Cartographic Rationale
Much more than a map, it is a combination of diverse and exhaustive information in a single cartographic basis with a universal language of all the pertinent information to navigate, where ancient toponymy is identified, crossing with the references of contemporaneity, taking into account the history, the past and the heritage of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
The main objective of this project is to make a detailed cartographic survey of the entire Autonomous Region of Madeira, more specifically of some municipalities or specific places, where any entity intends to develop the project.
The focus of this cartography is to produce a map with the maximum pertinent detail, not only for a more efficient navigation, but also to make available all the information of territorial, historical and touristic interest, without ever neglecting the importance of having a legible and intuitive map for everyone.
This survey may, in the future, be available on a total or partial map in different physical formats: resistant and waterproof paper; App for Smartphones or tablets; specific download for GPS devices; GPS files of one or more routes.
Historical Racionale
Mountain cartography is not just going to the terrain and drawing. To explore and fully use an area, it takes many hours of research on different maps, platforms and contacts with several locals and experienced hikers, since the mountain, through its dense forest, hides its most intimate corners. The paths created by the ancients, at the cost of a lot of work and always with the aim of escaping hunger, are full of history and heritage. Our ancestors linked each loin, peak, place and valley, creating a huge web of routes, many times overcoming what to the naked eye looks like insurmountable natural obstacles. Over time these paths, once very important, are becoming indistinct trails, becoming more alone, lost and even forgotten.
What these trails do not deserve is to fall by the wayside, and this map may help to eternalize them, so that the younger ones can also, in the future, have access to them.