United Kingdom

This chapter briefly examines the origins and evolution of electronic coastal and marine atlases, and online mapping and GIS in the United Kingdom (UK). Beginning with some early examples, such as the UK Digital Marine Atlas (UKDMAP), initially distributed on floppy disk (MS-DOS) and later CD (MS-Windows), consideration is then given to some of the first online Internet-based information systems e.g., The UK Coastal Map Creator, some of the current systems now available e.g., MAGIC, MESH, and UKSeaMap, and finally the potential of Google Earth (GE) and Google Ocean (GO) to provide a framework for the development of simple local scale coastal and marine atlases. In each case, attention is paid to the origins of the atlas, its development, the user-interface, functionality, data and information content, and the target audience. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of electronic atlases are also discussed, together with some of the problems, and possible solutions.