The spatial data repository record describes the topographic maps as follows:

Maps produced by the Soviet military were believed to be used as an organizing framework for knowledge about the world and were compiled through a combination of aerial intelligence and on-the-ground observation. Sheet numbering is based on the alphanumeric system adopted by the International Map of the World (IMW), in which the globe is divided into equal-sized zones based upon latitude and longitude. Each zone is further subdivided so that the position of a sheet at the full range of scales can be deduced. The date and factory of production of each map are provided in a unique code that is embedded within the outer border, usually at the bottom right.

As background reading for the GIS Day, the students in AHC AD-139 read this short piece about Soviet map making of Washington, DC, that underscores the uncanny precision (and also the curious errors) found in such maps. Our maps of Abu Dhabi exhibit similar interest in specific elements of built space and waterways, but are not as precise as those of Washington, DC.  They are, however, particularly interesting since they were made soon after the formation of the UAE as we know it today.  The UAE has experienced rapid growth since then and is celebrating its 45th year this December.  After discussing the general benefits of having infrastructure in the study of the spatial humanities, we jumped into some hands on with ArcMap.

We practiced geo-referencing one of the sheets including the city of Sharjah, both by using topographic features and by the geo-coordinates provided in the corners of the sheet.  We added that geo-referenced sheet to a number of others showing the Gulf coastline of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The image below shows the position of the Sharjah sheet indicated by the red arrow, tiled together with the others.

We used shape files and base maps as layers to investigate (1) potential historical change of land and built space in this rapidly growing part of the world, as well as (2) how map makers’ choice of features help us understand the motives of their cartography.  In particular we were struck by the changing water borders, both on the Arabian Gulf and the estuary systems and were left wondering if Soviet cartography tends to exaggerate them, or if, in fact, there has been dramatic change in the last half thirty-five years. We were lucky to have a Bulgarian student who could decipher the Cyrillic legends on the map for us.

Last, we took an object from NYUAD’s Archives and Special Collections, a small city map distributed by the First National City Bank (FNCB) of Abu Dhabi.  They found this small treasure tucked inside our edition of Clarence Mann’s Abu Dhabi: Birth of an Oil Shaikhdom published at Khayat’s in Beirut in 1964. An Emirati student in the class suggested that it must date from before unification (1971) since the flag represented on it is that of the Abu Dhabi emirate and not the UAE.  You can read more about this document here.

We scanned and geo-referenced it the FNCB map.  This was a very interesting counterpoint to the Soviet maps since as a self-declared “simplified map” its point was not to be topographically accurate, but rather topologically useful for the recipient, ostensibly a new resident of Abu Dhabi doing business with the bank.  It is also a map made from within Abu Dhabi as opposed to the Soviet maps made from without. The students participating in the GIS Day 2016 were struck by how iterative and experimental use of geo-referencing within a GIS can serve a way of comparing different forms of spatial representation (Presner et al.) and creating hypotheses about the motives behind cartography.

The students of AHC AD 139 are participating in NYU’s web hosting pilot. They are also writing blogs about today’s GIS Day.  You can see those postings along with the other other reflective writing of the semester here.

GIS Day 2016 is one of our Digital Humanities Meetups at NYUAD in 2016-17.  The schedule of the others can be found here.

Special thanks to Nicholas Martin, head of Archives and Special Collections for lending us the fold-out map!

We are about to find out. Our topic is Representations of China and the Middle East during the Cold War, and our task is to create a series of maps on platforms like ESRI’s StoryMaps, Carto, and maybe other interfaces through which students and staff can explore these connections. Recognizing that we don’t have much time before GIS Day, we want to see if the process of coming together digging into data and resources, and having conversations with each other can yield something worthwhile, even if the product(s) that emerge are still in process.

The Process

The idea for a hack-a-thon event emerged over the past few weeks. We wanted to call attention to the multiple ways that NYU supports GIS learning across the global campuses: collecting spatial data, making historical raster images available via the Spatial Data Repository, and helping users find data and work with it in a variety of analytical and presentation software platforms.

Based on the idea of software hack-a-thons, this project is a collaborative event between the global sites that comprise New York University: New York’s Data Services, Abu Dhabi’s Data Services and growing Digital Humanities community, and Shanghai’s Library. During a weeklong stretch, members of the GIS team, faculty, and students at each of the three campuses will gather together to develop some project–a series of maps or exhibits–that explores the idea of Cold War ideologies and maps. Each team will work with data that NYU has collected and will explore the questions and methods associated with geographic information systems (GIS) analysis.

Why Cold War Maps?

Cartographic representations produced in the Cold War are one way to explore the connection between the NYU campuses and the various digital humanities and social science research we support. As Timothy Barney has argued, maps produced by the United States, the U.S.S.R., and other countries are vehicles for articulating ideological tensions, national desire, and perceptions of power and global stewardship. Maps rely upon both aesthetic and scientific forms of knowledge to produce and project imagined political relationships of power and dominance. Yet they are also windows into real, physical spaces and places at specific times in history. How these aesthetic and scientific projections take place is one main question undergirding the hack-a-thon.

NYU’s project begins with a book in our physical collection, entitled Communist China: Map Folio. The book was published by the C.I.A. Office of Basic and Geographic Intelligence in 1967 and includes a series of maps that profile the population, energy sources, terrain, and infrastructure of “Communist China.” The book is an exemplar artifact of U.S. Cold War ideology; it represents dismissive attitudes toward Communism and speaks pejoratively about the struggles and rudimentary elements of Chinese infrastructure and production. We’ve taken several of the map sheets in this book, digitized them, and prepared them for analysis in a number of online mapping platforms.

We chose this topic because it is rife for the development of spatial humanities themes. Further, it will allow the larger NYU GIS community to explore some of the data and resources we already access, such as historical China Census population data from our SDR and socio-demographic data from content providers like Data-Planet.

What to Expect

Over the course of the next week, the NYU Data Services team will provide newly-georeferenced raster maps to students and faculty at the global campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. In Abu Dhabi, D.J. Wrisley, Associate Professor of Digital Humanities, 2016-2017, will lead a team of students in his introductory Digital Humanities class as they explore concepts of mapping. At the same time, a team in Shanghai, coordinated by Kyle Greenberg, Adrian Hodge, and Clay Shirky, will come together to add to this project as well. We will be blogging this event and will assemble a gallery of maps created in time for GIS Day. Various members of the NYU Data Services team and NYU teaching community will write about lessons learned, questions asked, and more. Let the mapping and research begin!