In the next century, sea levels are predicted to rise at unprecedented
rates, causing flooding around the world, from the islands of Malaysia
and the canals of Venice to the coasts of Florida and California. These
rising water levels pose serious challenges to all aspects of coastal
existence--chiefly economic, residential, and environmental--as well as
to the cartographic definition and mapping of coasts. It is this facet
of coastal life that Mark Monmonier tackles in Coast Lines. Setting
sail on a journey across shifting landscapes, cartographic technology,
and climate change, Monmonier reveals that coastlines are as much a set
of ideas, assumptions, and societal beliefs as they are solid black
lines on maps.
Whether for sailing charts or property maps, Monmonier shows, coastlines
challenge mapmakers to capture on paper a highly irregular land-water
boundary perturbed by tides and storms and complicated by rocks, wrecks,
and shoals. Coast Lines is peppered with captivating anecdotes about
the frustrating effort to expunge fictitious islands from nautical
charts, the tricky measurement of a coastline's length, and the
contentious notions of beachfront property and public access.
Combing maritime history and the history of technology, Coast Lines
charts the historical progression from offshore sketches to satellite
images and explores the societal impact of coastal cartography on
everything from global warming to homeland security. Returning to the
form of his celebrated Air Apparent, Monmonier ably renders the topic
of coastal cartography accessible to both general readers and historians
of science, technology, and maritime studies. In the post-Katrina era,
when the map of entire regions can be redrawn by a single natural event,
the issues he raises are more important than ever.
