Cartography

Defining Maps

Put simply, a map is a model of spatial information. Traditionally, maps often were classified according to their subject or purpose—navigation charts, cadastral maps showing land ownership, topographic maps, general reference maps, thematic or statistical maps, maps illustrating a particular theme, and so on. It is now preferable to think of maps along different dimensions. A map can be permanent and hard copy (on paper) or virtual (existing in digital or cognitive [mental map] form). Maps can be visible (able to be seen) or invisible (stored in a computer database). Maps can be readily manipulated among these forms: paper (permanent: visible and tangible), on a computer screen (virtual: visible but not tangible), stored on a disk (virtual: invisible but tangible), and accessible over a network from a database such as the World Wide Web (virtual: invisible and intangible). Maps now have the capacity for additional functionalities; they can be dynamic, animated in real time, designed with new variables such as sound, and interactive (containing hyperlinks to connect with additional information within the related database), thereby offering sources well beyond their visible content. Maps help users to navigate through geospace via associated network-linked databases of geospatially related information. Maps can be used as single virtual images or as collections of such images accessible on CDs or over a network, they can be used as part of an interactive system in which the user/decision maker is able to select and interact with previously assembled maps, and they can be used to access databases (via an interface map) to search and customize what is needed. This facilitates a novel dynamic twoway process of interacting with spatial information.

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