Map Layouts

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Map Layouts[edit]

With the plethora of data available now, our demands for the usability and application of maps have also grown and become more complicated. Maps can serve as a vital tool for local governments and planning organizations to visualize environmental and resource data, various national and international boundaries and much more. They are used daily by soil, geology, and water resource professionals in their work and planning. To perform their jobs, public utilities and engineering firms use technical maps. Particularly land use maps are essential for planning the un-hindered growth of a city. Cadastral maps are an indispensable tool for tax collectors and city recorders. Today's cartography, especially thematic mapping, is undergoing rapid transformation. Thematic mapping is maps based on the geographic pattern of a particular theme, such as land use, temperature variation, precipitation changes etc. They help us spatially contextualize and comprehend data for distinct aspects of interest, making complex information more accessible. Advances in computer hardware and software technology, improved Internet connectivity, and the availability of geographic information systems (GIS) software that can create a variety of maps have all had a significant impact on how maps are created and used (Peterson, 2003). Furthermore, local, state, and government entities are making a growing number of online maps and map data available. As a result, these institutions have become more responsive to the demands of map users, both public and private, across the world. Maps, in fact, empower people through their use (Arici et.al., 2019).

Types of maps:

Generally, maps can be categorized in two broad categories:

Reference Maps

Reference maps are also called general purpose maps as they are often used to represent selective information about a certain geographic location, such as a map showing only political boundaries, or a map showing only the most populated cities, etc. (Figure 1).

  • Germany Map.jpg

    Figure 1: A map showing the major cities of Germany (source: Internet).

  • Example.jpg

    Caption2



Thematic Maps

The most widely and commonly used maps are thematic maps. They are used to show the relationship between a theme and geographical space (Figure 2). One can find various categories or types of thematic maps, such as isoline maps, cartogram maps, choropleth maps, graduated symbol maps, heat maps, dot-density maps, and flow-line definition maps are examples of these types. Each form of themed map serves a distinct function, and each has advantages and disadvantages.

Figure 2: A Choropleth displaying the unemployment rate of various locations in Spain.

The making of a good map:

What makes a good map? Visualization plays a crucial role in dissemination of information. For proper and easy dissemination of information, it is important to have clear and good visualization. Now, what makes a clear and good visualization for a map? When one can easily identify and understand all the attributes of a map.

There are few attributes to make a good map:

  • Clears symbology.
  • Easy to understand and clear communication.
  • Simply styled.
  • Not overcrowded.
  • Complete elements
  • No need for an elaborate explanation

A map consists of 6 major symbology’s:

Title/Label

A title or label is the identity of our map. It represents the theme of the map, i.e., what are we seeing in the map. Is it a roadmap? Or is a choropleth? There are numerous important themes that are depicted in maps, the most common of which are the political and the physical.

Scale

A scale represents the precise units of measurements used. Cartographers need to contextualize the map scale to accurately present the information on the map. A map can be ‘not to scale’ or ‘to the scale’ based on the information provided by the map scale’. A map can be physically and aesthetically diverse from other maps and still accurately depict the same relative amount of distance between each feature thanks to the inclusion of a map scale. The map scale often takes the form of a set of lines placed to the page in one corner along with a label identifying the precise units of measurement used. Each unit of distance on the scale is physically displayed next to or beneath this measurement, so that, depending on the size of the image, one inch on the map can correspond to one mile or even hundreds of miles.

Legends

How do I read my map? Where is the key to all the symbols on my map? The description to all those symbols, how they work together, is represented by the Legends. They can be a list of several icons, colors, or words with a brief description alongside. Physical maps typically restrict the variety of symbols used in a single image for practical reasons. Political maps may display topographical elements as a point of reference, but their primary focus is on highways, cities, bridges, and borders, with the appropriate iconography identifying each in the map key.

North Arrow

To align the map in the right direction or to provide accurate orientation to our map, we use north arrow to indicate the north of the map.

Grid

A grid is very helpful in pinpointing location on a map. They visually divide the map into tiny square sections called grids.

Metadata

All the extra information of a map which you don’t want to display but is also important to be saved alongside, consists of metadata of the map. It can be either in a document form, or a spreadsheet.


Figure 3: Example of a map with all the essential elements

Normativity:

Map layout normativity refers to the implicit or explicit standards, conventions, and value-laden choices that influence how spatial information is visually represented and communicated. These norms govern aspects such as color schemes, symbology, scale, orientation, and labeling, often reflecting culturally or institutionally embedded expectations about what a “good” or “correct” map should look like. While such conventions help promote readability and consistency across GIS products, they can also shape and even direct users’ interpretations, potentially reinforcing biases or privileging certain perspectives. For example, the convention of placing north at the top of the map is not inherently natural but a cartographic norm developed through ‘Eurocentric’ practices. Another example can be the association of red being danger/unsafe/bad (used to depict Urban areas, industrial areas) and green as a sign of good/safe (used to depict forests, ópen areas). Similarly, decisions about which features to emphasize—such as urban infrastructure over natural features—are often guided by institutional goals or user expectations rather than objective necessity. Even the choice of classification intervals in choropleth maps can introduce normative assumptions about data distributions and significance.

In this context, normativity in map layouts can serve both functional and ideological roles. Functionally, it standardizes communication for specific audiences (e.g., geographers, planners, policymakers, or the general public). Ideologically, it can frame spatial narratives towards certain desired interpretations of the authors or in ways that reflect and reproduce power structures, such as by marginalizing certain communities or environmental issues. Recognizing the normative dimensions of GIS map layouts is, therefore, crucial for critical cartography, as it encourages reflexivity in map design and supports more inclusive and transparent geospatial representations.

References:

Peterson, M. 2003. Maps and the Internet: An Introduction. In Maps and the Internet, ed. M. Peterson. 1–16. Oxford: Elsevier Science.

Arici, F., Yildirim, P., Caliklar, Ş., & Yilmaz, R. M. (2019). Research trends in the use of augmented reality in science education: Content and bibliometric mapping analysis. Computers & Education, 142, 103647.