International Cartographic Association

02/01/2025

NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS FOR 2025

Dear ICA Colleagues,

As we approach the close of 2024, I would like to extend my warmest greetings to all members, colleagues, and friends of the cartographic community. This year has been a remarkable journey filled with exciting achievements, collaborative efforts, and inspiring innovations in the world of maps and cartography. Let’s take a moment to reflect on the highlights of the year and celebrate our shared accomplishments.

2024 - A YEAR OF COLLABORATION AND GROWTH

The ICA continued to foster international collaboration through various conferences, workshops, and activities. Here are some of the key moments that defined 2024 from my perspective:

1. Build on the momentum of former conferences highly successful regional cartographic conferences took place this year, including the EuroCarto Conference in Vienna (Austria), the Asia Carto Conference in HongKong (China) and the CaGIS+UCGIS Conference in Columbus (USA). They brought together professionals, researchers, and enthusiasts from around the globe. The conferences showcased cutting-edge research, innovative cartographic solutions, and inspiring presentations. From the dynamic discussions to hands-on workshops, the ICA-led conferences proved to be a hub of knowledge and creativity. And it is worth to mention, that ICA endorsed further successful cartographic conferences in Latin America, Africa and Europe.

2. The record-number of ICA Commissions and Working Groups offer important focus points in a rapidly evolving field and deliver initiatives, publications and meetings, they remain really the power house for advancements in research, education and technologies. New proposals for working groups have been approved by the Executive Committee and joined the ICA family. A warm welcome to the Working Groups on Next Generation Cartographers (Co-Chairs Katarzyna Slomska-Przech, Chelsea Nestel), Cartographic Body of Knowledge (Chair Terje Mitbo), Inclusive Cartography (Co-Chairs Vincent an Altena, Jakub Wabinski), Standardisation in Cartography (Chair Barend Köbben) and Participatory Mapping (Jiri Panek).

3. Celebrating the Cartographic Community: The heart of the ICA is its vibrant community of cartographers, geographers, and mapping enthusiasts. This year, we were thrilled to welcome new members and strengthen ties with existing ones. The exchange of ideas, resources, and expertise has enriched our collective knowledge and deepened our commitment to advancing the art and science of cartography. The family of ICA was (or is an ongoing process) joined by the following new national members: Kyrgyzstan, Cameroon and the following new affiliate members: National Agency of Public Registry Georgia, Georgian Cartographic Association, ARSC China, Qingdao Surveying and Mapping Institute China, ASECNA Senegal.
A warm welcome to all our new members! And it seems, as if the eventual highest number of members ICA ever hosted will likely increase further in 2025, demonstrating the relevance and contemporary nature of cartography and ICA.

4. ICA is taking a special focus on supporting our talents, young scholars and map enthusiasts. I am most pleased to announce another record, a total of 55 scholarship awards have been given 2024 for young scholars to attend an ICA event (such as a regional cartographic conference or a commission meeting). Given the fact, that the spirit, enthusiasm, contributions and motivation of those young awardees has enriched the ICA events significantly already, we feel highly confirmed to continue with this endeavour.

5. ICA is a Non-Governmental Organisation run fully by volunteers. It is those Commission Chairs, Working Group Chairs, Executive Committee members and persons which devote time, effort, energy for the sake of it, which makes ICA such a unique organization which I am so proud of being privileged to be able to be a part of. The spirit is becoming specifically visible, when we have a chance to meet, like e.g at the ICA retreat in Vienna early 2024.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2025

As we bid farewell to 2024, we look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead. Plans are already underway for new publications, including in the International Journal of Cartography, for initiatives to further support innovation in cartography, eventually by collaborating with strong partners such as the Geo Unions, the UN, the ISC and other organisations. We have plans for a further professionalisation of our organisation, as the role ICA can play needs a stable fundament. We want to further build on strong fundaments of our discipline. And, the next ICC, set to take place in Vancouver in August 2025, promises to be another milestone event, and we can’t wait to see you there!
Wishing you joy and inspiration

In this season of celebration and reflection, the ICA extends its heartfelt thanks to each of you for your dedication, creativity, and passion. Whether you’re designing maps, conducting research, or simply sharing your love for cartography, you are contributing to the main role maps play in our world. .

Let me close in wishing all of you, that your end-of-year festivities be filled with joy, and may the new year bring inspiration and success to all your mapping endeavors.

From all of us at the International Cartographic Association, Happy Holidays and best wishes for a prosperous 2025!

Georg Gartner
President of the International Cartographic Association

www.icaci.org

03/01/2023

NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS FOR 2023

Despite numerous global crises and including wars, which of course have affected us and some of our members greatly, this last year has also been fulfilling for the ICA. As we began to emerge from the pandemic throughout the year, more ICA activities became prominent as some of us were able to travel to meet one another once again. In future blogs, I will highlight a few of those events to bring everyone up-to-date. Currently, our colleagues in South Africa are very busy planning the next General Assembly and the 31st International Cartographic Conference in Cape Town from August 13 – 18, 2023. The ICA Executive Committee and the ICC2023 Local Organizing Committee are looking forward to seeing you in the beautiful city of Cape Town. And please, don´t forget to send in your abstract, if you want to present and share your scientific work in Cape Town. The deadline is 16 January 2023: https://icc2023.org/

For the moment, on behalf of the ICA Executive Committee, we want to wish you and your family, colleagues, and friends peaceful holidays and all the best for 2023! We are looking forward to a very productive time with you in the coming year.

