Geographic Toolbox

Types of Geography

– Physical Geography: • regards the natural

environment, such as…

– Human Geography: • regards the environment as

it pertains to human uses such as…

WHAT ALL MAPS NEED1) Title

– The title should answer the questions:

What? Where?When?

2) Legend– Water/City/Road/Mountains.

Use a ruler to make a nice big box. Make smaller boxes for the symbols.

3) Scale– Explains how small the map is

compared to the real world eg. 1cm represents 20 km

4) North Arrow– You may simply put an arrow

with NORTH, or the full compass rose

5) A border– Provide an outline border for

each map. Use a ruler to place a box around the map, or be as decorative as you want!!!

6) Always shade the water BLUE– You do NOT always have to

color the land. In fact in some cases maps look better without too much coloring on them!!!

7) YOUR NAME!!!– Always in the top right hand

corner, just like all your other assignments.

****Map Making WS

Map Projections

Small Scale maps

• Show a small amount of detail of

a large area

• Used for political maps, physical maps, world maps…– Examine figure 3.11 (page 60)– Examine figure 11.9 (page 195)

Map Projections

• Small Scale examples…

Map Projections

Large Scale maps• Show a great amount of detail about a

small area• Used for residential planning, hiking maps…

– Examine Figure 5 (page 6)

Types of Projections

• ALL map projects are distorted views of the earth’s surface!!!

*A globe is the only accurate method to represent the earth because it is a sphere just like the earth

• The Mercator Projection is one particular map which is very distorted– To make a flat map from a round globe, cartographers

‘unwrapped’ the globe and stretched the northern (and southern) regions to make them flat

– All lines of latitude and longitude are seen as straight lines– Created by the British as accurate naval navigation charts

Types of Projections

Mercator cont.

• The problem is that any northern nation then looks stretched and larger than it really is– i.e. Canada, Greenland, Europe look BIG,

while Africa, South America and other equatorial regions look smaller

Types of Projections

• The Winkel Tripel (1998) projection attempts to correct the distortions seen on maps– Curved lines of latitude and longitude show

less distortion in the size of the northern regions

– Gives us a less ethnocentric view of the world

An odd map???

Types of MapsGeneral Purpose Maps• Provide many different types of information on

one map– i.e. roads, hospitals, rivers, cities, forests…– Examine figure 11 (page 11)

Thematic Maps• Provide information on one specific

characteristic or topic– I.e. elevation, vegetation, population density…– Examine figure 16 (page 18), Figure 3.10 (page 59)

» ***Types of Maps WS

General Purpose Map

• Ottawa Roadmap

Thematic Map: Poverty Rates

Compass Points and Bearings

Compass points are used to show general direction

• North is always identified on any map created

• Cardinal Points: N, E, S, W• Ordinal Points: NNE, NE,

ENE, ESE, SE…

Compass Points and Bearings• Bearing Points are given in exact

degrees measuring angles

» ***Compass Points WS

Grid Systems

Alphanumeric Grids

• ‘Uses letters and numbers to identify squares in a grid pattern’

• letters and numbers always refer to either a row or column of squares– i.e. A12, K5, Q18…– Examine figure 11 (page 11)

» ***Alpha Numeric WS

Grid SystemsMilitary Grids• Use 6 digit numbers to identify specific locations

on map grids • Numbers are used as ‘Eastings’ and ‘Northings’

to locate items on a map• Numbers refer to the grid lines that appear on

the map• Always read towards the east first, then up

towards the north (RRU)• Each grid number is also broken down into

tenths– I.e. 834095

– ***Military Grid WS

Latitude and Longitude

• No matter where you are on the face of the earth, your location can be identified by your latitude and longitude coordinate (address)

• Read the vertical axis N or S (latitude) first,

then horizontal axis E or W (longitude)

second

Latitude and Longitude

Latitude lines: measure how far north or south a place is

• The equator is the starting point for all lines of latitude– All latitude lines run east-west around the

globe– Ottawa is located 45 degrees north of the

equator

Latitude and Longitude

Longitude lines: measure how far east or west a place is

• The Prime Meridian is the starting point for all the lines of longitude– All longitude lines run north-south around the globe

until they meet on the reverse side at 180 degrees– Ottawa is located 75 degrees west of the prime

meridian• Examine figure 14 (page 16)

» ***Lat. Long WS

Scales

Distance Scales

Direct Statement Scale• Use words to describe the relationship

between a distance on a map and a distance on the earth’s surface– I.e. ‘1cm to 10 km’ means every 1 cm you

measure on the map is 10 km in real life– Examine figure 10 (page 10)

Distance Scales

Line Scale• Uses a bar or

a line to show/ describe scale

• Easiest to use – don’t even

need a ruler!– Examine figure 11

(page 11)

Distance ScalesRepresentative Fraction Scale• Uses numbers in a ratio to explain scale• 1: 50 000 means 1cm on the map = 50 000 cm on the

ground

1 : 100,000 the magic #!!!

• 100,000cm in a km

– Good because… they can be used by anyone in the world, using any unit of measure!!!

– 1 : 1000 = small scale VS. 1 : 5,000,000 = large scale

» ***Scale WS