sickening

We tend to think of geography as a static canvas, unchanged by the passage of our short lives; however, when cartographic science It allows us to look into a window several centuries old, the reality is very different. And it is very different because the coast moves and changes, having in Spain a great example in the Bay of Cadizwhich has undergone a fascinating metamorphosis in recent centuries, and the secret to understanding it lies in a technical and scientific prodigy dated 1789. How it looks. We do not have (at the moment) a time machine to go back in our history, but we do have historical documents that do almost the same effect. One of the last analyzed has been the map of the port of Cádiz, a nautical chart which documents in obsessive detail what this region was like more than 230 years ago. A ‘Google Maps’. To understand the value of this document, you must travel to the period between 1783 and 1788. In the midst of the Enlightenment, the need to control the vital Atlantic routes required leaving behind approximate maps and embracing scientific rigor to be much more exact. Here was the brigadier of the Royal Navy Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel, then director of the Marine Guard Academies, who orchestrated the spectacular Maritime Atlas of Spain. The map of Cádiz, which is one of the 47 plates that make up this atlas, is a masterpiece of hydrographic engineering of the time. Outlined by the cartographer Felipe Bauzá and engraved by Fernando Selma, this 56.5 x 87 cm map mounted on canvas shows the cartography of the coast from Rota to the Sancti Petri river with a scale of 1:30,000. What makes it special. It is not only its aesthetics, but the data it contains by integrating precise toponyms, the exact location of the historic salt mines, military arsenals and even detailed bathymetric data mediated in “Castilian fathoms”. And with this basis, and after comparing it with the reality of the present, we can know how a piece of land has changed over time. The threat of sedimentation. Since 1726, the accumulation of sediments was a headache for maritime traffic in Cádiz as it is today. The cartographic comparison shows how the currents and the mouths of the rivers have been filling in parts of the bay, altering the natural draft and forcing the reconfiguration of port areas throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The historic salt flats. In 1789, the map shows a vast and intricate network of salt mines that dominated the landscape, a crucial economic driver at the time since the value of salt was very high. But this has remained in the past, since the urban expansion of municipalities like Puerto Real and industrialization has devoured these salt flats. The coastal profile. In this case, comparisons between the past and present show us how the coastline has advanced and receded. In this way, areas that were previously estuaries or marshes are now dry land or port infrastructure that we have reclaimed from the sea, demonstrating the intense mark that man leaves on the environment. Anyone can see it. Fortunately, this piece of technological history is no longer confined to inaccessible display cases, since the National Geographic Institute It is available for download in its map library with the aim that any researcher can access it and draw conclusions like the ones we see today. Images | Nerea Garcia IGN In Xataka | One of the most impressive bridges in Europe is in Cádiz, it has a removable section and the largest span in Spain