Introduction to Cartography

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Introduction to Cartography

• Russell Kirkpatrick
• Jochen Albrecht

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When I get a little moneyI buy mapsand if any
is left,I buy food and clothes.

• Desiderius Erasmus

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What Is Cartography?

• Photography making and study of
  photographs
• Cartography making and study of. ?

So the real question is what is a map?
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What Is A Map?
A map tells you where things are But so does
a satellite image
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What Is A Map?
A map tells you what things are But so does
a gazetteer or a list
Rockville City
Baltimore City
Columbia City
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What Is A Map?
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The MAPFormal Definition
A graphic representation of the location and
attributes of phenomena, in which spatial
relationships can be discerned.
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CartographyFormal Definition
The study of map making, including every
operation fromdata acquisition and storage
tofinal display and use.
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A) Deconstitution of Reality (the subject
matter of the map)
Turning Reality Into a Map

1. Map QuestionWhat do I want to find out?
2. Data SelectionWhich data will shed light on the
   map question?
3. Data AcquisitionHow do I gather the locational
   and attribute data I need?
4. Data StorageHow should the data be arranged for
   efficient retrieval?

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B) Reconstitution of Reality (the form of
the map)
Turning Reality Into a Map

1. Projection and ScaleWhat scientific framework
   will the data be placed within?
2. Cartographic ElementsWhich artistic elements
   will best represent the data?
3. ProductionWhich technologies will I make use of
   to produce the map?
4. Printing / DisplayWhat media will be used to
   display the map?

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1. Map QuestionWhat do I want to find out?
In this example I am a free agent cartographer,
and I decide I wish to find out something about
the limitations of womens use of the urban
environment. In practice this is most often
dictated by legislation, contract or business
opportunity. Few cartographers have the
opportunity to select their own subject
matter. The question I pose is Where do city
women spend their time?
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2. Data SelectionWhich data will answer the map
question?
Where do city women spend their time? We can
seek data on this question in a variety of ways
for example, applying to register a Census
question searching for the research results of
others or conducting primary research of our
own. Limitations of time and the lack of previous
research in this area lead us to conduct our own
research. We limit the data collection period to
one calendar month, from three women only,
collected in 15-minute units.
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3. Data AcquisitionHow to gather the locational
and attribute data?
We contact three women who reflect a cross
section of ages and incomes. Gaining their
consent and promising to protect their privacy,
we then ask them to keep a diary for one
month. The women in our sample will account for
each 15- minute period of their waking hours,
recording where they are and how long they spend
there.
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4. Data StorageHow should the data be arranged
for retrieval?
We record the 6000 data points in raw form in a
spreadsheet, then produce an aggregate
time-series set sorted by woman and location.
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5. Projection and ScaleWhat is the scientific
framework?
A map projection is Map scale is In our
example the base map is on a city scale
(approximately 150,000 to 1100,000). However,
we will have difficulty positioning all the data
points at this scale, as many of them are close
to the womans home. The solution is to adopt a
flexible scale, in which distance between points
decreases from the map centre...
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6. Cartographic ElementsWhat artistic elements
represents the data best?
Cartographers use a wide variety of visual
resources, such as color, shape, line width,
pattern and typography to make their message
clear and aesthetically pleasing. In our example
weI face an ethical dilemma cones would be the
best method of representing the attribute data,
but this would identify the location too closely,
thus breaking our privacy agreement...
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so we use circles, despite the ambiguity.
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7. ProductionWhat technologies to use for map
production?
The technological revolution of the 20th century
has changed the way cartographers approach the
task of map making. The advent of computers have
made both data capture and presentation easier in
two main areas

1. automation of previously manual tasks, thereby
   saving time
2. providing the ability to experiment, making
   cartographic visualization possible

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8. Printing / DisplayWhat media will be used to
display the map?
In the past, the only method of display - and
therefore of communication - was printing the map
as a loose sheet, or bound with a report or
atlas. The widespread use of computers has led to
an explosion of ephemeral maps, which appear on
screen only, never to be printed out.
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Summary What is Cartography?
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Cartographic Abstractionleaving reality behind
Certain key decision-making points lead the map
away from the reality upon which it is based

• Generalization of data
• Classification of data
• Reduction in scale
• Transformation from a curved sphere to a flat
  surface
• Semiotics the use of symbols
• Derivation inferring distance, direction, area,
  proximity, connectivity etc. from the map

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Map Typesdifferent ways of categorizing maps

• by Scale large or small (the name applies
  to the size of the fraction)
• by Subject soil, vegetation, transport, etc.
• by Function navigation, planning,
  education, legal, etc.
• by Form choropleth, isopleth, dot
  distribution, dasymetric, etc.

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Cartographic Communication
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Why is Theory Important?
I dont believe in maps because it never looks
like it says on the maps when you get
there. How do people feel about maps? Only 14
of the people in the United States claim to
like maps. Even people who claim to like maps
use them only as a last choice. Maps are a
hassle. Only 34 of map users are women, 39
of households own no maps at all and less that
half the population referred to a map of any
type during the previous year. Why is the map
message so hard to understand?
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Theory

• Up until now we have only considered the makers
  of maps, and the maps themselves
• It is time to extend that to consider the theory
  of cartographic communication
• Theory is important because the makers of maps
  are influenced by others in the communication
  process

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Two Fundamental Questions

• Who are the people/agencies involved in the
  cartographic communication process?
• How do they communicate? or How is meaning
  transferred?

