GEOG 4210/5210 Cartography

1. GEOG 4210/5210 Cartography Spring 2004 Week 1

2. Books/Software • Cartography : Thematic Map Design, by Borden D. Dent • Introduction to GIS, by Chang • GIS Software: ArcView or ArcGIS

3. Grading Scale • Homework/Quiz : 50% • 2 Exams : 50 % • Bonus Points: varies • Historical Grades : from A to …..

4. Webct and Internet Access • Sign on webct.tntech.edu and find this course. • You will access this site quite often for homework, quiz, grades and resources. • Access http://iweb.tntech.edu/pli and click “Cartography” to access no-restricted version of webct. You will have most of the materials if you prefer not to access webct contents.

5. Mapmaking and Cartography • Mapping – process of designing, compiling and producing maps. • Cartography – broader than mapmaking. Requiring the study of the philosophical and theoretical bases of the rules for mapmaking, including the study of map communication

6. GIS and Cartography • Geographical information system is a computer-based system that processes geographical information. • Still, GIS, to most people, is just a mapmaking tool for displaying maps, not consisting of the fundamental principles of cartography. • More issues can be found in Chapter 6.

7. General-reference maps • Topo map from USGS • City maps • AAA map • Mapquest.com

8. Thematic map • Maps showing spatial distribution of one or more variables. • Flow map • Population density (in google, type in “population density maps) • (http://www.ncovr.heinz.cmu.edu/docs/Special_Project/Atlas/Image_Pages/Images/percen41.gif) • Crop production • Rainfall • Temperature…

9. Thematic maps • Cartograms

10. Quiz 1 – five points (10 minutes) • Create your own folder under u:\4210\students\ • Find two general reference maps and three thematic maps from five different internet sites. • Save them (right-click on the images) to your folder. (create a folder named Quiz1). • Within Quiz1, create two folders – “gref” and “theme”. Save your general-reference maps to gref and thematic maps to theme.

11. Components of the Thematic Map • Base Map (geographic) – provide locational information to which the thematic overlay can be related. • Thematic Overlay – simplicity and clarity are important design features.

12. Map Scale • Map Scale • Mapped earth area • Information Detail • Symbolization • Large • Small • More • Less generalized • Small • Large • Less • More generalized

13. Scale

14. Cartographic Abstraction and Generalization • Four processes – each results in a reduction of the amount of specific details. • Selection – space to be plotted, scale, projection, aspect, data variables, sampling methods.. • Classification – reduce map complexity, organize mapped information. • Simplification – due to scale issue, simplification is more effective. • Symbolization – replicative and abstract. • Replicative – for tangible objects, such as tress, coastal lines, railroads, houses.. • Base map symbols are replicative, thematic-overlay symbols are either replicative or abstract. • Distortion occur while scale is very small.