Types of Maps AP Human Geography

GPS - Global Positioning Systems Using Satellites to Triangulate your position on Earth.

Remote Sensing create images with colours that we are not accustomed to seeing on a map - these images are called False Colour Images

GIS - Geogragphic Information System GIS is fancy for desktop mapping. The ability to create layers and to add data to any point on a map has made GIS extremely valuable.

A Cartographers job (a mapmaker) is to take information from images of the real world and transpose or convert them onto a human-made map. The Cartographer can then add or remove, complicate or simplify the information. It all depends on who is audience is going to be.

Cartographic Process Traditionally Math is used in both the traditionally way and still used today in making maps. People used to put a piece of paper on a globe and shine a light on it so the image would be projected onto another piece of paper which they traced. Maps were drawn by hand. Today People today use computers, satellite images, GPS, GIS, remote sensing, and navigational systems.

This is an aerial photo of the Boston-Quincy area. The Cartographer can now create a MAP!

This is a Topographic Map.

Maps are a tool to understand spatial patterns Maps can give insight to the how a phenomenon is occurring and provide the starting point for understanding the why. Example: A doctor figures out why a group of specific people are getting cholera by using a map to see they were all living in the same general area and using the same water pumps, which were causing the cholera outbreak.

Reference Maps Also known as General Purpose Maps. The above is a simple road map of downtown Toronto

Choropleth Maps A map showing quantity by area. It uses shades or colors to show intervals.

Isoline Maps a map that is used to display distributions. It consists of lines that connect to show equal value.

Proportional (Graduated) Circle Maps Population of Males 0-14 by Province

Dot Maps

Maps can be DECEIVING!! Every map is flawed in some way. Cartographers can be wrong, include inaccurate data, or make you perceive something differently that they want you to see by distorting the map.

Glancing at that map, we’d think California, Texas, Florida, and New York were horribly dangerous places to live. The problem is that we’re basically looking at a map of population. Of course, the more people live in a place, the more crimes (all else being equal) will be committed there.

These maps, from ads for Verizon Wireless, show 3G network coverage by Verizon and AT&T. The impression they give is that most of the United States isn’t covered by AT&T at all. But if you look at the map of population density, you will see that areas with the most people are covered.