I completely forgot to publish the result of my in-depth project which I worked on (fairly extensive?) the autumn 2008. I remembered to put it out on our “student blog“, however it slipped my mind to put it here, until Atle “remembered me” by publishing his. In the spirit of sharing the work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC-BY) – and I really, really hope that someone will exploit this license and build upon my work – the topic needs sorely derivative work! My master thesis is a based on the ideas in the work from this project, although shifting the perspective somewhat.

Disclaimer; In retrospect I find that the project have some lacks, especially missing a comprehensive background section and in general the language isn’t that good. However I do believe the general idea has potential! (the grade is still to be decided but will be made available) The grade was finally decided after I complained – and stayed at a B (standard ECTS).

The digital version of my project is available here; MAPQUAL: Understanding Quality in Cartographic Maps . If not – mail me!

Abstract
The science of cartography is currently undergoing a change with the
demand for more ubiquitous, context sensitive and dynamic maps. As well
as an increase in the number of cartographic application in the society is
recognized – mostly due to the rapid technological development. Combined,
this pose for a need to understand the quality of maps. Preferably motivated
by the science and not developed as a response to technological development.
In a response to this we approach cartographic maps as conceptual mod-
els and investigates the adaptation of a framework for understanding quality
in conceptual models, SEQUAL (Krogstie and Sølvberg 2003, Lillehagen and
Krogstie 2008), into a cartographic context. SEQUAL is based on semiotic
theory and takes a set theoretic approach to investigating quality facets
of conceptual models. We follow the same structure of SEQUAL in the
investigation and adaptation.
During the investigation we find that many of the foundational principles
of conceptual modeling are relevant and applicable in cartography. Some
principles are already existing in cartography. However these currently lack
structure and are often proposed in isolation. We survey the main principles
of understanding quality in cartography and adapt them to the structure of
the framework.
The result of the investigation is a proposal of a framework for under-
standing quality of maps, named MAPQUAL. We find that this approach
is requiring a shift of notion in cartography. Especially we propose that the
language the map is composed in is seperated from the map itself, enabling
for better understanding of maps.
An illustrative evaluation of the framework is performed and discussed
at the end of the paper. Mainly to illustrate main benefits and principles
of the framework but also to briefly investigate if the framework captures
current cartographic understanding of quality.
The framework proposed is an initial step into understanding quality of
maps and is thus not considered to be complete. We mention throughout
the article elements that need further work and sum up what we believe is
the most important aspects of further work at the end of the paper.

• Published article based on the MAPQUAL project and my master thesis
• My master project – the what and why
• Themes for the next four years