Mapping out 2007

by Ilse Genovese

The ACSM Bulletin began this year on a high note. You’ll have noticed the new cover and the redesigned preliminary pages. Throughout the year, feature articles will appear which document the vital work of one of the oldest U.S. scientific agencies—NOAA and its offices and programs. Three of the magazine’s columns will be continued in 2007, as will reports on the involvement of American surveyors and mappers at the international level. And, last but not the least, there is the webmazine that’s not in the Bulletin, but online at www.acsmcongress.org.
The cover received a facelift by Phillip Wolfe, a graphic designer based in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Phillip’s design was inspired by the content of the magazine’s recent issues; it visualizes the current state of the art of surveying and mapping within ACSM’s sphere of influence quite uncannily. I hope you like the new cover of your magazine!
The front pages, or “prelims” in publishers’ speak, were also redesigned. Two reasons motivated us to make the changes; for one, we listened to those of our readers who wanted the magazine to feature more news from the ACSM member organizations. Now there is a spread of pages, right at the front of the magazine, where such news will be published. I am looking forward to a spate of articles to fill the spread!
The ACSM Bulletin, the ACSM conferences, and other special projects by the congress and its member organizations have for years benefited from the generous support of our sustaining members. In the first few weeks of 2007 there were 30 sustaining members within the ACSM family. Many of them regularly advertise in the ACSM Bulletin; the extra pages reserved for advertising at the front of the magazine will give prominent placement to all our advertisers.
The big story in 2007 undoubtedly is the 200th anniversary of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA, as we know it, was organized in 1970; its roots are planted in America’s oldest scientific agency, the Survey of the Coast.
Created in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson to provide nautical charts to the American maritime community for safe passage into American ports and along the country’s extensive coastline, this earliest agency laid the groundwork for a legacy of products that enhance the safe and efficient navigation of our Nation’s waterways.
From the original mandate to survey the U.S. coastline, the charting, coastal mapping, geodesy, and tides and currents programs have evolved to the modern-day NOAA Office of Coast Survey, National Geodetic Survey, and the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services.
The anniversary celebrates 200 years of science, service, and stewardship by all NOAA constituents. The Administration’s foundations, its transformations throughout the years, and a glimpse of its future are documented at a fabulous website [http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov] which you are invited to explore.
The ACSM Bulletin starts its series of articles written by NOAA staff from the Tides and Currents Program with an overall account of the transformation of this program into a modern operational oceanographic center. This introductory article (p. 25) sets up a series of articles throughout the year which will highlight key products and services of interest to the ACSM community. The first discusses a significant hydrographic sounding reduction (see pages 28-30). The series, and others being planned as part of NOAA’s program of activities, is a way of giving praise where praise is due ... to the countless hydrographic and geodetic surveyors, NOAA Corps, and scientists, technicians, and field crews who, as staff of NOAA, have enriched our collective knowledge of the geophysics of life on Earth and in the oceans. The photos reproduced here are from a contest organized as part of NOAA’s 200th anniversary celebration.
There will be other features throughout the year, intended to drive home the one fact that we all seem to overlook—the diversity of human endeavour enabled by the availability of accurate data about the Earth and the universe. In this issue, we explore the geology of a river that once defined the western-most boundary of the U.S. and later played such an important role in the trade and communications of the the American midwest.
Every professional magazine has a regular column on topics of current interest; the ACSM Bulletin has three. Gary Kent’s ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey Corner hit the ground running in early 2006 and, given the frequent inquiries he receives, the column will continue advising surveyors and the public on all matters pertinent to ALTA certification in 2007. Gary Kent is a senior staff member of The Schneider Corporation and a past president of ACSM.
Victor O. Schinnerer & Co., a Maryland-based underwriting manager of the ACSM-sponsored CNA professional liability program, contributes the “Ask Vic!” column on risk management. If you have questions about managing risk in your work, e-mail them to AskVic@Schinnerer.com. The Ask Vic! column has been running in the ACSM Bulletin since 2004, and it’s written by Joe H. Jones.
Many prominent organizations in the geospatial community have content specifically taylored to children and their teachers. The reason for this is obvious: children are the most lasting investment for the future; and the future of all professions.
The member organizations of ACSM implement contests and programs to kindle interest among the young for the “old-new” profession of measuring and discovering the world through plats and maps. Dr. Map, a cartographer “with a licence and a Ph.D.,” and a rare sense of quirky humor, infuses his “Ask Dr. Map” column with interesting cartographic facts and trivia that portray mapmaking as a serious science, but a science that can have lighter moments too. Just what the kids love.... and not just kids, given the many comments from adults the ACSM Bulletin has received about this column since it first started appearing on its pages in early 2004. Dr. Map wishes to remain incognito, but you can always write to him at askdrmap@cox.net or visit him at http://www.drmap.info.
Every professional organization has a signature representation activity; the ACSM and its member organizations have three: on Capitol Hill, in the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), and in the International Cartographic Society (ICA). You can read about these activities in reports contributed by Laurence Socci of The C.L.A. Group, John Hohol, chair of the ACSM-FIG Forum, and Cindy Brewer, chair of the U.S. National Committee to the ICA.
Two brand-new features of the ASCM Bulletin, which we hope you’ll enjoy and come to appreciate, are the “new books” column and the webmazine. The “new books” column is designed to engage the community in book reviewing and, hence, in the scientific critique and evaluation of the knowledge our community produces for practical application. The response to our “call for reviewers” was overwhelming. In some instances, more than one reviewer offered to read and review a book, and we ran out of review copies. Thank you for the initial interest you have shown; we will continue this program in future issues of the Bulletin. And to show that reviewers responded to the only condition set, timeliness, we are publishing two reviews in this issue of our magazine.
The webmazine is a first step toward an online Bulletin. Its host is www.acsmcongress.com, and for the moment, its primary objective is to provide online those features published in the ACSM Bulletin that are of value as an information resource that others can link to and use.
Long as this editorial turned out to be, it barely scratched the surface of the topics and formats possible in a magazine devoted to one of the fastest growing areas of human knowledge—the knowledge about where we live and how we live. Watch this space—there is much to look forward to in 2007 on the pages of the ACSM Bulletin!