In this issue, Antonio Guerra uses historical mapping to understand the relationship between flood frequency in different catchments and changes in the river channel form over time. Comparison of maps over time is an excellent way to understand recent and historical geographical change. In the past this approach required time-consuming work in archives, but today a wide range of historical cartography is available online. In countries like the UK with over 200 years of systematic mapping by the Ordnance Survey, this is particularly valuable. One of the most useful sources is the National Library of Scotland (NLS) at www.maps.nls.uk. (See also David Holmes’ article in Geography Review, Vol. 36, No.2.)
A valuable feature of the NLS dataset is the collection of maps and images that are georeferenced. Georeferencing means that the maps have been adjusted to a common coordinate system so that you can directly compare measurements taken from different maps. This is especially useful in physical geography where you might be trying to quantify changes in physical systems (see below). The NLS portal incorporates a measurement tool.
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