ANE:Background

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A National Atlas is a fundamental and complex geographical atlas containing a synthesis of contemporary scientific knowledge in the field of physical, economic, cultural and political geography of the country under consideration. It serves as a reference tool by adding essential value for the public manager, and by providing knowledge of the different aspects that define the territory in business activities; at the same time, it provides an educational reference point for the wider population.

Several stages can be distinguished in the evolution of the National Atlas project: the elaboration of the Geographical and Statistical Review of Spain (1880-1912), the Geographical Statistical Atlas project (1930), the National Atlas of Spain of 1965 and, finally, the National Atlas of Spain of 1986-2008.

The Geographical and Statistical Review of Spain

Map of Spain at a scale of 1:1,500,000 drawn up by Ibáñez de Íbero on the basis of the division of the territory into military zones.

Map showing the distribution of average annual rainfall. This thematic map appears in the first volume of the The Geographical and Statistical Review of Spain, which is a description of the territory.

The first experiences in the creation of a national atlas at the Geographical and Statistical Institute (IGE) date back to 1880, when General Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero, Director of the Institute, launched the project for the creation of the "Geographical and Statistical Review of Spain", with the aim of updating it annually. It was a major project, and as Ibáñez de Íbero pointed out in the prologue, in order to be carried out successfully, "the collaboration of the other management centres was indispensable, as was the collaboration of the authorities of all orders, including the prelates, and of some scientific establishments".

The work was finally published in 1888, and consisted of twenty-three articles and a geographical map of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.

The map, at a scale of 1:1,500,000, drawn by Ibáñez de Ibero himself for the division of the territory into military zones, is the only illustration accompanying the text. Published in black and sienna, it was reprinted in 1902. The editing work was carried out at the of the Geographical and Statistical Institute press.

The work, therefore, is not strictly speaking a national atlas (it only includes one map), but it can be considered as an predecessor of it, since it was essentially a synthesis of the statistical data available about the geography of the country, and it prepared the way for their cartographic representation.

Despite the intention to update and reprint, it took almost a quarter of a century for a new Reseña Geográfica y Estadística de España to be published, this time in three volumes, published successively in 1912, at the beginning of 1913 and at the end of 1914. The great innovation of this edition was the inclusion of some thematic cartographic sheets, statistical graphs and topographical profiles. This was possible, among other factors, due to the fact that the increase in resources at the Institute allowed the creation of the Graphic Arts Section, which did not exist when the first edition of the Reseña was produced.

 Background: Geographical and Statistical Reviews

The Statistical Geographical Atlas (1930)

In 1930, a Royal Order was issued establishing the need to publish the Statistical Geographical Atlas, on an annual basis, and this work was assigned to the Permanent Commission for the Economic Map of Spain, which belonged to the Higher Geographical Council of the Spanish Geographical and Cadastral Institute (formerly the Geographical and Statistical Institute).

After the change of political system in 1931, from monarchy to republic, the Higher Geographic Council disappeared and the Interministerial Commission for Cartography and Economic Geography was created, with the aim of producing the Economic Map or Economic Geographic Yearbook of Spain.

The production of this Economic Map could not be carried out due to problems in the formation of working groups, the complexity of obtaining data, a shortage of technical resources and the outbreak of the civil war.

The first National Atlas (1955-1985)

The need to have works of synthesis of national geography had encouraged several countries in the first half of the 20th century to elaborate their own national atlases, each one under the criteria of the respective work teams. In order to unify criteria and thus make the work of different countries comparable, the International Geographical Union (IGU) established in 1956 a Working Group on National Atlases, which would later give way to the National Atlas Commission. These atlases were then defined as "fundamental and complex geographical atlases of specific countries, containing a recapitulation and generalisation of contemporary scientific knowledge in the field of physical, economic and political geography of the country concerned".

In accordance with these ideas, a National Atlas Commission had been set up at the Geographic and Cadastral Institute with the aim of tackling the creation of the National Atlas of Spain. The Commission, made up of a group of renowned geographers with a good knowledge of cartographic language, tried to replace the old concept of written text with the modern concept of the map as a graphic image.

By 1965, the national atlases of Finland, France, Canada, Egypt, Czechoslovakia, USSR, Italy, Australia, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Belgium, UK and Israel had been published, and those of Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland were being delivered as a loose-leaf collection. This was the model adopted by the Spanish National Atlas Commission.

The cartographic techniques used in that edition contributed to the learning and practice of a new working methodology, different from the one that had been used until then, obtaining a considerable improvement in the quality of the final product.

Map from sheet 40 showing the average time of sunshine a year at a scale of 1:4,000,000

Map on sheet 87 showing the zones or areas of commercial attraction and the main commercial centres of importance at a scale of 1:2,000,000

The technique, engraved glass, was used in very few countries at that time and it was necessary to import the patent from Switzerland. The team gained considerable experience and quality in their work. A further advance was the use of the stabilene technique. For the first time, a 1:500,000 scale representation of the entire national territory was achieved. The data were obtained from the National Topographic Map at a scale of 1:50,000, which was completed prior to this work.

Despite the many difficulties that hindered the completion of the project, the 28 geographical sheets and 24 of the 72 thematic sheets from the original 100 projected, were published in 1965. A Geographical Review of 227 pages and a Toponymic Index consisting of 176 pages and approximately 40,000 toponyms were published later. The last updates of some of the (non-thematic) geographical sheets were produced in the 1980s.

Although the Atlas remained unfinished due to circumstances beyond the control of the work team, and the tools used for the elaboration of the maps have been considerably improved, the scientific approach with which the work was promoted was well conceived and even ahead of its time. For the first time in Spain there was a work that synthesised through cartographic language the physical and human geography of the country, essential material for the governmental management of the territory, among other aspects.

 National Atlas of Spain 1955-1985

The second National Atlas (1986-2008)

Thematic structure of the National Atlas of Spain 1986

In 1986, the management of the Geographic Institute considered the possibility of producing a new National Atlas to complete and update the previous publication. Thus, with the approval of the Council of Ministers on June 13, 1986, the National Atlas project was prepared and structured, drawing up a general index that would cover the different aspects and topics to be dealt with.

In 1987, this multidisciplinary project was launched, organised into thirteen sections comprising 48 working groups, in which all aspects of the physical and human geography of our country were dealt with through mapping. Different ministries and bodies of the General State Administration, Regions Administrations, and different specialists who provided the necessary information for the preparation of the thematic cartography, took part in the creation of the new National Atlas.

The work was made up of XIII thematic Sections which were in turn divided into Groups, and the Groups were published both in 45 independent fascicles and grouped in large format volumes (5 volumes plus 1 volume that included the toponymic index, with more than 2,200 pages and more than 4,500 maps in total), and which covered all the themes that made up the geographical reality of the country.

In 1991, the first group, Environmental Problems, was published. The first complete edition of the work was completed in 1997.

The thematic structure and format of this Atlas constituted a renovation with respect to the unfinished Atlas of 1965. A large-scale work was achieved, which represented a great qualitative and quantitative leap with respect to previous stages.

 National Atlas of Spain 1986-2008