The Blind Mouse — A Game for Developing and Popularizing Cartographical Skills

摘要

The Hungarian Agricultural Remote Sensing Program led to a concise methodology that could further be applied operationally. First the main results of a substantial R&D investment and methodology plus validation results are summarized. The crops area assessment, through the processing of multitemporal Landsat and IRS-1C/1D data proved to be efficient at county level because of the accuracy of thematic classification. The novel combined high resolution images + NOAA AVHRR series based crop yield forecast methodology performed well for the major crops (8) at county level. Based on the experiences of the first 5 operational years (from 1997) a general evaluation on the Operational Crop Monitoring and Production Forecast Program (CROPMON) is given. The CROPMON system is a good platform for additional projects implementation as in the case of waterlog assessment and impact analysis (1998—) or flood and drought monitoring (2000—), the recent ragweed control program (2004—) and the remote sensing control of area-based agricultural subsidies (CwRS), that has been carried out operationally for nine years in 2008 in Hungary.In the past few years an exciting map game has been developed for entertainment and for drawing the attention of the users to cartography. It was originally prepared for education. This program and such developing areas of webcartography should be of interest to anyone who is involved in teaching or using cartography in schools or at university. It is an amusing way of learning and it can help pupils to practise what they have learnt previously, that is the curriculum itself. On the other hand it is able to popularize the cartography discipline in different age-groups. Playing the game can be useful at home or in teaching. The levels of the game correspond to the Hungarian National Core Curriculum and are based on the topo-graphic requirements of primary schools, of secondary school final exams and of university geography courses. This website of the game is presented for Hungarian pupils to develop their cartographical skills and for teachers to help their work. Beside this, it is recommended to anyone who likes to test his/her knowledge of maps and geography. The currently available themes are: Hungary and Turkey, while Austria and some other areas are under construction. This programme was implemented into English, German and Turkish. In the future we have to find answers for two questions: Is there any need for this game in education in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe? Which role can it have in the education of a country?