A line of thunderstorms rolls across rural Texas. Residents fearing tornados check weather maps and plan their escape routes.

In coastal Massachusetts, scientists study the movement of toxic chemicals from abandoned factories into sensitive watersheds and wetlands.

In Virginia, a student sends an announcement of an upcoming graduation party by e-mail to her friends—and attaches a customized map to the location.

In Los Angeles, a shop owner plans the location of her second store by compiling a map of her competitors on a computer.

In Colorado, mountain bikers follow an old gold mining trail, and keep track of their route with a satellite receiver.

These people all have one thing in common: they are using maps. In some cases, they are making new maps from existing information. They are using products created by cartographers and geographic information specialists. The map-making profession may be thousands of years old, but it is in the midst of a digital revolution, one that has created an unprecedented demand for people who understand how to make and use maps.

1- Seeing Information in Relation to Space

Most people think that cartography deals with the design, creation, and use of maps. Although the term “cartography” did not emerge until the mid 19th century, surveyors, explorers, and scientists had been making maps for thousands of years. Over the centuries, many types of maps have been developed to suit the needs of engineers, recreationists, scientists, navigators, city planners and others concerned with the geographical character of the environment. Today, maps may appear in static printed form, or they may appear as dynamic (interactive or animated) images on a computer display screen. But always, regardless of form, the aim of maps is geographical visualization—seeing environmental features in their relationship to geographical space. In this way, maps differ fundamentally from language and mathematical descriptions of the geographical setting.

It is impossible to discuss present-day cartography without reference to the related field of geographic information systems (GIS). GIS focuses on the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and modeling of data; cartographers specialize in the best way to visualize and present the information. The two disciplines are closely related to other disciplines like surveying, photogrammetry and remote sensing, which concentrate on ways to measure accurately and collect information about features on the Earth's surface. Together, these fields constitute the high-tech mapping sciences or geographic information science.

Jump to sidebar: Definitions of Cartography and GIS

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