Cartography, or map-making is the study, and often
practice of crafting representations of the Earth
upon a flat surface, and one who makes maps
is called a cartographer.

Maps are the basic tools of geography.
They enable us to depict spatial phenomenon
on paper. There are conventions used in
cartography which allow a map
to be read efficiently and quickly.

A good map will have a legend or key
which will show the user what different symbols mean.
For instance, a square with a flag on top
usually represents a school and roads are represented by a variety of widths
and combinations of lines. Often a dashed line
represents a border.

Every map is a representation of a larger portion of the earth.

A map represents a portion of the earth's surface.
Since an accurate map represents the land, each map
has a "scale" which indicates the relationship between a certain distance
on the map and the distance on the ground. The map scale
is usually located in the legend box of a map, which explains
the symbols and provides other important information
about the map. A map scale can be
printed in a variety of ways.

Since the map is a flat representation of the curved surface
of the earth, all maps are inherently inaccurate. There
are a variety of projections which have been formulated for different uses.

A map's title provides important clues about the cartographer's
intentions and goals. You can hope to expect entirely different information
on a map titled "Unemployment in Jefferson County" versus "Topography of Mount St. Helens."

Color appears so often on maps that we often take it
for granted that mountains are brown and rivers are blue.
Just as there are many types of color maps, there
are also many different color schemes used by cartographers.
The map user should look to the legend for
an explanation of colors on a map.

Our expectations of colors on a map leads to some
problems when it is used for elevation. Elevation is often represented as a sequence
of dark greens (low elevation or even below sea level) to browns (hills) to white or gray (highest elevation).
Since many people associate green with a fertile region, many map users
will see lower elevations, which may be deserts, and assume those
areas are filled with lush vegetation. Also, people may see the reds and browns of mountains
and assume that they are barren, Grand Canyon-type landscapes of desolation
but the mountains may be forested and covered in brush.

Additionally, as water always appears bright blue on a map,
the user is often inclined to visualize any water on a map
as pristine and clear blue - even though it might be entirely
different color due to pollution.







Reading Maps & Globes

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