Waldo Tobler's (November 16, 1930 – February 20, 2018) publications span between 1957 and 2017, with his most productive year being 1973. Despite retirement in 1994, he continued to be involved with research for the remainder of his life. Most of his publications consist of peer-reviewed journals, without single-issue textbooks or monographs, and the quantity of publications is noted as being unremarkable compared to modern geographers. Many of his works are foundational to modern geography and cartography, and still frequently cited in modern publications, including the first paper on using computers in cartography, the establishment of analytical cartography, and coining Tobler's first and second laws of geography. His work covered a wide range of topics, with many of his papers considered to be "cartographic classics", that serve as required reading for both graduate and undergraduate students.
The Library of Congress maintains some of Tobler's early work in "The Waldo Tobler Collection," and the UC Santa Barbra Library maintains a collection of his material donated by his widow in "The Waldo Tobler Academic Archives." During his life, there were several book chapters dedicated to discussing him, and an entry in the twentieth-century volume of the History of Cartography. Many of his publications were included in "select publications" or "key readings" section in these chapters. After his death, several articles in his honor discussed his publications, including a review of all his publications in the journal "Geographic Analysis".
Peer-reviewed articles
Single author
TitleDateJournal/publicationIdentifierCitation(s)Notes The Multiple Use Concept in Cartography 1957 The Professional Geographer Automation and Cartography 1959 The Geographical Review World Map on a Moebius Strip 1961 Surveying and Mapping Tissot's Indicatrix and Photogrammetry 1962 Photogrammetric Engineering Link A Classification of Map Projections 1962 Annals of the Association of American Geographers The Polar Case of Hammer's Projection 1962 The Professional Geographer Geographic Area and Map Projections 1963 The Geographical Review Geographic Ordering of Information 1963 The Canadian Geographer A Comparison of Spherical and Ellipsoidal Values 1964 The Professional Geographer Automation in the preparation of thematic maps 1965 The Cartographic Journal Medieval Distortions: The Projections of Ancient Maps 1965 Annals of the Association of American Geographers Computation of the correspondence of geographical patterns 1965 Papers in Regional Science Notes on Two Projections 1966 The Cartographic Journal Of Maps and Matrices 1967 Journal of Regional Science Computer Use in Geography 1967 Behavioral Science Satellite Confirmation of Settlement Size Coefficients 1969 Area Geographical Filters and their Inverse 1969 Geographical analysis A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region 1970 Economic Geography Regional Analysis: Time Series Extended to Two Dimensions 1973 Geographia Polonica The hyperelliptical and other new pseudocylindrical equal area map projections 1973 Journal of Geophysical Research A Continuous Transformation Useful for Districting 1973 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Choropleth Maps Without Class Intervals? 1973 Geographical analysis Local Map Projections 1974 The American Cartographer A Computer Program to Draw Perspective Views of Geographical Data 1974 The American Cartographer A Preliminary Analysis of the Spread of the Depression 1975 Geographical analysis Analytical Cartography 1976 The American Cartographer The Comparison of Plane Forms 1978 Geographical analysis Comparing Figures by Regression 1978 Computer Graphics A Proposal for an Equal Area Map of the Entire World on Mercator's Projection 1978 The American Cartographer A Transformational View of Cartography 1978 The American Cartographer Lattice Tuning 1979 Geographical analysis A Geographical Migration Probability Density Function 1979 Ontario Geography Smooth Pycnophylactic Interpolation for Geographical Regions 1979 Journal of the American Statistical Association Estimation of Attractivities from Interactions 1979 Environment and Planning A Depicting Federal Fiscal Transfers 1981 The Professional Geographer A Model of Geographic Movement 1981 Geographical analysis An Alternate Formulation for Spatial Interaction Modeling 1983 Environment and Planning A The Morphology of Geographical Change 1985 Ontario Geography Derivation of a Spatially Continuous Transportation Model 1985 Transportation Research Polycylindric Map Projections 1986 The American Cartographer Pseudo–Cartograms 1986 The American Cartographer Measuring the Similarity of Map Projections" 1986 The American Cartographer The