Germany looked in the cards
IfL presented maps and analysis of its online offer "National Atlas" now available in book form
Who are the winners and who are the losers in the competition between the regions? Where in Germany has the greatest progress been made in childcare? How are the fine dust concentrations distributed regionally and what is being done to counteract air pollution? - Answers to these and other questions recently discussed are provided by the book “Deutschland aktuell”, which the atlas experts of the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) have compiled from map contributions from the institute's own website “Nationalatlas aktuell”.
The 110-page volume that has just been published shows a selection of 22 articles that were created in the first three years of “National Atlas Current” with the participation of experts from a wide variety of disciplines. The topics exemplarily reflect the content spectrum of the online offer. A total of 65 maps make regional distributions and spatial changes clear at a glance, text comments supplement the maps with offers of interpretation, graphics, photos and tables illustrate facts and backgrounds.
In the “People and Society” section, the focus is on births out of wedlock, migration from west to east and right-wing extremism. “Living in everyday life” is about Germany's language areas, childcare, regional food and regionally different proportions of the population of smokers. The chapter "Nature and Environment" deals with the fine dust problem and the effects of climate change on winter sports in Germany. In the last part, “Economy and Culture”, the thematic arc ranges from regional currencies to the German unity transport projects to changes in the press landscape and the risky financing model of cross-border leasing.
The IfL decided to decouple map contributions from the digital offer because the book form allows a higher level of detail in the cartography. "The advantages of map displays on the screen lie in the ability to quickly switch to glossary entries, detailed maps, enlargements or text comments," explains IfL project manager Sabine Tzschaschel. "We also see the publication as a search for a compromise between online and print media and want to make parts of our digital offer accessible to those who prefer enjoyable browsing to using a mouse and monitor," says the atlas expert. “Deutschland aktuell” thus joins the IfL's strategy of increasingly using digital and internet-based forms of representation for the visualization of spatial knowledge and, at the same time, continuing and further developing tried-and-tested media according to a high quality standard.
Source: [IfL]
