1. An Introduction to Cartography
Design and Types

2. What are maps used for? Maps serve a variety of functions.
They are most often used to show:
Landforms (physiographic maps and surface maps)
Elevation (topographic and bathymetric maps)
Trends (weather maps, ocean current maps, population maps, etc)

3. Examples

4. Basics of Maps All maps must have: Title Legend Box Scale
Directional Arrow
Signature and Date (but this is often omitted on weather and topographic maps)

5. The Globe
Basic divisions on world map are lines of latitude and longitude
Latitude lines run ________ and never meet.
They mark your position relative to the equator
Each degree of latitude is equal to about 70 miles (112 km)
East-west

6. The Globe
Longitude lines run north and south and intersect ___________.
They mark your position relative to Greenwich, England (prime meridian - 0º).
“East” longitude lines are east of the prime meridian – “West” are west of the PM
The distance separating lines of longitude varies with your distance to the poles.
at the poles

7. Practice with Latitude and Longitude
On your printed map find the location of the following cities:
Yellowknife (62 N 114 W)
Melbourne (37 S 145 E)
Tripoli (32 N 13 E)
Guayaquil (2 S 80 W)

9. The Globe
The globe is one of the best ways to represent earth’s surface since both are spheres
Limits distortions seen in flat projections

10. Distortions on World Maps
Take a look at Antarctica. Compare what you see in both maps.
Now predict where what else would be distorted.

11. Ways to Minimize Distortions
Since all flat maps have some degree of distortion, many different map “projections” have been invented to cut down on the distortion.
These include the Mercator, Robinson, Conic and Gnomonic Projections

12. The Mercator Projection
This is the oldest and most common projection.
It preserves DIRECTION but distorts shape and distance (especially at poles)
It does this by shrinking latitude distances at the equator and increasing it at the poles
Commonly used by sailors for navigation

13. The Mercator Projection

14. The Robinson Projection
The Robinson Projection was developed in the 1960s for Rand McNally (largest map maker in the world)
It uses curved lines of longitude and displays the poles as lines instead of points
Causes great distortion at the poles, but is very accurate in terms of distances and shapes in all other areas

15. The Robinson Projection

16. Mercator vs. Robinson
Compare the sizes of Greenland

17. Conic and Gnomonic Projections
Made by projecting images onto a flat piece of paper either wrapped around the earth or laid flat along the pole
Good for small distances, but creates enormous distortions over large distances

18. Conic Projection

19. Gnomonic Projection

20. Summing Up
Maps are used to represent the earth’s surface and its features
Due to the difficulty in representing a spherical earth on a flat surface, numerous projections have been developed in mapping