geographic movement of wealth in the United States 1986 MappeMonde Experiments in Migration Mapping by Computer 1987 The American Cartographer Spherical Quadrilateral to Map Scale Conversion 1989 The American Cartographer An Update to 'Numerical Map Generalization 1989 Cartographica Visual Evidence for Urban Potential Fields 1991 MappeMonde Bidimensional Regression 1994 Geographical analysis The Resel Based GIS" 1995 International Journal of Geographical Information Science Migration: Ravenstein, Thornthwaite, and Beyond 1995 Urban Geography A Graphical Introduction to Survey Adjustment 1996 Cartographica The Equidominance Line: A New Geopolitical Concept 1997 Applied Geographical Studies Movement Modeling on the Sphere 1997 Geographical & Environmental Modeling Introductory Comments on Information Theory & Cartography 1997 Cartographic Perspectives Alternatives to Miller's Projection 1997 Cartography and Geographic Information Science World Population in a grid of Spherical Quadrangles 1997 Int. J. Population Geography Linear pycnophylactic reallocation comment on a paper by D. Martin 1999 International Journal of Geographical Information Science The Development of Analytical Cartography: a personal note 2000 Cartography and Geographic Information Science Spherical Measures without Spherical Trigonometry 2001 Solstice: An Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics, Qibla, and Related, Map Projections 2002 Cartography and Geographic Information Science Global Spatial Analysis 2002 Computers, Environment, and Urban Systems Thirty-Five Years of Computer Cartogram 2004 Annals of the Association of American Geographers On the First Law of Geography: A Reply 2004 Annals of the Association of American Geographers Estimating Potentials from Asymmetry 2005 Solstice A refereed Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics Unusual Map Projections 2008 Cartographic Perspectives The Curious Case Of 2½ D 2015 Quaestiones Geographicae A new companion for Mercator 2017 Cartography and Geographic Information Science
Book reviews
TitleDateJournal/publicationIdentifierCitation(s)Notes Review of J. Bertin, “Semiologie Graphique” 1969 Journal of the American Statistical Association Review of J. Forrester, "Urban Dynamics" 1970 Geographical analysis Review of J. Rayner, "An Introduction to Spectral Analysis" 1972 Geographical analysis Review of D. Maling, "Coordinate Systems and Map Projections" 1974 Surveying and Mapping Review of C. Brandenberger, "Koordinatentransformationen fuer Digitale Kartographische Daten mit Lagrange– und Spline–Interpolation." 1986 Surveying and Mapping
Collaborations
TitleCo-authors(s)DateJournal/publicationIdentifierCitation(s)Notes The Multiple Use Concept in Cartography J. Sherman 1957 The Professional Geographer Geographical Ordering of Information: New Opportunities Brian Berry and Richard Morrill 1964 The Professional Geographer Geobotanical Distance Between New Zealand and Neighboring Islands H. W. Mielke, T. R. Detwyler 1970 BioScience Uniform Distribution of Objects in a Homogeneous Field: Cities on a Plain Leon Glass 1971 Nature A Cappadocian Speculation Sam Wineburg 1971 Nature Spectral Analysis of Innovation Diffusion B. Barton 1971 Geographical analysis Geographical Variances H. Moellering 1972 Geographical analysis Isopleth Mapping using Histosplines J. Lau 1978 Geographical analysis Interpolation of images via Histosplines J. Lau 1979 Computer Graphics and Image Processing Push–Pull Migration Laws Guido Dorigo 1983 Annals of the Association of American Geographers Geographical Interpolation Susan Kennedy 1983 Geographical analysis The Globular Projection Generalized M. Petrich 1984 The American Cartographer Smooth Multidimensional Interpolation Susan Kennedy 1985 Geographical analysis Computerized Quantitative Analysis of Kinetic Visual Fields R. Weleber 1996 American Journal of Ophthalmology A Quadtree for Global Information Storage Zi-tan Chen 1986 Geographical analysis Exploring the Anchor Point Hypothesis of Spatial Cognition H. Couclelis, R. Golledge, N. Gale, 1987 Journal of Environmental Psychology Three World Maps on a Moebius Strip Mark P. Kumler 1991 Cartography and Geographic Information Science
Books and translations TitleCo-authors(s)DateJournal/publicationIdentifierCitation(s)Notes Notes and comments on the Composition of Terrestrial and Celestial Maps Johann Heinrich Lambert 1972 Michigan Geographical Publication Map Projection Transformation: Principles and Applications Qihe Yang; John P. Snyder 2000 Taylor & Francis Are There Fundamental Principles in Geographic Information Science? Nicholas R. Chrisman; Andrew Frank; Dan Sui; Michael Frank Goodchild 2012
Book chapters, conference proceedings, and technical reports