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From our current vantage point, Michael Goodchild's 1992 game-changing ‘Geographical Information Science’ paper roughly bisects the history of our field from its beginnings in the1960s to the present. This makes it an appropriate landmark around which to organize some reflections on the evolution of geographic information science, and more particularly on Goodchild's role in the developments that have defined it these past 20 years. The focus here is on intellectual leadership rather than on any direct scholarly contributions, though scholarship provides the backbone of the narrative. The clearly spelled out research agenda that lies at the core of the 1992 paper and a handful of subsequent essays greatly facilitate that task. This paper explores different facets of Goodchild's leadership in sections titled ‘Naming’, ‘Adapting’, ‘Accepting’, ‘Persevering’, ‘Educating’, and finally, ‘Leading’, and provides evidence that, like any other science, geographic information science is a social as well as an intellectual enterprise. An aspect of the social function of intellectual leadership is that Goodchild's continuing role as agenda-setter for the diverse field of geographic information science goes well beyond generating disciples and followers; it also stimulates dialectic responses from researchers coming from quite different perspectives, thus contributing to the broadening and deepening of the field.

This essay considers how maps became implicated in historical inquiry, with particular reference to the city of Paris. Three interrelated episodes are discussed, from the early eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, each associated with specific mapmakers and collectors whose activities shaped the early development of map history. These episodes reveal how maps were historicized in different ways in this period, initially as images created in the present to reveal the past and eventually as objects of historical interest in their own right. It is further argued that this intellectual shift was associated with a growing awareness, especially among state officials, that the study and collection of historic maps had important geopolitical implications. In tracing this story across three episodes in a single urban setting, the essay seeks to make larger observations about the relationship between the map as a visual representation, the map collection as an urban ‘assemblage’ of geographical...

In their paper on the last glaciation of Shetland, Golledge et al. (2008) concluded on the basis of a remote sensing study that during that period Shetland had been overrun by ice from Scandinavia. Since the method of study they used does not reveal the sense of the direction in which the ice flowed and since they ignored earlier ground-based work involving striations which do reveal the sense of direction of ice flow their conclusions have no scientific basis.

The paper discusses changes that have occurred over the last 15 years in how maps are sold, where they are sold and who is buying them. The emphasis is on the situation in the United States of America, but developments in Europe and the United Kingdom are also included.

Intelligence work is based on the gathering of information, including cartographic material for preparing new maps. This paper examines copies and re‐editions, produced by British, Egyptian, and PLO military authorities, of topographical maps of Israel on a scale 1:100,000, which were published from the later part of the Mandate (1930s and 1940s), up to the 1980s. Certain features in the copies reflect distinctive political attitudes to the local situation or illustrate a lack of cartographic awareness of their significance. No serious attempts were made to hide the sources of the maps.

Theory is not a goal in itself but a means of enriching the history of cartography by stimulating new research questions and objectives. In this paper the concept of ‘transparent maps’ (carriers of an image of the external reality of the world) and ‘opaque maps’ is introduced. The notion is approached structurally (standards of graphical representation, drawing, geometry, text); through the sociology of the map (map makers, institutions, the public); and through seeing maps in their cultural and historical context (an approach which raises issues of the definitional boundaries of the history of cartography and which is arguably one of the most stimulating perspectives today as fostered by, in particular, contributors to the History of Cartography). Finally, attention is drawn to three important topics for the research agenda: the links between maps and culture; maps as a language of communication and as instruments of power; and the links between perception, logic and mnemonics.

The principles of bibliographical description are severely challenged by seventeenth‐century Dutch folio atlases. Although an atlas may appear to be a book, its method of compilation does not allow for an ‘ideal copy’. The integrity of each folio sheet—with map on one side and letterpress on the back—meant that additions, omissions and the interchange of individual sheets make each compilation a unique creation. Thrift meant that minor changes were added to existing copper plates, old sheets continued to be used after newer version were printed and new letterpress text was appended to older maps. Thus extant atlases may contain early states of some folios and much later states of others. The bibliographical consequences of such a situation are illustrated by the problems of accommodating all variations in the Mercator‐Hondius‐Janssonius atlases in the new, revised edition of C. Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, which is now under way.

