Kocsis Károly, Nemerkényi Zsombor, Kovály Katalin. PREREQUISITES, SCIENTIFIC GROUNDS AND MAIN EDITORIAL PREPARATION PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW «NATIONAL ATLAS OF HUNGARY» EDITION
The purpose of the publishing is to identify the process of creation of the National atlas of Hungary and its structure. For each and every country around the Earth the national atlas, along with the national flags, coat of arms and national anthem, belongs to the symbols of the greatest importance and prestige. National atlases are realized with a broad collaboration between representatives of various public spheres and are as a rule initiated by academic circles. This was also the case with the National Atlas of Hungary (MNA) when its first and second edition had been under preparation, between 1964–1967 and 1983–1989, respectively. The current edition of MNA was launched by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2013 and now is under preparation coordinated by Geographical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and in strategic partnership with Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics of Eötvös Loránd University. Apart from the printed version, electronic i.e. DVD and web varieties will also be available, according to the modern requirements. The latter will be continuously produced and updated; view-only and interactive (later analytic) maps are to be uploaded to MNA website (www.nemzetiatlasz.hu/en/index.html) rendering them accessible for a broad circle of users (governmental agencies and decision makers, teachers and pupils at various levels of education, professional visitors etc.). They will be able to draw perpetual information about natural conditions, society and economy not only of Hungary, but those of the Carpathian Basin as well (depending on the topics and data base). According to the project the printed version of MNA will be presented in four volumes: Natural environment, Society, The state of Hungary and its place in the world, Economy. The present article deals with the structure of MNA pinpointing the circumstances of its preparation. It might be interesting for the readers in Ukraine as the national atlas of that country has been in use for several years.