Tobler, Waldo (1930–)

Waldo R. Tobler is a geographer and a cartographer who has done much to expand ideas about what can be mapped and how. He was closely associated with the quantitative revolution in the 1960s, leading the move to computer mapping, developing new map projections, and applying mathematical techniques to practical questions. His interests led him to consider issues in geographical information science, and he was part of the Santa Barbara team in the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis.

Tobler was born in 1930 in Portland, Oregon, to a Swiss family. His father was the Swiss consul, with responsibility for the Pacific Northwest. Tobler completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Washington, having drifted into geography because he enjoyed reading maps. He proceeded to a master's degree, specializing in cartography. He left Washington and returned after 2 yrs. (years) to do his doctorate. He was at the University of Washington in the late 1950s, at the same time as many of the future leaders of the quantitative revolution. Geographer William Garrison was a junior faculty member, and the graduate students included Brian Berry, William Bunge, Michael Dacey, Arthur Getis, Duane Marble, and Richard Morrill. Tobler says that he “learned just as much or more from fellow graduate students as from the faculty.” Graduate students were encouraged to learn computing as well as to take courses in mathematics and econometrics; ideas from such courses could often be applied in cartography. His PhD dissertation, Map Transformations of Geographic Space, developed new ways of mapping based on time or cost distances and investigated the mathematical basis of cartograms.

After leaving the University of Washington, Tobler became a faculty member at the University of Michigan, where he worked for 16 yrs., moving to the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1977. Although still primarily a cartographer, he kept up his interests in many aspects of spatial analysis. His work on migration is distinctive. While most geographers modeling human behavior do so using statistics, Tobler uses other branches of mathematics, such as vector analysis and partial differential equations. He was also a leader in the development of animated maps, for example, the [Page 2847]film of the spatial development of Detroit. His write-up for this “computer movie,” appearing in 1970, included his most quoted aphorism, now known as Tobler's first law of geography: “Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.” This claim has attracted much attention. Decades later, the Association of American Geographers held a symposium on Tobler's first law, the proceedings of which were published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers in 2004.