(Hap)Hazard Mapping: Permafrost Distribution, Cartography, and Climatic Change

Maps are the primary vehicle used to communicate geographical relationships. Ironically, interest in the practice of cartography, the art and science of mapmaking, has fallen significantly during a period when the availability of mapmaking software has increased dramatically. Although there has been a significant increase in the number of spatially oriented permafrost studies over the past decade, very little discussion about competing mapping strategies, map accuracy, or the psychophysical impact of cartographic design is evident in geocryological literature. The failure to use the full potential of the tools and techniques that contemporary cartographic and spatial-analytic theory makes possible affects our ability to effectively and accurately communicate the impacts and hazards associated with thawing permafrost in the context of global change. Until our data sets and map products are constructed in ways that allow their incorporation into the larger global-change research enterprise with reasonably well-determined accuracy, permafrost research will not reach its full potential in one of the most important scientific enterprises of our time. This presentation examines recent permafrost literature and its uses with emphasis on cartographic issues, and suggests some strategies for rectifying existing problems.