Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: international map, global shorelines, overhead imaging, United States, Five Islands, Geological Survey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Coastlines take on a completely different meaning after reading Mark Monmonier's five-century-long odyssey on the challenges and tricks that mapmakers have used to tell us where land and sea meet. That line is far from obvious, it turns out. With the prospect of rising global sea levels, the technique of mapping changing bays, estuaries, and deltas requires imagination as much as mathematics. By using history and humor, Monmonier's fascination with mapping our coastlines is highly infectious."-Christopher Hallowell, author of Holding Back the Sea (Christopher Hallowell )

"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 Weatherwise )

"An interesting commentary on how mapmakers represent the changing nature of nautical coastlines. Writing in nontechnical language aimed at a general or undegraduate readership, the author extensively uses maps, figures, charts, footnotes, and diagrams to illustrate effectively how cartographers and mapmakers depict historical and time-series data."-Library Journal (Library Journal )

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 The Journal of the Australian Map Circle )

Product Description

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (May 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226534030
• ISBN-13: 978-0226534039
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #121,255 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #20 in	Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Cartography
  #42 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Travel > Ecotourism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A good explanation, October 11, 2009

By	Dawn Forsythe (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Coastlines really helped me understand the history of charting, and how it provides the foundation for decisions on climate change issues and marine spatial planning. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five was his assumptions about the level of prior knowledge of his readers. I had to go to other sources to understand what the author was talking about in a couple of sections... Maybe if this goes to another printing, the author could add a reference guide at the end to help less knowledgeable readers?