Keys to a Complex World

Maps for Understanding the World

Maps for Understanding the World

• Making a map, making a choice…1. Centralization: European/American/Pacific

centered

Scale and Projection

2. Scale: digital: real distances of an area & map geographic: scale of spatial analysis

3. Projection: polar & cylindrical

Other Choices

• What appears and what is ommitted?• Colours and outlines• Symbols and figures• Names and boundaries• Titles• Legends

Skills to know

–Analyzing information in a map• Identifying key information• Understanding the limits of what is presented

–Comparing maps• Finding similarities/differences• Different perspectives = different conclusions

4 Major Types of Maps

1. Economic maps2. Political maps3. Cultural maps4. Environmental maps

Economic Maps

• Show specific type of economic activity or natural resources present in an area

• Use different symbols or colors depending on what is being shown on the map.

• E.g. economic activity map for Brazil – colors to show different agricultural products of

given areas, – letters for natural resources– symbols for different industries

Economic Maps

Economic Maps

• How to analyze them?– Visualizing networks/hierarchy of territories– Contrast in integration/wealth/development– Questions the legitimacy of the N/S divide

Political Maps

• No topographic features shown• focus solely on state and national boundaries

of a place. • include the locations of cities - both large and

small, depending on the detail of the map. • E.g. the 50 U.S. states and their borders along

with the United States' north and south international borders

Political Maps

Cultural Maps

• Cultural maps are a type of Thematic Map. focus on cultural topics such as language, religion and civilization.

• E.g. a map showing population numbers in the world speaking various world languages.

Cultural Maps

Environmental maps

• Like Cultural maps, Environmental maps are a type of Thematic Map.

• focus on environmental issues such as greenhouse effects, demographics or carbon footprints in the world.

• E.g. a map showing access to potable drinking water around the world.

Environmental maps

Common types of Thematic Maps

• Proportional symbol maps• 3D maps• cartograms

Proportional Symbol Map

cartographer selects a symbol and alters its size, the area to be exact, based on the data values.

3D MapsData Visualization resource

rapidly evolving subset of visualization resources

Cartograms

• Sometimes referred to as anamorphosis or isodemographic maps, esp. for a population cartogram;

• illustrates the relative sizes of the populations of the countries of the world by scaling the area of each country in proportion to its population;

• the shape and relative location of each country is retained to as large an extent as possible, but inevitably a large amount of distortion results.

EU budget 2007-2013 per capita

Total budget expenditure in euros for the whole period 2007-2013 per capita (2007 population figures) are given below. Negative numbers indicate net contributors, positive numbers indicate net recipients.

-5000 to -1000 euro per capita -1000 to -500 euro per capita -500 to 0 euro per capita 0 to 500 euro per capita 500 to 1000 euro per capita 1000 to 5000 euro per capita 5000 to 10000 euro per capita 10000 euro plus per capita n/a

Interactive maps

WTO Merchandise Exports 2012• http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/st

atis_maps_e.htm