Customer Reviews

Cartographies of Danger: Mapping Hazards in America

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I use this book as additional reading for my Technology in Emergency Management course. This is a great book connecting mapping, hazards, and technology. It is written so non-technical types, like me, can understand. If you are interested in disasters, hazards, vulnerability assessments, or familiar with CAMEO, ALOHA, FEMA and NRC, etc. this book should be on your bookshelf.

A great overview of how to convey information through cartography. The author chooses to focus on mapping environmental hazards to demonstrate this; their may be other topics that would lend itself to the exercise but the chosen subject seems a perfect fit. Entertaining and accessible.

Monmonier, a professor of geography at Syracuse University, discusses the art and science of hazard-zone mapping, "a momentous adaptation of electronics and numerical analysis", in this clearly-written explanation of the possibilities and limitations of the new cartographic genre.
Assuming no special cartographic knowledge on the part of the reader, the author begins with the basics of scale in map-making, and proceeds to explore the ways in which tornadoes, earthquakes, environmental pollution hazards, crime, and other risks are analyzed and translated into usable graphical form.
Noting that "it is wise to question the map maker's motives", Monmonier also encourages the reader to view risk-maps with some healthy skepticism as "partly rhetorical,,,social constructions" which "can always be manipulated".
With numerous charts, graphs, and maps, Monmonier's work is highly recommended as a clear exposition of geographic hazards and a useful tool for evaluating one's own level of risk.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

I wouldn't describe this book as one that "I couldn't put down" as they say, but it made some interesting points. Maps of dangerous areas can mislead, for example, by giving the impression that a danger is especially great in one area because it is concentrated there, even though it may actually be worse elsewhere where population density is greater. Readers may also overreact to obvious and publicized hazards, such as a power plant, while ignoring more common threats such as auto accidents. Anyone who likes maps or uses them extensively for information will get something from this publication.