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Models of Cartographic Communication

• Process Model
• Semiotics
• MUGs Model

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The Process Model
Process Theory devised by Shannon and Weaver,
Bell Telephone Laboratories, to maximize
efficiency of electronic communication in World
War II.
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Process Theory
Identifies

• sender (cartographer) and receiver (map user)
• signal is the map message
• encoding by cartographer
• decoding by map reader
• noise (designer/reader) is interference with
  perfect communication

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Criticisms of Process Model
Electronic analogy does not hold for real-world
communication

• communication may not have taken place
• one-way communication to a passive map user
• noise used as an explanation for all
  communication problems
• it has no social context

If a person speaks gibberish into a telephone,
and it is clearly audible to a listener, then
the communication system is working perfectly.
It is, however, questionable whether and
communication has taken place.
Keates, 1982
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Semiotics

• Semiotics is the study of signs and how they
  symbolize ideas
• Communication takes place when the communicator
  constructs a message out of signs (semantics) and
  passes it on using a sign vehicle - in this
  case a map - to an audience, who use their
  knowledge of the code and their social context
  (pragmatics) to reconstruct a message.
• Interpretation is a matter of what connotation
  the interpreter places on the designation of the
  communicator.

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Strengths of Semiotics

• Concerned with encoding and decoding of concepts
• The map user plays an active part in the process
• Shows how misunderstanding might occur the use
  of different code books by maker and user

A sign system only functions because the creator
and the user attempt to agree on the meanings
of the signs and their relationships. A great
deal of education is directed towards the goal
of ensuring that signs are correctly interpreted
and understood. Keates, 1982.
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Criticisms of Semiotic Theory

• The code analogy does not explain how two people
  viewing the same sign and aware of the same codes
  might interpret that sign in different ways.
• Blames the map user for not understanding the
  work of the map maker.
• Reductionism the research separates subject and
  object, assessing the subjects responses to
  stimuli divorced from social and environmental
  context.

The impression frequently given is that the
experimental subject is a sensitized screen on to
which the researcher projects some cartographic
material in order to measure the result.

Griffin, 1983
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Criticisms of Cartographic Theory

• How and why map messages are generated has not
  been addressed
• How maps are made is not fully explained
• How the map message is received and interpreted
  is misunderstood
• The social context of cartographic communication
  is ignored
• The transfer of meaning has never been explained

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Map Generation
The Myth of Cartographer Generation

• Map makers are the ones theorizing. They consider
  themselves the initiators of cartographic
  communication. Maybe in academia, but not in the
  real world.

Behind most cartographers there is a patron in
innumerableinstances the mapmakers were
responding to external needs.Monarchs,
ministers, state institutions, the Church, have
allinitiated programs of mapping for their own
ends. Harley, 1989.
Map generators are those people or agencies who
areauthorized to initiate the production of a
map.
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Map Making
The Deconstitution and Reconstitution of Reality
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Map Users Targeted and Non-targeted

• Maps that are produced for a specificpurpose
  generally have a narrow audience. Those that cost
  a large amount to produce are often marketed to a
  wider audience
• The result is that the map user base is widened
  beyond those originally targeted by generator and
  maker
• The consequences can be summarized in the
  principle of eavesdropping

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Map Users Targeted and Non-targeted
The MUGs Model
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The Social Context of Mapping

• Maps have evolved in a western culture which is
  impositional in nature. They have not evolved in
  a social vacuum.
• Maps have been used as instruments to exploit
  resources and control people.
• This social context must influence every step of
  the process of cartographic communication.

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The MUGs Model
Deals with 4 of the 5 problems
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Transfer of Meaning

• Relevance Theory developed for verbal
  communication
• The theory is more flexible and less predictive
  than others

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Concepts in Relevance Theory

• Face
• Ostention
• Manifestness
• Inference
• Relevance

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Concepts in Relevance Theory

• Face
• We use words to save face for ourselves or for
  others. The ritual apology which everyone knows
  is insincere nevertheless saves face.
• Maps are a ritualized, one-way interaction ritual
  between egocentric selves
• The generators of map communication seek to
  impose their ideas on others, known in Relevance
• Theory as a face attack

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Concepts in Relevance Theory

• Ostention
• An ostensive act signals to the audience the
  intention to communicate
• Advertising is a blatant form of ostention
• Maps are not very good at this!
• The title of a map is usually the ostensive act

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Concepts in Relevance Theory

• Manifestness
• How can map generator, maker and user share
  contexts when they never meet?
• We assume common experiences will make the
  intention of the communication manifest
• Maps tend to have many things weakly manifest
  compared to other forms of communication

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Concepts in Relevance Theory

• Inference
• Map semiotics can be ambiguous, so to recover
  meaning we infer from the context of the map and
  our experiences
• Maps are made up of inferences and abstractions
• e.g. contour lines to infer elevation
• We use a process of suitably constrained
  guesswork to infer meaning

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Concepts in Relevance Theory

• Relevance
• Relevance effect effort
• High relevance is maximum effect for minimum
  effort
• Marginal relevance is high effect/high effort or
  low effect/low effort
• Irrelevance is minimum effect for maximum effort
• Because maps are weakly manifest, the effort
  required is usually high

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The Principle of Relevance
Every act of ostensive communication
communicates the presumption of its own optimal
relevance.

• The generator implies that the information on a
  map is relevant
• The map maker tries to make the message manifest
• The map user continually tests this using their
  individual criteria of effect and effort
• Deception occurs when impositional communication
  is used this is how we lie (including with
  maps).