Representing the Earth 

• Globe: A 3D representation of the Earth’s surface. 

• Projection: However, a globe can be cumbersome to casually carry around, so cartographers (mapmakers) create 2D maps through the process of projection. Points on the earth’s surface are moved to a map. 

• Equal-Area Projection: A projection that preserves the real landmass sizes of Earth, such as the Goode-Homolosine. The angles and shapes of masses become distorted. 

• Conformal Projection: A projection that preserves the real angles of Earth, such as the Mercator Projection. The areas and sizes of masses become distorted. 

Types of Maps 

• General Reference Map: For shape, physical features, and some political features.  

• Political Map: Displays political entities- anything that is made up by people, such as counties and districts. 

• Topographic Map: Typically for indicating elevation. Derived from topography, the study of Earth’s surface. 

• Thematic Map: Displays patterns and characteristics of an area (themes like birth rates and crime rates), unlike a General Reference Map which is usually for geography. 

• Choropleth Map: Colors and their shades are used to convey the density or frequency of a variable (i.e.: a map with dark green signifying high income communities, and green signifying medium-income communities). 

• Isoline Map: Most common in weather maps, with waves creating colored regions. These waves are called isolines, connecting points of equal value, which creates the colored regions. 

• Dot Density Map: When dots and their frequencies are used on a map to represent statistics or data. 

• Graduated Symbol Map: When the size of a symbol is used to represent magnitude or frequency. 

• Cartogram: A distortion of a General Reference Map used to convey a theme. 

Environment 

• Environmental Determinism: The theory that an environment determines its people’s qualities.  

• Possibilism: The theory that humans can always adapt to their environments and conditions. This theory opposes Environemtal Determinism 

Scale 

• Map Scale: Cartographic scale indicates what each unit of length on the map corresponds to in the real world. It can be either line, ratio (300:2), or verbal/written (each mile represents a furlong). 

• Scales of Analysis: At which level is data being presented (global, national, state, etc.)? 

Distributions 

• Density: Amount divided by space, typically in population. 

• Concentration: How amounts tend to cluster (Close? Dispersed?) 

• Pattern: Is there a reason why the amounts are clustered the way they are? 

Map Technologies 

• Satellites: Pods above the Earth’s surface relaying information back to us such as weather data. 

• Global Positioning System (GPS): System utilizing satellites to create optimal routes through land and water. 

• Geographic Information System (GIS): Computer systems that can merge statistical data and geographic data to create a map. These are how Thematic Maps are quickly made. 

Types of Regions 

• Formal Region: An undebated region, such as Puerto Rico. Anyone can find where its borders lie with no problem. 

• Functional/Nodal Region: A region that serves practical purpose such as regions with access to a radio station. 

• Perceptual Region: Debated regions that vary on the cartographer’s culture and opinions. A classic example is knowing where “the South” lies in a given place. 

Location and Distance 

• Relative Location: Location relative to a point like “10 miles from me.” 

• Absolute Location: A location that can be found from anywhere with very specific measurements such as “1330 Heritage Landings Dr, Lakeland FL.” 

• Relative Distance: Distance relative to where one is such as “10 minutes from where I’m at” 

• Absolute Distance: Objective length to a point that will not change such as “City A is 10 miles from City B.”  

• First Law of Geography: Closer entities are more related than ones that are farther. In practice, for example, we interact more with Georgia than with the distant Antarctica. The inverse of this rule is Distance Decay. 

• Time-Space Compression: As we modernize, we can reach our destinations faster.