L'A. decrit les techniques d'imprimerie des cartes, ainsi que les methodes d'entretien des plaques d'imprimerie, plaques de cuivre de l'entreprise Homann et ce, afin de pallier les phenomenes d'usure

The mathematical basis for analyzing the dimensional stability of cartographic drafting surfaces, and more specifically paper, is presented in the form of a simple mechanical model. Deduction from a universal equation incorporating such factors as elasticity, viscosity, and relaxation time yields less general but more applicable equations once assumptions are made about which factors are dominant and, on the other hand, insignificant. Translated from: Izvestiya vysshykh uchebnykh zavedeniy, Geodeziya i aerofotos” yemka, 1986, No. 4, pp. 106-111.

The problem of the influence of the paper itself on bearings taken off maps or plans has been recently discussed by G. T. M. in this Review (iii, 22, 479). The following alternative method of solving the problem may be of interest; the same figure and symbols are used as in the article mentioned.

(1975). Oxford World Atlas, Cartographic Department of the Clarendon Press, Saul B. Cohen (Geographic Editor), Oxford University Press, London, 1973.270 x 380 mm., xii and 190 pages (including gazetteer), 123 maps. $16.30 (cloth) and $9.35 (paper). Cartography: Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 54-54.

Since historical maps are kept in digital format archives, they have not only the planimetric errors attributable to the cartographer but also those transferred during digitalising. This paper describes a methodology based on photogrammetric techniques and surveying applied to evaluate the accuracy of historical maps. The aim of the study is to take reference points on tracing paper from the original map and ground control points in order to use photogrammetric techniques to recover the metrics of the digitalised map. This ensures that the historical map in digital form has the same metric quality as the original map, since the errors arising from scanning are removed. This method is applied to 1775 map of the Real Sitio de Aranjuez (Spain), demonstrating that the application of photogrammetric techniques are useful tools for correction and analysis of historical maps. Consequently, photogrammetric techniques applied to the analysis of historical maps open up new perspectives for the study of the ...

This paper reviews the recent development of web cartography based on Plewe's 2007 short paper in the U.S. National Report to the ICA, titled Web Cartography in the United States. By identifying major changes and recent research trends in web car- tography, this paper provides an overview about what the web means to cartography, and suggests two major research directions for web cartography in the future: 1) the rise of user-centered design, including design of user interfaces, dynamic map content and mapping functions; 2) the release of the power of map-making to the public and amateur cartographers. I also present web cartography concepts in this paper to challenge the traditional research agenda in cartography.

Due to recent technological progress, maps have become more popular than ever before. This is especially true for young people, who interact with these technologies on a daily basis. Therefore, it is essential that these potential map users possess sufficient knowledge and skills to process the content of cartographic products. A user study was conducted during which pupils (aged 11-18years) and geography students (>18years) had to solve a number of cartography questions using topographic maps. The data were analyzed statistically, taking into account a number of potentially influencing factors (user characteristics) on the participants' results: age, gender, youth club membership, knowledge about the area, among others. The results show a rising trend in the pupils' scores with increasing age, which can be explained by education in cartography at school. Geography students perform much better, but no influence of any other user characteristics was detected. For pupils, knowledge about the area and gender might be considered as influencing factors. However, the detected influence of gender depends on the scoring system.

This short paper describes an inexpensive method for making topographic maps to support visually impaired students. The maps are mainly for courses in geology and ecology, but maps for walking and other recreational purposes have also been produced. The method is not well suited to reproduction of multiple copies, but work is continuing to investigate replication. The paper also considers the choice of materials, scale (including vertical exaggeration) and optimum methods of labelling to meet the needs of both blind and partially sighted students. The project concentrates on making tactile maps affordable, and shows that these can be effective despite using simple tools and techniques from low cost (sometimes free, scrap) material.

Recent research on Émile Zola’s involvement with the French press of the late Second Empire and early Third Republic has clarified the shape of this history of his engagement with journalism, including a supposed absence from the fray between 1881 and 1895. This article, however, identifies in the period 1888 to 1892 , between the idealism of $\textit{Le Rêve}$ and the reflexivity of $\textit{Le Docteur Pascal}$, a period of particular reflection on the press by Zola which illuminates ‘le retour du reel et de l’actualité’ in his novels: $\textit{La Bête humaine}$, $\textit{L’Argent}$ and $\textit{La Débâcle}$.