Tim Trainor, President of the ICA

23/04/2022

With more than 100 participants, the conference „Atlases in Time“, organised by the 3 ICA Commissions on Atlases, Toponymy and Map Design was a great success and milestone. It showed more than ever what an important role cartography can play to tackle current global challenges - from climate change to health issues and political crisis. The ICA warmly thanks our hosts, the IGN and the Spanish Society for Cartography, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, for the perfect organisation and their hospitality 🙏 We all felt at home with friends for the whole week. ¡Muchas gracias por la hospitalidad!

🗺 Conferencia «ATLASES IN TIME»

Del 20 al 23 de abril de 2022, se celebrará en la sede del IGN de Madrid, el «ATLASES IN TIME», simposio organizado por la Comisión ICA de Atlas, la Comisión ICA de Cartografía, la Comisión Mixta ICA-IGU de Toponimia, el Instituto Geográfico Nacional de España (IGN) y la Sociedad Española de Cartografía, Fotogrametría y Teledetección que acogerá conjuntamente una jornada sobre atlas, toponimia y diseño de mapas.

📌 Programa:
👉 https://bit.ly/3EpyOUi

International Cartographic Association

21/04/2022

Former ICA Secretary-General Ferjan Ormeling opening the second day of the conference „Atlases in Time“ with a keynote presentation of the National Atlas concept.

https://bit.ly/3EpyOUi

20/04/2022

🗺 Conferencia «ATLASES IN TIME»

Del 20 al 23 de abril de 2022, se celebrará en la sede del IGN de Madrid, el «ATLASES IN TIME», simposio organizado por la Comisión ICA de Atlas, la Comisión ICA de Cartografía, la Comisión Mixta ICA-IGU de Toponimia, el Instituto Geográfico Nacional de España (IGN) y la Sociedad Española de Cartografía, Fotogrametría y Teledetección que acogerá conjuntamente una jornada sobre atlas, toponimia y diseño de mapas.

📌 Programa:
👉 https://bit.ly/3EpyOUi

International Cartographic Association

20/04/2022

Yesterday the ICA Executive Committee met in Madrid for its latest business meeting - ahead of the conference „Atlases in Time“ organized by three ICA Commissions 🗺. We say Muchas gracias! and Thankyou to our lovely hosts, the Spanish National Institute of Geography and the Spanish Society for Cartography, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing for their hospitaly and organizing the event! 😊 We wish all participants a successful conference and exchanges!

Ayer, el Director del IGN, el subdirector de Cartografía y Observación del Territorio y personal del Atlas Nacional de España recibieron en la sede de Madrid del a la actual Junta Directiva de la Asociación Cartográfica Internacional International Cartographic Association http://icaci.org

02/03/2022

ICA STATEMENT ON UKRAINE

The International Cartographic Association expresses its shock and dismay at the incursion by Russia into the sovereign state of Ukraine. Violation of a sovereign nation is unacceptable. Without provocation, innocent victims within the borders of Ukraine suffer unbearable intrusion and danger causing loss of life, intolerable pain and suffering on children, women and men, mass migrations to neighbouring countries, and unnecessary destruction of property. The violent interruption of normalcy undermines global security and stability for every part of our world watching these horrible events unfold.

The ICA calls for an end to all actions stemming from the forceful intrusion of Ukraine‘s borders and a resolution for restoring the sovereignty of Ukraine and its people. The ICA is in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and specifically with cartographers in both Ukraine and Russia who can contribute to protecting the sovereignty of Ukraine while beginning a path back to normalcy.

Tim Trainor, President of the ICA

27/02/2022

AUTOCARTO 2022 - AN ICA REGIONAL CARTOGRAPHIC CONFERENCE

AutoCarto 2022, the International Research Symposium, is poised to reveal transformative thinking in Cartography and GIScience, November 2-4 on the Esri campus in Redlands, California. The conference sets forth with an agenda focused on Ethics in Mapping: Integrity, Inclusion and Empathy.

AutoCarto 2022 brings attention to ethical responsibilities we face in all aspects of our discipline with conversations on the power of maps and the critical need for integrity and empathy in cartography and GIScience. Submissions on topics from all areas of cartographic and geographic information science are welcome, and topics related to the theme are strongly encouraged, such as Geoethics and Mapping, Territorial Empathy, The Power of Maps for Equity and Social Justice, Geotracking and Social Responsibility, The Potential of GeoAI for Good and Evil, Storytelling for Empowerment and Action, and The Tension Between Privacy and Social Responsibility.

With its long history of bringing together researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, and government agencies to share scientific advancements and explore new ideas in cartography and GIScience, the AutoCarto symposium series continues to be standard-bearer of transformational research in cartography and GIScience.

