Prof. Dr. Milan Konecny
Head of Laboratory on Geoinformatics and Cartography
Masaryk University
Czech Republic

Biography
Prof. Konecny is the Professor of Cartography and Geoinformastics of the Masaryk university, Brno. He was/is a Guest Profesor of Vienna University, Austria, Technical University in Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazachstan , The Chinese University in Hong Kong, China, The Henan University, Kaifeng, China and Constantine the Philosopher University of Nitra, Slovakia. Prof. Konecny takes the leadership in many international professional bodies, during 2003-7 was President of International Cartographic Association (ICA], now serves as chairman of ICA Commission on Cartography on Early Warning and Crises Management”, the Vice-President of International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE) and Academician and President of European Center of International Eurasian Academy. Prof. M. Konecny leaded several European and domestic research projects. The most important have been project of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic the Dynamic Geovizualization in Crises Management and contemporary he is a member of high level EU-China project on Disaster Risk Management. In this project he also paid attantion to specific gropups of inhabitants, mainly children and their abiliity and skills to understand or create maps. He leaded as a tutor several diploma and Ph.D. dissertations with and have been a part of international cooperation in that field.. He is a member of editoval boards of prestigious journals like International Journal on Digital Earth (IJDE) and Annals of GIS (both published by Taylor&Francis). His research interests include the role of geoinformatics and cartography in Early Warning and Crises Management, dynamic geovisualization, creation of SDI in Europe (INSPIRE and GMES), design of Information and Knowledge-based Society. He is a co-author of first GIS book in Europe in 1985, and editor of Early Warning and Crises Management book in Springer Verlag (in 2010) and two specialized issues on Geoinformatics and Cartography in Early Warning and Crises Management in IJDE).

Abstract


The paper deals with an experiment concerned with the usage of cartography in case of timely warning and crisis management for students' needs. The aim of this research is to measure their abilities reading thematic maps, filling a text based on map information and how pupils represent information on a crisis map. Research is trying to examine also how children use visual variables to represent nominal and ordinal data on thematic maps. The results revealed that many students, when making cartographic decisions, discovered basic principles of the application of visual variables in symbolization of map signs and expressed their preferences. It can be the good base how to work with specific group of people, in this case with children, in the field of crisis management through modern technologies and ICT.