Utopia and its maps.

In the past centuries, scholars, philosophers, dreamers, idealists have devised a better world: they found it easier, other than in books, express it as maps, possibly attractive. Nowadays, we have adequate numbers and quality of maps of any type, which let us face almost every type of emergency, specially in the field of seismic, environmental and hydro-geological risks. Also we have an adequate cartographical support for exploitation of natural resources, actual or supposed, in the field of social applications (famine, drought, health and social displacements, …). Geomatics and Geoinformation, can give very important contribution to many human activities, on the contrary, they can terribly support, in very sophisticated way, the escalation of armies, wars and destruction, producing negative effects, both in high intensity and large extension. Science and technique cannot be isolated from the whole human life context, but they should positively play a fundamental role in the real world. The encouragement of a peaceful use of mature and innovative technologies, in order to achieve concrete social, economic and cultural benefits for all the people, increases, to a high level standard, the quality of their life. A correct information passes through a different conceived Cartography: see the Peters’ atlas (Arno Peters, 1980), edited in the framework of Willy Brandt’s report about North-South.