science

International Cartographic Association

International Cartographic Association is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand International Cartographic Association rather than just read about it. In short: The International Cartographic Association (ICA) (French: Association Cartographique Internationale, ACI) is an organization formed of national member organizations, to provide a forum for issues and techniques in cartography and geographic information science (GIScience). ICA was founded on June 9, 1959, in Bern, Switzerland.

Key takeaways

International Cartographic Association belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect International Cartographic Association to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of International Cartographic Association from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The International Cartographic Association (ICA) (French: Association Cartographique Internationale, ACI) is an organization formed of national member organizations, to provide a forum for issues and techniques in cartography and geographic information science (GIScience). ICA was founded on June 9, 1959, in Bern, Switzerland. The first General Assembly was held in Paris in 1961. The mission of the International Cartographic Association is to promote the disciplines and professions of cartography and GIScience in an international context. To achieve these aims, the ICA works with national and international governmental and commercial bodies, and with other international scientific societies.

Leadership

Presidents The first president, Eduard Imhof of Switzerland was heavily involved in founding the association.

Secretaries-General and Treasurers The Secretary-General and Treasurer is responsible for the administration and the general running of the Association.

Executive committee On 20 July 2019 member nations elected the new Executive Committee (EC) of the ICA for the 2019–2023 term. New ICA president is Tim Trainor.

Commissions To coordinate international cartographic work Commissions and Working Groups have been established. These are chaired by experts in a specific field of cartography and comprise members from the international Cartography and GIScience community.

Commission on Art and Cartography Commission on Atlases Commission on Cartographic Heritage into the Digital Commission on Cartography and Children Commission on Cartography and Sustainable Development Commission on Cartography in Early Warning and Crisis Management Commission on Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization Commission on Digital Transformation of National Mapping Agencies Commission on Education and Training Commission on Ethics in Cartography Commission on GeoAI Commission on Geospatial Analysis and Modeling Commission on Geospatial Data Analytics Commission on Geospatial Semantics and Ontology Commission on Geovisualization Commission on High-Definition Maps Commission on Integrated Geospatial Information for Cartography Commission on Location Based Services Commission on Map Design Commission on Map Projections Commission on Maps and the Internet Commission on Marine Cartography Commission on Mountain Cartography Commission on Multi-scale Cartography Commission on Topographic Mapping Commission on Toponymy (ICA-IGU joint commission) Commission on Ubiquitous Mapping Commission on User Experience

Working groups Working Group on the Cartographic Body of Knowledge Working Group on Inclusive Cartography Working Group Next Generation Cartographers Working Group on Participatory Mapping Working Group on Peace and Conflict Cartography Working Group on Standardisation in Cartography

Members ICA allows two types of memberships:

Affiliate members are organisations, institutions or companies wishing to support the mission and activities of ICA. National members are national organizations dealing with cartography or geoinformation, such as national mapping agencies.

Conferences International Cartographic Conferences (ICC) take place every second year in one of the member countries. At every second conference (every fourth year) it hosts the General Assembly of the ICA.

ICC Conferences

Awards

Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal

The Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal honours cartographers of outstanding merit who have made significant contributions of an original nature to the field of cartography. It is awarded only on rare occasions. The award is named after the Swedish cartographer, Carl Mannerfelt, who in 1981 won the prize named after him.

Recipients

ICA Honorary Fellowship The ICA Honorary Fellowship is for cartographers of international reputation who have made special contribution to the ICA. It includes a bronze medal.

ICA Map Awards at the International Map Exhibition At the biennial International Map Exhibitions at the ICC an international jury selects the best entries.

Barbara Petchenik International Children Map Design Competition This competition is organized every two years at the ICC. In a national round in all participating ICA member countries, the national winners are selected, which are exhibited during the International Cartographic Conference, where the international winners are selected.

Publications

ICA offers a number of publications. Its official journal is the International Journal of Cartography (print ISSN 2372-9333; online ISSN 2372-9341), published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of ICA. It also has three affiliated journals:

The Cartographic Journal Cartographica Cartography and Geographic Information Science

See also Commission on Maps and the Internet List of geography awards

References

External links ICA web site

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with International Cartographic Association

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what International Cartographic Association claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to International Cartographic Association before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about International Cartographic Association ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of International Cartographic Association

In research: International Cartographic Association appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses International Cartographic Association in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: International Cartographic Association is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cartography organizations, Intergovernmental organizations, International geographic data and information organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for International Cartographic Association outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study International Cartographic Association in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what International Cartographic Association means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain International Cartographic Association out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is International Cartographic Association in simple terms?

Why does International Cartographic Association matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study International Cartographic Association?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on International Cartographic Association.