We analysed morphological variation among 17 forewing characters within five populations of the paper wasp, Polistes dominulus, in Iran. The raw planar coordinate data were aligned using geometric and mathematical calculations in Kendall's shape space. After transfer of the data to a linear Euclidean space, i.e., tangent space, multi‐variate analysis of 135 images of forewings were made using their geometric morphometric characters (30 in the forewings). We observed a direct correlation between morphological characters and the geographically easiest travel distance along river valleys and mountain ranges.

Although studies concerned with the communication of information and of power-relations have been central to the development of cartographic theory, as hermeneutics they do not seem to have fully explored the relationship between maps and aesthetics. In this short paper, I will briefly discuss the reasons why aesthetics belongs in the development of cartographic theory and suggest possible avenues for further research.

Many historians of cartography may be vaguely aware that Leo Bagrow, Imago Mundi's founder, wrote a short history of cartography some years before his now classic, if somewhat outdated Geschichte der Kartographie,I familiar to all. It was published in Russia, at that time still Bagrow's home, in two separate printings of 1917 and 1918, years when Russia was simultaneously involved in external warfare and a revolution. It is dedicated to Nordenskidld, and has the title The History of the Geographical Map. Review and Bibliography.2 For the time, it provided a fairly good rapid survey of the field, and certainly was the only work of its kind in Russian. It even included a large number of facsimile reproductions, fully 69 in its short 60 pages.3 However, by and large it was an insignificant work, being largely just a chronological run-through of examples of early maps, with a tendency to stress Russian cartography, and lacking notes. As far as I know, Bagrow does not refer to it in later works, not even in the foreword to his 1951 history. It is, however, not the history itself which is of interest here, but the materials which accompany it: (1) Bagrow's preface, (2) a mammoth and universal bibliography of the history of cartography, and (3) a review of the development of the historiography of cartography. It is the latter item which is the main initiative for the present short paper, and a translation of it follows here. But before presenting it, I would like to say a few words about some interesting information contained in the preface, and especially, about the bibliography.

This short paper attempts to pursue an analytical account of the cartography in present day advertising. Particular reference is made to the printed advertisements in newspapers, brochures and periodicals available in Britain.

It seemed to me that this short paper could usefully be confined to a consideration of some aspects of the system of registration of title to land which now applies in England and Wales and in this...

This paper proposes a new method for urban population density prediction at 30 m resolution. Using data for Bangalore, the paper demonstrates that population within each 30 m residential built-up c...

Most Latin American cities have been experiencing a rise in criminality and Ciudad Juarez is not the exception. The aim of this paper is to examine the spatial heterogeneity of factors infl...

© 2019, © 2019 Society for Landscape Studies. This paper assesses the potential of software developed by the research group of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in order to georeference and vectorise historical landscape photographs. The use of this ‘Monoplotting’ Tool introduces a new application for topographical photographs and opens up the possibility of using such photographs for measuring land-use change. This paper reviews the literature on the use of historical photographs for landscape history. It introduces the new software and then goes on to examine how vectorised topographical photographs may help in the measurement of land-use changes in the mountainous landscape of Liguria and Trentino in the late nineteenth and twentieth century.

This paper foregrounds and evaluates the research design associated with the study of Chinese state rescaling. It first synthesizes the existing gaps in the original, western-based state rescaling framework. The paper then explores how different methodological channels are integrated to support a revised analytical framework. Specifically, it presents the value of multi-sited comparisons through (a) the ‘extended case method’ and (b) the role of the ‘concurrent nested approach’ to data collection. In so doing, the paper offers a systematic assessment of the methodological contributions and constraints in ascertaining and explaining how regulatory reconfigurations unfold across space and time in China.

