celebrated Air Apparent, Monmonier ably renders the topic of coastal cartography accessible to both general readers and historians of science, technology, and maritime studies. In the post-Katrina era, when the map of entire regions can be redrawn by a single natural event, the issues he raises are more important than ever.
Weatherwise
"A very useful (and fairly quick) read on the topic of changing coastlines. . . . Anyone interested in an informative and entertaining read on climate change via the science of cartography and map-making should peruse Monmonier's geographic treatise on coastlines."—Randy Cerveny, Weatherwise
— Randy Cerveny
Editorials
H-Net
"Coastlines is no exception to what we have come to expect from this exceptional scholar: well researched and referenced, captivating and engaging, with detailed stories set in a broader context of inderstanding, and a balance between scholarly thought and nontechnical writing for a public audience. His books are simply a delight to read."
— Sally Hermansen
Imago Mundi
"[Coast Lines] provides an excellent grounding for a full understanding of the complexity of all factors involved with the historical and current mapping and charting of the world's coastlines. . . . This was an enjoyable read."
— Charles A, Burroughs
Technology & Culture
"Mark Monmonier is a cartographer, distinguished professor, and writer extraordinaire. . . . This volume, on mapping shorelines, is yet another excellent contribution."
— Klaus J. Meyer-Arendt
The Globe
"By using coast lines on maps as examples, the book provides an interesting overview of some of the most fundamental problems faced by all cartographers in map construction. In this sense the book is thought-provoking. The book is written in a very readable style and should be of wide appeal, irrespective of one's degree of technical expertise or familiarity of maps."
— Colin V. Murray-Wallace
The Journal of the Australian Map Circle
An interesting overview of some of the most fundamental problems faced by all cartographers in map construction.... I highly recommend the work."—Colin V. Marray-Wallace, The Journal of the Australian Map Circle
— Colin V. Marray-Wallace
Weatherwise
"A very useful (and fairly quick) read on the topic of changing coastlines. . . . Anyone interested in an informative and entertaining read on climate change via the science of cartography and map-making should peruse Monmonier's geographic treatise on coastlines."—Randy Cerveny, Weatherwise
— Randy Cerveny
Library Journal
Monmonier (geography, Syracuse Univ.; How To Lie with Maps), the author of over 15 books on mapping, cartographic presentation, interpretation, and environmental analysis, has written an interesting commentary on how mapmakers represent the changing nature of nautical coastlines. Writing in nontechnical language aimed at a general or undergraduate readership, the author extensively uses maps, figures, charts, footnotes, and diagrams to illustrate effectively how cartographers and mapmakers depict historical and time-series data on the evolving nature of beaches, navigation charts, and maritime zones. Via the use of mainly American examples, Monmonier tackles the theme of dealing with the assumptions, ideas, and beliefs arising from coastal ecology, flooding, rising sea levels, and the effects of global warming on the land-sea divide. The text is rich in historical content and includes a bibliography with scholarly articles, books, web sites, and government publications. Recommended for undergraduate and larger public library environmental and geography collections.
—Ian D. Gordon