Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Mahdi Modiri

Associate Professor of Urban planning, Malek-Ashtar University of Technolog

Abstract

Since thousands of years ago, human’s activities on the earth have been accompanied by thoughts concerning where to be and where to go, how to move and in which direction. Living in nature and thinking about land and its various forms drove people to thought; human beings had to understand their surroundings in order to be able to live. In distant past, human knowledge of the environment was limited to the extent of human settlements known in those days, and to the extent that the physical strength of people and natural barriers allowed. Human being used his brain and hands and drew different forms of nature in order to understand, and help others understand, the nature, and to exploit findings and experiences of other people. Utilization of drawing in order to identify places became so persistent an activity in human life that it is now considered a natural practice. Since the drawings needed to be correspondent to reality, gradually careful drawing and measurement entered into consideration, and this step should be considered as the beginning of surveying and science of cartography (mapping technology).