Definitions of Cartography "Cartography is the art, science and technology of making maps together with their study as scientific documents and works of art" British Cartographic Society "Cartography is the theory, technique and practice of map making and map use" Kolacny

Map Types

Theoretical Steps in Map Creation Consider what the real world distribution of the phenomenon might look like Step 2 Determine the purpose of the map and its intended audience Step 3 Collect data appropriate for the map's purpose Step 4 Design and construct the map Step 5 Determine whether users find the map useful and informative

Cartographic Communication Process

Cartographer’s Credo *All maps lie; the goal is to minimize the lying *A map is made to be read, big enough symbols *A map is a scale model of reality (What is the scale?, How is the reality being represented?) *Map readers can cope with only 5-7 differences *colour is good if needed, but different hues should represent qualitatively distinct features, and saturation should represent quantitative differences in the same feature *1% of the population is colour blind *a map is a work of art, thus it requires “visual balance”

Map Requirements At a minimum, ALL MAPS REQUIRE:

Map Requirements At a minimum, ALL MAPS REQUIRE: Proper Title Legend Compass Scale Date Feature data

Map Characteristics Attributes -features of the real-world depicted on the map -often represented as an area(s) on the map or with a symbol Entities -essentially, the real-world description matching the attributes displayed Legend -provides information in such a manner as to link the map attributes with their associated entities

Map Characteristics Scale -understanding scale (most importantly the limitations of scale) is important to reading maps and especially crucial for creating maps -in most instances, maps cannot depict real-world phenomena to the proper scale -in maps, small scale means big area; large scale means small area

Map Characteristics Scale (Cont’d) -scale represented in three ways *Verbal Scale- “one inch equal to one mile” *Representational Fraction- 1:100 000 *Graphic Scale

Map Characteristics Ellipsoids, Datums and Projections Ellipsoid: mathematical model of the shape of the world. The world is not flat, nor is it perfectly round. An ellipsoid attemts to model the true shape of the earth. In North America, the new standard is the Geodetic Reference System developed in 1980 (GRS 1980)

Map Characteristics Ellipsoids, Datums and Projections (Cont’d) Datum: determines how the chosen coordinate system “sits” on the ellipsoid. We now use NAD 83, the origin of which is at the centre of mass of the earth. Projections: a method of assigning a coordinate system to the given datum, by “projecting” the three dimensional surface onto a two-dimensional plane. Most commonly used coordinate systems include geographical (lat/long) and UTM

Remote Sensing-GIS in Action

Remote Sensing-GIS in Action

Remote Sensing-GIS in Action

Remote Sensing-GIS in Action