In this paper, the enhancement of the data model of the Cyprus land information system (CLIS), with the adoption of the land administration domain model (LADM) is examined. The CLIS was established in 1999, within the Department of Lands and Surveys, to support the operation of the Cyprus cadastral system and has met the majority of its initial set goals. It is however now broadly accepted that the CLIS should be improved and upgraded, and a new data model should be introduced to facilitate the manipulation and provision of data to internal and external users/ customers in a more effective way. The need to enhance the CLIS coincides with the introduction of the LADM, which is under development within the Technical Committee 211 of the International Organization for Standardization and identified as ISO 19152. The LADM provides an abstract, conceptual schema with three basic packages: parties (such as people and organisations), administrative rights, responsibilities and restrictions (such as property rights) and spatial units (such as parcels, buildings and networks), with the latter having one subpackage: surveying and spatial representation [6]. [Note: In this moment (January 2012), the LADM is at the development stage of Final Draft International Standard]. In this paper, the basic entities of the CLIS are presented and restructured, in a way to comply with the LADM. After analysing the characteristics of LADM, it is concluded that this is compatible with CLIS, and can be used as a data model framework for CLIS’s upgrade. Thus, the Cyprus country profile is proposed. The adoption of the LADM is a great opportunity for the Department of Lands and Surveys to introduce an International Organization for Standardization standard model, based on model driven architecture, and to gain all the benefits derived from such a movement. Such benefits include the improvement in the effectiveness and the efficiency of the current system and the expansion of the services provided by CLIS to the broader land administration system and to the Cyprus community. The new functionality includes: better structuring of the rights, responsibilities and restrictions (and related source documents); better fitting in the information infrastructure, both national (e.g. valuation, taxation, building, address and person registrations) and international (e.g. INSPIRE cadastral parcels); and future capabilities for representing three-dimensional spatial units (e.g. legal spaces related to apartment or utility infrastructure).

The paper presents the notion and procedure of cadastral registration of land and real property objects in the Russian Federation. Russia has gone through significant changes in cadastre over the last dozen years. Introduction of the State Real Property Cadastre Act in 2007 was a corner stone in this regard. Today, the cadastre encompasses all types of real property. The goal of this paper is to present the modern cadastre in the Russian Federation, which has been introduced to keep record of real property. Additionally, the cadastre collects information on the number, surface area, quality and use of land and other real property objects. Data in the state register are used to carry out administrative tasks, protect and use land in an effective manner, plan agricultural management and also to ensure proper location and specialisation of production. The study has shown that the cadastre implemented in Russia essentially achieves its goals and completes the tasks it was given, but its organisation requires ...

This research developed a method to explore density and growth rates in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The outcomes of this method enable planners to understand the growth pattern of a region and compare it with other regions in the country. The main objectives of this research were: (1) to identify settlement types (high, medium and low density, suburbs, and urban fringes) in each metropolitan area; (2) to depict and compare general metropolitan structures across the nation; and (3) to evaluate the location of recently developed dwellings in relation to settlement types and structures and estimate growth trends. The paper combined the percentage of impervious surface raster dataset (30-m cell size) produced by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and block-level housing unit data produced by the Census Bureau to map housing density across the lower 48 states in 2000 and 2010. Neighbourhood density profiles were used to identify the settlement types (high, medium and low density, suburbs, and urban fringes). The paper then compared density-decay functions of 50 metropolitan areas to depict urban growth patterns and to quantify the number of housing units developed in each settlement type. This method effectively distinguishes regions with higher densification (infill development) rates versus regions with high-paced sprawl. The results showed that Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco metropolitan areas had high percentages of housing units developed in high-density areas between 2000 and 2010, while during the same period Birmingham, Nashville and Charlotte had high percentages of housing development in areas identified as suburbs.

Flood inundation is a common natural disaster and a growing development challenge for many cities and thousands of small towns around the world. Soil features have frequently altered with the rapid development of urbanised regions, which has led to more frequent and longer duration of flooding in urban flood-prone regions. Thus, this paper presents a geographic information system GIS-based methodology for measuring and visualising the effects on urban flash floods generated by land-use changes over time. The measurement is formulated with a time series in order to perform a dynamic analysis. A catchment mesh is introduced into a hydrological model for reflecting the spatial layouts of infrastructure and structures over different construction periods. The Geelong Waurn Ponds campus of Deakin University is then selected as a case study. Based on GIS simulation and mapping technologies, this research illustrates the evolutionary process of flash floods. The paper then describes flood inundation for different built environments and presents a comparison by quantifying the flooding extents for infrastructure and structures. The results reveal that the GIS-based estimation model can examine urban flash floods in different development phases and identify the change of flooding extents in terms of land-use planning. This study will bring benefits to urban planners in raising awareness of flood impact and the approach proposed here could be used for flood mitigation through future urban planning.

