ROMER, Eugeniusz

After 1889, R. studied at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, after 1891 at the University of Halle, and later at the University of Lwow, where he also received his doctorate with the dissertation Studies on the Distribution of Heat over the Terrestrial Globe (Studien über Wärmeverteilung auf der Erdkugel). He continued his study in Vienna and Berlin. With several articles in the newspaper Das Wetter, he refuted Eduard Brückner's theory on climate oscillation and at the same time questioned the span of oscillation time and the simultaneousness of the climate maximum and the climate minimum.
In his habilitation treatise, Geographical Distribution of Precipitations in Carpathian Countries (Geographische Niederschlagsverteilung in den Karpaten-Ländern), he used accurate scientific methods to process the data from precipitation stations; in the case of data obtained from observation he considered the necessary corrections.
In 1899, in his work Influence of the Climate on Earth's Surface Forms (Klimaeinfluss auf die Oberflächenformen der Erde), he criticised the then prevailing overestimation of the influence of tectonics in the creation of the relief. Despite the fact that R. had not been familiar with the work Physiography, which was published in the same year and written by W. M. Davis, he used the term "cycle of landscape evolution" in his work, thus introducing it into literature simultaneously with Davis. In his work of 1901, entitled The Role of Rivers in the History and Geography of Nations (Die Rolle der Flüsse in der Geschichte und Geographie der Völker), he proposed a thesis that rivers had not represented natural borders between nations. The findings of his versatile studies of many years on the climate of Poland were published in 1910 in the Swiss newspaper Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise de Sciences Naturelles, under the title A Study on the Climate in the Territory of Former Poland (Eine Studie über das Klima auf dem Gebiet des ehemaligen Polens). This was the first geographical treatment of Polish climate, taking into account the territory before the secession.
R. determined the main climate area of Poland and linked its climate image with other environmental impacts, such as hypsometry, relief, position, etc. He also paid attention to the characteristics of Polish climate and their climate limits. In the classification of climates in his textbook Traité de géographie physique, the known French geographer Emanuel de Martonne summarised „climat polonais” after R.'s notes, thus confirming this term in world science.
On the basis of research conducted into the East Carpathians, he first proposed the theory on the consequences of snowdrifts on the opposite slopes. In 1916, the known geographer F. Euquist leaned on this theory in his work on the freezing of Scandinavia.
In 1908, the Small Geographical Atlas (Der kleine geographische Atlas) was published, in which R. presented a hypsometric synthesis of the entire terrestrial orb for the first time. In the selection of elevation lines, he introduced a novelty to cartography by placing the elevation line of 300 m as the demarcation between the lowland and the tableland, and the depth of 7000 m as the illustration of the deepest sea relief. All the maps were in the same ratio.
In 1916, the Geographical and Statistical Atlas of Poland (Der geographisch-statistische Atlas Polens) was published in Vienna. To illustrate the nations and the economy, R. used an original method of isotach/isolines, which determined the same intensity of a phenomenon. This method, which he borrowed from climatology, had first been used by Engelbrecht to demonstrate world agriculture. R. used this method in the cartographic presentation of different phenomena, thus substantially expanding the scope of the application of isolines.
In 1921, R. founded the Atlas publishing house and a cartographic institute that was later also named after him. That was the beginning of Polish cartography. In 1923, he published Polish Cartographic Review. In this edition, he standardised the rules for publishing maps, the so-called "Roman maps«, which are still used today.
He continued his glaciological research and, in contrast to the theory by R. Lucerne, proved that the icing of the Tatra was a special, separate process. He distinguished four glacial and three interglacial periods in the Tatra.
In 1948, he processed climate maps for the new atlas of Poland. In order to distinguish climatic characteristics, he developed a new form of presentation, the so-called gradients and isogradients of climatic phenomena, which form the basis for the geographical classification of the climate.
He devoted his last period in life entirely to the study of maps.
R. published over 870 articles and reviews, edited 60 atlases and 140 wall maps. From 1919 onwards, he was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 1928 to 1938, he was the vice-president of the International Geographical Union.