Professor Maria Glazovskaya (1912–2016) – an outstanding geographer, geochemist and soil scientist, made a prominent contribution to the formation and development of several aspects of thematic mapping both in conceptual and methodological issues. These aspects, namely, soil, landscape- and soil-geochemical, as well as ecological mapping, were derived from the knowledge on soils combined with the concepts of geochemical migrations facilities for certain chemical elements in soils and landscapes. Methodology of compilation of such maps presumes purposeful interpretation of diverse soil and landscape features, their expert evaluation and forecast of response reactions of soils and landscapes to certain technogenic loads. Maria Glazovskaya proposed innovative approaches to thematic mapping enabling her to compile original maps. She introduced the principle of “prognostic information capacity of natural factors”, which means that properties of landscape components contain information appropriate for evaluating the resilience of natural systems. The ideas and methods proposed by Maria Glazovskaya are now implemented in basic and applied thematic mapping.