This paper considers the cartographic depiction of a series of crosses shown on one of Robert Gordon of Straloch’s seventeenth-century maps of North-East Scotland. Their portrayal in map form within the religious context of the time is problematic. Their potential existence on the ground raises even greater problems of identity and form. That they were not, in reality, as they were depicted on the maps is evident by the landscape evidence. The survival of documentary evidence in the form of the Straloch Papers moves the story from the North-East of Scotland to Amsterdam, the place of production of the maps. These papers describe aspects of the wider political upheavals during which these maps were made and suggest possible motivations beyond geographic interest.

This issue of the Journal contains selected papers from the European Symposium on Cartography, held in Vienna, Austria in November 2015. The papers provide an insight into some of the research acti...

In this paper, we focus on mapping and analysing the spatial patterns of unemployment in four Central European countries – Austria, Czechia, Germany, and Poland, on municipal level in 2010. Specifically, based on the geo-social differentiation patterns, we are searching for secondary axes stretching from the Blue Banana (the major European economic development axis running from London to Milan) towards Eastern Europe. Unemployment is supposed to approximate economic development, thanks to its close relation to GDP and other economic indicators. To study spatial patterns and development axes on a micro scale, we use the concept of spatial autocorrelation, specifically Moran's I and LISA analysis. While we analyse more than 44,000 units, the resulting maps are very detailed and difficult to interpret on small scales. In this paper, we take advantage of the opportunity to present large-scale maps (1:2,500,000 and 1:6,000,000), which are also more suitable for the analytical conclusions that follow.

Roads are an essential element in the formation and shaping of cultural landscapes. This paper, by establishing some of the key aspects of the development of Spain's road infrastructures, and through mapping and fieldwork, aims to guide the reading of landscapes shaped by roads since the mid-eighteenth century. The deconstruction of landscapes formed by these roads reveals the evolution of the design and construction of transport infrastructure, of the uses and activities they supported, and of changes through time in the conditions and forms of mobility. The paper also locates and classifies sections of historic transport corridors where road routes from different periods still co-exist, reconstructing diachronic and synchronic relationships between the varying routes in an attempt to interpret the arrangement, structure and form of these landscapes of movement.

The scope of the paper is to test if the online dynamic maps such as the OpenStreetMap (OSM) can be used for official mapping projects such as Cadastre, to investigate the advantages and the concerns of online and open to the public procedures and to identify those differentiations between experts and amateurs that play a critical role in such official projects. The specific research is focused on the use of OSM in urban areas as an alternative method to the official cadastral surveys. This paper presents the possibilities and the perspectives of OSM for spatial and attribute cadastral data collection and storage for the compilation of draft cadastral maps as an alternative methodology within the terms of the volunteered geographic information (VGI). The authors carried out a practical experiment in an extended part of the historic city centre of Athens and updated the online dynamic map of OSM with attribute and spatial cadastral data. Surveying students explored the capacities of the dynamic map...

More e-books than traditional paper books are sold today, and tablet computers have become ubiquitous in recent years. Digital cartographic atlases have replaced traditional paper atlases, but cartographers have not yet fully embraced the potential of multi-touch tablet computers, such as the iPad. This article explores the characteristics of e-book atlases, which are positioned between traditional printed atlases and digital atlas information systems. We document available hardware and software for creating interactive maps and atlases for tablet computers, and illustrate the steps in building an interactive e-book atlas using the Atlas of the Columbia River Basin as an example.

Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) are widely used in many sectors. They play a key role in hydrological risk prevention, risk mitigation and numeric simulations. This paper deals with two questions: (i) when it is stated that a DTM has a given vertical accuracy, is this assertion univocal? (ii) when DTM vertical accuracy is assessed by means of checkpoints, does their location influence results? First, the paper illustrates that two vertical accuracy definitions are conceivable: Vertical Accuracy at the Nodes (VAN, the average vertical distance between the model and the terrain, evaluated at the DTM's nodes) and Vertical Accuracy at the interpolated Points (VAP, in which the vertical distance is evaluated at the generic points). These two quantities are not coincident and, when they are calculated for the same DTM, different numeric values are reached. Unfortunately, the two quantities are often interchanged, but this is misleading. Second, the paper shows a simulated example of a DTM vertical accuracy assessment, highlighting that the checkpoints’ location plays a key role: when checkpoints coincide with the DTM nodes, VAN is estimated; when checkpoints are randomly located, VAP is estimated, instead. Third, an in-depth, theoretical characterization of the two considered quantities is performed, based on symbolic computation, and suitable standardization coefficients are proposed. Finally, our discussion has a well-defined frame: it doesn't deal with all the items of the DTM vertical accuracy budget, which would require a much longer essay, but only with one, usually called fundamental vertical accuracy.

