Waldo Tobler

Waldo Rudolph Tobler (16 November 1930 – 20 February 2018) was an American-Swiss geographer and cartographer, regarded as one of the most influential geographers and cartographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century.

Quotes

• The conceptualization of a map as a data-storage medium leads directly to the concept of it as a computer input element.
  • From Waldo Tobler's 1959 article in Geographical Review, Vol 49 issue 4 "Automation and Cartography".
  • Tobler's paper "Automation and Cartography" is often pointed to as the first peer-reviewed literature discussing using computers to aid in cartography.

• It seems that some basic tasks, common to all cartography, may in the future be largely automated, and that the volume of maps produced in a given time will be increased while the cost is reduced.
  • From Waldo Tobler's 1959 article in Geographical Review, Vol 49 issue 4 "Automation and Cartography".
  • Tobler's paper "Automation and Cartography" is often pointed to as the first peer-reviewed literature discussing using computers to aid in cartography.

• Science proceeds by detecting structures embedded in observational data. It is no simple matter to separate these general structures from the specific details.
  • From Waldo Tobler's 1969 article in Geographical Analysis, Vol 1 issue 3 "Geographical Filters and their Inverses*"

• Maps are generalized representations since it is clearly impossible to display reality in all its complexity at a reduced scale. Not too surprisingly, map makers are unable to provide explicit abstract statements about the process of map generalization, but some empirical evidence suggests constancy of information content per map centimeter squared, regardless of map scale.
  • From Waldo Tobler's 1969 article in Geographical Analysis, Vol 1 issue 3 "Geographical Filters and their Inverses*"

• I invoke the first law of geography: everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things
  • From Waldo Tobler's June 1970 article in Economic Geography, Vol. 46 "A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region"
  • This text is generally cited as the first instance of Tobler's first law of geography within the body of literature.

• Philosophically, the phenomenon external to an area of interest affects what goes on in the inside; a sufficiently common occurrence as to warrant being called the second law of geography.
  • From Waldo Tobler's 1999 article in International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 13:1. "Linear pycnophylactic reallocation comment on a paper by D. Martin"
  • Later restated in his 2004 article in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 94:2 "On the First Law of Geography: A Reply"
  • The 1999 International Journal of Geographical Information Science article is generally cited as the first instance of Tobler's second law of geography within the body of literature.

• Soldiers have medals, scholars have publications.
  • From Waldo Tobler's personal website hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Quotes about Waldo Tobler

• Tobler’s first major achievement was the transformation of geographical cartography from a field basically concerned with visualization to one where graphical methods could be recast as mathematical operations, and where computers began to be accepted as essential tools for the map-maker.
  • From Robin Flowerdew's 2011 chapter "Waldo Tobler" in Key thinkers on Space and Place, Volume 2.

• Waldo Tobler was a genius. Very few people are, far fewer than the normal proportions banded around, but Waldo was one. He appeared to greatly dislike being singled out in this way, but now he is dead it has to be said.
  • From Danny Dorling and Benjamin Hennig's 2018 article Waldo Tobler: Remembering a genius in The Cartographic Journal volume 55 issue 3.

• The academic contributions of Waldo Tobler are noteworthy and significant, spanning essentially all disciplines that involve the study of geographic phenomena.
  • From the article Overview of Contributions in Geographical Analysis: Waldo Tobler in the 2020 "Special Issue: In honor of Waldo Tobler" of Geographical Analysis.

• Dr. Tobler’s contribution to the field of Geographic Information Systems cannot be overstated–in fact, some would say that he is one of the most influential geographers in the last century.
  • University of California Santa Barbra Archivist Matt Stahl, as quoted in The Waldo Tobler Academic Archives 2023 post Preserving Groundbreaking Research in Geography, Geoinformatics and Geographic Information Science

External links

• Waldo R. Tobler at UCSB