ATS2780 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Flowchart, Contour Line, Choropleth Map
25 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lecture 3 – Cartographic Representations
Map as Model
• A set of points, lines and areas all defined both by position with reference to a
coordinate system and by their thematic attributes
• A model of geographical space
o Reduced to points, lines and areas
o Using a variety of visual resources: size, shape, value, texture or
pattern, colour, orientation and shape
• Use symbols to represent geographical features
• Only show street block – not every individual building
• Only represent major street, roads with lines
• Map is selective and generalised
• Can conceptualise via point, lines and arrows
Why Use a Map
• Effective devices for recording and communicating information about the
environment
o Location attributes of that information
• Indicates distances and directions between features
• Useful for determining the patterns formed by many types of distributions on
the earth’s surface
• Explains what occurrences are associated with which places and why
• Show distributions of more abstract features
• Provide a major source of historical documentation
Map Types
1. General Purpose Maps
• Mainly used for references: show some or all of the types of features
simultaneously
• Outline Map vs. Topographic map
2. Thematic Maps
• Show just one or two themes or layers of information
• Based on themes
o Town plans, weather charts, geological charts, population maps
• Based on geometric dimension
o Point maps, line maps, area maps and volume maps
• Particular outcomes and presenting it on a map
3. Point Map – dot maps
• Location of dot – represent cities
• Carries quantitative information
o Use dot to represent a certain amount of geographical features
o Dot can increase in size
o E.g. calculate total population of that region / population
density
• Point features: buildings
4. Line Map
• Used to represent lined features: roads, rivers
• Used line features when real size can’t be represented
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