Since the introduction of the common law system, precedent case law has been a core element of its existence. Owing to the high number of boundary surveys conducted as part of boundary disputes during the past number of years, research of Irish High Court case law judgements delivered in the past 10 years on property boundary disputes was identified. This paper outlines a proposal to be considered in the form of a ‘Guidebook’ for surveyors to follow when involved in a property boundary dispute. The court judgements will be assessed via a case briefing technique that is used worldwide in universities and an understanding of surveying case law and how decisions can be used in the construction of principles to be applied will be evaluated and analysed. Detailed information on these cases is not the subject of this paper. This paper presents results documenting how case law can be seen to be of fundamental importance for surveyors when involved in property boundary disputes. Documented in the form of ...

The news media play an important role in creating and disseminating geopolitical discourse. This paper explores the role of news maps in geopolitical discourse with reference to the potential super-power status of key states, specifically China and Russia as members of the BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India and China), and in the case of Russia, the NORCs (Northern Rim Countries – Canada, Russia, several Scandinavian states and the USA). It also explores references to ‘threats’ to a stable interstate system (resource wars, regional instability, ‘rouge states’). The paper argues that the concept of the state as ‘power container’ provides a key to understanding how maps operate as a significant element within geopolitical discourse. Maps provide spatial and geostrategic context to the narratives being deployed by news providers on such matters as China’s projection of power. The paper is based on the findings of a comprehensive survey of maps in the UK ‘quality press’ in 2009.

This paper analyses the use of the black line, dash and dot techniques in maps in commercial Dutch atlases from Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570) to Atlas Maior (1662). It is argued that the distinction between these three graphical means of expression became the basis for considering the nature of design rules for the next 400 years. In a departure from previous studies, this paper applies a combination of cartographic pragmatics and Gestalt theory with relation to the practical utilisation of graphical means of expression available in copperplate technology. While the importance of Gestalt theory and cartographic pragmatics has previously been highlighted in research papers and in textbooks, this study is the first to apply these two perspectives with relation to sixteenth and seventeenth century maps.

While graphic variables in 2D maps have been extensively investigated, 4D cartography is still a widely unexplored field. In this paper, we investigate the usefulness of 4D maps (three spatial dimensions plus time) for cartographically illustrating spatio-temporal environmental phenomena. The presented approach focuses mostly on explorative research rather than on enhancement and extension of existing methods and principles. The user study described in the paper shows that 4D cartography is not a well-explored research area and that many experienced map users try to apply their knowledge from 2D maps to 4D dynamic visualisations. Thus, in order to foster the discussion within the community, we formulated several basic research questions for the area of 4D cartography, which range from methods for representing time in 4D visualisations and understanding the temporal context to finding generic methods to achieve optimized temporal generalisation and a consistent definition of graphical variables for...

This paper examines the development of sacred structures in rural Czechia (former Czechoslovakia). Sacred structures could be associated with the creation of important symbols and distinctive rural regional identities in Czechia. Rural Czechia is not uniform: it represents several different rural landscapes. This paper considers whether sacred structures support the idea of multiple and fundamentally different rural areas existing in Czechia. In rural areas and small municipalities, sacred structures often present the only significant culture feature for a tourist. This research found that most residents of Czechia's rural areas identify with sacred structures, in spite of the fact that representatives of local government often perceive such items as cultural–historical symbols in the landscape rather than religious structures. Five types of rural, religious landscapes were identified, supporting the idea that multiple types of rural areas exist in Czechia.

The proliferation of social media has led to the emergence of a new type of geospatial information that defies the conventions of authoritative or volunteered geographic information, yet can be harvested to reveal unique and dynamic information about people and their activities. In this paper we address the identification and mapping of global virtual communities formed around issues of specific national interest. We refer to these connected virtual communities formed around issues related to a specific state as the polycentric virtual equivalent of that state. Identifying, mapping, and analyzing these virtual communities is a novel challenge for our community, and this is the subject we pursue in this paper. We present these communities relative to established conventions of statehood, address the harvesting of relevant geographical information from social media feeds, and discuss the challenge of visualizing such information. In order to do so we use the current geopolitical situation in Syria as a demo...