kartlegger

Kartlegger is a Norwegian term for a person who performs kartlegging, the systematic collection and organization of information about a specific area or domain, especially geographic information. The noun derives from kart (map) and legges (to lay), while the verb kartlegge means to map, survey, or inventory.

A kartlegger may work in fields such as geography, urban planning, environmental science, archaeology, linguistics, or social research. They are commonly employed by government agencies, municipalities, research institutions, or non-governmental organizations. The core role is to plan and execute data collection, select appropriate methods, ensure data quality and documentation (metadata), and coordinate fieldwork.

Methods used include field surveys, interviews, census data, and remote sensing. Data are typically processed and analyzed with geographic information systems (GIS) and related software, such as QGIS or ArcGIS. Tools may also include GPS devices, drones, and spatial databases. Data types include spatial features (points, lines, polygons) and attribute information describing characteristics.

Outputs are maps, datasets, reports, and sometimes interactive dashboards used for planning, resource management, or risk assessment. Kartlegging is widely applied to activities such as land-use mapping, inventory of resources or infrastructure, ecological habitat mapping, demographic surveys, or market segmentation.

In Norwegian practice, the term emphasizes a deliberate, systematic inventory of information to support decision-making, policy, or research. See also kartlegging, Geographic Information Systems, cartography, and urban planning.