Recently, the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS), a leading academic organization in the field of international cartography and geographic information, announced the results of its 53rd Annual Map Design Competition. The entry “What We Heard Around Zhonghua Gate: A Soundmap,” designed collaboratively by our graduate students Lu Haiyue, Jia Yixuan, and Han Bing—under the guidance of Professors Wu Mingguang and Zhang Xueying, along with instructor Hou Zeyu—and graduate student Dong Yuqi from the School of Fine Arts, was honored with the Arthur Robinson Award for Best Printed Map (Winner, tie).

The CaGIS Annual Map Design Competition solicits entries from around the world and stands as one of the most influential professional contests in the international fields of map design and cartographic expression. The competition consistently focuses on innovative expression and communication effectiveness in map design, emphasizing the comprehensive presentation of cartographic standards, visual hierarchy, information encoding, and narrative capabilities. The Arthur Robinson Award, named after internationally renowned cartographer Arthur H. Robinson, is one of the competition's major honors in the Printed Map category. It recognizes significant advancements in map design.

This work takes Nanjing's Zhonghua Gate and its surrounding historic neighborhoods as its research area. Starting from the question of “how urban soundscapes are recorded, understood, and disseminated,” it attempts to translate environmental sounds—highly temporal, hybrid, and experientially varied information—into a readable, comparable language of mapping. Sound data was collected along a walking survey route. Employing “waveforms” as a visual metaphor, continuous acoustic recordings were discretized into rectangular symbols laid out along the route. A multivariate symbol coding system was constructed based on “sound type—sound frequency—sound pressure level”: Hue distinguishes sound source categories (e.g., traffic, nature, music, human voices, machinery); rectangle width indicates frequency (wider rectangles denote lower frequencies); and rectangle height represents sound pressure level variations (taller rectangles signify higher SPL). This approach synchronously presents the multidimensional attributes of soundscapes on static printed media, enabling readers to grasp the spatial patterns and rhythmic shifts of the acoustic environment at the street-level scale.

In narrative structure, the work establishes seven representative “Soundmarks” as reading anchors, annotating and describing recognizable and memorable sound fragments. This organizes the continuous soundscape trajectory into a composite structure of ‘continuous spatial patterns + key node narratives,’ enhancing the map's narrativity and communicative power. For base layer hierarchy control, the work employs grayscale treatment for buildings and neighborhoods, prioritizing the visual prominence of the soundscape information layer. Readability is further enhanced through segmented road networks, explanatory legends, and overall layout design, accommodating both global overview and detailed local reading modes.

This award marks another significant international cartographic accolade for Professor Wu Mingguang's team, following their recognition by the British Cartographic Society (BCS) last year. It reflects our institute's sustained accumulation and steady advancement in cartographic education and research.