AP HUGS Unit 1: Map Projections & Types of Maps

MT = Map Type (Interrupted/Uninterrupted, SD - Spatial Distribution, V - Values (Advantages), L - Limits (Disadvantages)

Globe

MT = Uninterrupted

V - Accurately represents shapes and distance, along with size and area

L - Not practical, no direction, cannot look at all countries at once, does not show a country’s boundaries within

Mercator Projection

MT - Uninterrupted

V - Accurate Navigation and direction

L - Does not show accurate size/area

Good Homolosine Projection

MT - Interrupted

V - Shows size and shape of Earth’s landmasses

L - Distance and Distortion near the edges of the map, and direction, disrupts the oceans

Fuller Projection

MT - Interrupted

V - Maintains accurate size and shape of landmasses

L - Struggles with direction and distortion farther away from the center

Robinson Projection

MT - Uninterrupted

V - Maintains size & shape of landmasses

L - Distortions are mainly at the top

Winkel Tripel Projection

MT - Uninterrupted

V - Larger, spreads out the map

L - Spreads distortion throughout the entire map, but tries to concentrate as much distortion at the pole

Gall-Peters Projection

MT - Uninterrupted

V - Shows the true sizes of landmasses

L - Significant amount of distortion in the shape of the land masses & direction

Chloropleth Maps

SD - Display data by using different colors

V - Show quantity and density

L - Generalizations to display info

Dot Density Maps

SD - Points at the place the data is occurring

V - Shows spatial distribution

L - Can be difficult to understand if data reoccurs in the same spot

Graduated (Proportional) Symbol Maps

SD - Use shapes, items, or symbols to show amount of data & location

V - Very visual, efficient use of symbols of various sizes to show the occurrence of something

L - Can be difficult to understand because of overlapping data

Isoline Maps

SD - Use lines to connect different areas with similar or equal amount of info

V - Visually represent continuous and steady data

L - Can be difficult to read

Cartograms

SD - Shows data dynamically and with the greatest value represented by the largest area

V - Very visual and can clearly show differences between places

L - Can be confused due to the distortion of the shape & size of place

Flowline Maps

SD - Shows movement of objects

V - Simpler to understand spatial relationships by representing movement and flows between places

L - Overlapping lines and clutter can be hard to understand