Elizabeth Bowie, "Hand Drawn Overlays:"

This article discusses the use and practicality of using overlays with base maps to determine important analitical date. Dating back over one hundred years ago, Warren Manning is cited as the first lanscape architect to use an overlaying system. This was done in Billerica, Massachusettes about 20 something miles north of Boston. The study was a for farming and manfactoring comunity. It showed recomendations and changes in the towns circulation routes and land use patterns. TO gather this data, Manning had to have used several dirrent types of maps showing soils, slopes, vegetation, so-on and overlaying them making analytical judgements about the site. It is hard to belive that this is still a favored process in today's society. We still use this composite of maps to "read" our environment at the present. We have created computer sytems to further gather data for us which would be difficult from the hand drawn maps alone. These systems are known as GIS and EIS programs. Many still prefer the tried and true method begun by Manning so many years ago.