Our primary goal for AutoCarto 2022 is to advance ethical, inclusive, and empathic cartography and GIScience and thereby stimulate similar advancements in other disciplines.

For meeting updates, follow CaGIS on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, or visit the main AutoCarto webpage: cartogis.org/autocarto.

Aileen Buckley, National representative to ICA and AutoCarto 2022 Conference Co-chair

30/01/2022

25 ICA SCHOLARSHIPS FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS PRESENTED AT THE 30TH ICC

At every ICC, the ICA supports early career scientists or professionals in cartography and GIScience through its scholarship programme. Scholarship awards help them finance travel and participate in the event and advance their career in cartography and GIScience to the benefit of the ICA community.

ICA is proud to announce that we could support altogether 25 scholarship applications this time from young scientists from around the world. Awardees participated either in-person or virtually at the 30th International Cartographic Conference in Florence. For in-person participants, a small ceremony was organized, where ICA President Tim Trainor and Secretary-General Thomas Schulz met with award recipients and handed them out their certificates. After the ceremony, a picture was taken with all participants on the roof of the conference building against the beautiful backdrop of our host-city Florence.

The ICA Executive Committee congratulates all the scholarship awardees and thanks them for their important contribution to the conference. We wish all participants every success in their future careers and hope that they will continue to enrich future ICC conferences with their contributions.

See all awardees and more information here: https://icaci.org/ica-scholarship-awardees/

Thomas Schulz / Secretary General & Treasurer ICA

22/01/2022

NINE PRESTIGIOUS ICA AWARDS PRESENTED AT THE 30TH ICC

It is a long and good tradition to also present a number of prestigious ICA Awards at every biennial International Cartographic Conferences in recognition of special contributions to the ICA and outstanding contributions to the field and science of cartography. ICA knows three kinds of awards – the Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal (named after the founder of ICA), the Honorary Fellowship and a Diploma for outstanding services to ICA. The Executive Committee decides on the awards on the basis of a recommendation and assessment by the Committee for the Selection of Award Recipients of the ICA.

During two festive award ceremonies within the opening and closing ceremony of the 30th International Cartographic Conference, altogether nine ICA awards were presented and handed over by ICA President Tim Trainor to the recipients from six countries.

During the opening ceremony, ICA Honorary Fellows Ulrich Freitag (Germany) and Alan MacEachran (United States) received the ICA's highest and rarely presented award, the Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal, for their significant contributions of an original nature to the field and science of cartography. During the closing ceremony, Georg Gartner (Austria, former ICA President), Lysandros Tsoulos (Greece) and Vladimir Tikunov (Russia) were awarded an ICA Honorary Fellowship, including a bronze medal, as cartographers of international reputation who have made a special contribution to the ICA. Read the laudatios and see pictures of the ICA award winners here: https://icaci.org/award-medals/

During the closing ceremony, also four ICA Diplomas for outstanding services to ICA were given to Paola Zamperlin, Margherita Azzari, Gilberto Fumarola (all Italy, local organizers of the 30th ICC in Florence) and Manuela Schmidt (long-time ICA webmaster). See all ICA Diplomas here: https://icaci.org/diplomas/

The ICA Executive Committee warmly congratulates all the award winners and thanks them for their invaluable and long service to our Association and the cartographic community!

Thomas Schulz / Secretary General & Treasurer ICA

18/01/2022

Former ICA President Fraser Taylor named to the Order of Canada

Past President and Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal recipient has been named as an Officer of the Order of Canada. The ICA warmly congratulates on this rare honour! 👏👏👏

Read more: https://research.carleton.ca/story/carletons-fraser-taylor-named-to-the-order-of-canada/

Thomas Schulz / ICA Secretary-General & Treasurer

17/01/2022

AWARDS OF THE BARBARA PETCHENIK CHILDREN'S MAP COMPETITION 2021 AT THE 30TH ICC

An important tradition at every biennial International Cartographic Conferences is the Barbara Petchenik Children's Map Competition. It was created by the International Cartographic Association in 1993 as a memorial for Barbara Petchenik, a past Vice-President of the ICA and cartographer who had a lifelong interest in maps for children. The aim of the contest is to promote the creative representation of the world in graphic form by children.

Together with the general map exhibition, from 13–17 December 2021 a total of 178 children’s drawings from 32 member countries were displayed in four categories at the Italian Geographic Military Institute in Florence. As usual, the exhibition was open to the public and well visited during all day. A virtual exhibition can still be viewed at https://vanderkrogt.net/petchenik/index.php.

A well-established international jury of 8 members, organized by José Jesús Reyes Nunez (Hungary), Vice-chair of the ICA Commission on Cartography and Children, selected 12 awards in four age categories categories. In addition, a creativity award and an award for the public vote were selected. All children’s awards were presented by the jury at the Closing Ceremony on 18 December in the beautiful Sala Pegaso in Palazzo Guadagni Strozzi Sacrati. The ICA warmly congratulates all the winners and organizers for their contributions!

Browse all winning drawings from 2021 and earlier competitions on the ICA website https://icaci.org/petchenik/ !

Thomas Schulz / Secretary General & Treasurer ICA