Mapping is a key research tool to understand the relationship between specific geographical features and territorial transformations (settlement patterns, hydraulic works, new rail and road infrastructure, land-use change). Starting from the Italian academic tradition (Muratori, Caniggia, Rossi) that focused mainly on the urban context we have developed mapping for fringe-areas at various scales: from city and countryside to expanding rural areas that mark the shifting boundaries(using the agricultural Behera-Region/Alexandria in Egypt and the Belgrade urban evolution in Serbia). Mapping should envision not only the geomorphological features but also the complexity of the landscape structure, as a repository of layers, questioning what are we looking for through mapping and constructing the legend accordingly: selecting which elements need to be highlighted or remain latent and which additional elements need to be identified with the help of complementary sources. GIS holds potential for showing key physical features, their extent, quantity and position in a single glance but is mapping the same as tracing? Is it capable of showing the space-time whirl in landscape transformations?