Since the best way to display spatial data is with a map, and since GIScience is all about spatial data, knowledge about cartography goes hand-in-hand with knowledge about GIS. There are many many sites concerned with cartography, so finding information on cartography is both easy and hard (which of those thousands of links is worth visiting?).
We can approach the subject (GIS–Cartography) from both an academic perspective and from a practical perspective. For more comprehensive coverage there are many excellent cartography texts in the libraries that you can review.
There are also sites that provide guidance on specific map-design elements such as colour choices and font selection, including:
- ColorBrewer – an online tool designed to help people select good color schemes for maps and other graphics, and it is worth reviewing before completing your labs and projects (think about the four different schemes being presented and what data characteristics would be associated with each).
- Color Scheme Types and Combinations: Overview – click on a colour patch to open up a page showing a map produced using that colour scheme.
- Google Fonts – offers hundreds of free fonts that you can use in desktop programs.
ESRI Mapping Center
ESRI uses a blog to to provide guidance on many issues such as mapping (e.g., 6 ways to improve your maps) as well as to make announcements of software improvements, etc. They have also published a number of podcasts that describe, in detail, many of the different features available in ArcGIS Pro as well as providing demonstrations on how to produce high-quality maps.
Learning Objectives
- To gain a perspective on maps and cartography;
- To become aware of key map-design principles;
- To identify the many choices available when producing a map (i.e., the map you produce is but one of many that could be produced using the same data, etc., but not all choices are as effective in communicating your message than others);
- To recognize how GIS facilitates visual communication.
Recommended Readings
Text: Chapter 11: Cartography and Map Production, and Chapter 12: Geovisualization
Slides for the cartography and geovisualization lecture.
Alternative text: GIS Basics: Chapter 2 and Chapter 9.
Spatial Information Management Toolkit: Map Production Guidelines - An excellent manual that describes principles that you should follow when creating a map. (Note that this publication has an Australian focus, so those elements that describe what map projection to use, etc., should be ignored when producing maps for other places.)
Make Maps People Want to Look At (An article by Aileen Buckley, Esri).
Video Links
Cartography and Geovisualization
Additional Readings
Chapter 3 (Thematic mapping, GIS and Geovisualisation) in GIS and the Social Sciences by Dimitris Ballas, Graham Clarke, Rachel S. Franklin and Andy Newing provides a nice overview of the topics of this lecture.
Useful Resources
A link to the ESRI Arcade pages. Arcade can be used to format labels for maps, a 'mini python' for map labelling.
A link to a scientific illustration blog with neat maps of the planets.
A very helpful video that explains map projections.
Map Projections and Reference Systems
A video in which cartographers discuss map projection issues (very interesting and worth watching; covers the fundamentals very well)
Dasymetric Mapping USGS Dasymetric Mapping Methods.
Cartographic Specialist program - For those interested in pursuing a career combining GIS and cartography, the program at Fleming College is worth considering.
Keywords
generalization (simplification, classification, induction, symbolization), qualitative (categorical) vs quantitative (numeric) classification, PGE's (Primary Graphic Elements: shape, hue, orientation, value, size, texture), visual hierarchy, dasymetric.