Along with the mathematical and statistical cartographic method, it studies the source information and has various ways of processing it. This is how research is carried out using the construction of geographical maps with special figurative-sign spatial models. The cartographic method is indispensable in the system of methods for studying population, for example.
Earth Model
On geographic maps - reduced generalized images of the plane of the earth's surface - connections, combinations, placement of objects and phenomena are well traced, which are selected and characterized according to the purpose of this map. The cartographic method is used in geography, ethnography and a number of other sciences, as well as in practical activities, since it is highly informative, visual and metric, that is, available for various kinds of measurements.
For example, information about demography and the distribution of peoples is also contained in the so-called topographicmaps (general geographical). Such cards became widespread in the middle of the 19th century. They show the density, number, even the potential for settlement, types of settlements, the composition and reproduction of people, their migration, and much more.
What are the cards
To study the population of the planet, there are anthropological and ethnographic maps, where you can observe the resettlement of peoples, the spread of national cultures, life, anthropometric characteristics. The importance of the cartographic method in the study of social and economic characteristics is very great, the maps show social status, the standard of living in the regions, labor resources, their use, and much, much more.
Cartography uses a special sign system, special imaging methods - cartographic, with icons, diagrams, cartograms, point method, areas, isolines, different background quality, movement signs - essential or spatial, displaying the properties of objects. A geography map can be physical, political, geological, landscape, and so on. There are quite a few species.
Classification
Classify a map by geography by its purpose or by territorial feature, by scale, by content. The last one is the most important. It is the content that refers this or that map to a thematic view or a general geographical one. First of all, you need to look at the territorial coverage: it shows a separate region, country, mainland, or is it a map of the world. Next, the methodscartographic image, including the scale. There are small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale maps. Of course, accuracy and detail will vary.
It is also important to know the purpose of the card, that is, what it is intended for. If there is an application of geographical maps for scientific analysis, these are scientific reference maps. Designed to popularize ideas or individual knowledge - cultural and educational. There are many types of educational maps that play the role of visual aids, which are used to study such sciences as history, geography, geology and many other disciplines. Among them, contour maps occupy a special place.
Contents
If in the process of solving any technical problems it is necessary to display certain conditions and objects, technical maps are used. Tourist maps are widely distributed, which show all settlements with landmarks, sights, routes of movement, places of rest, overnight stays, and so on by type of tourism. The methods of cartographic representation here are very similar to navigation and road maps.
Physical general geographical maps reflect everything related to geographical phenomena - the entire relief and all hydrography, the characteristics of the vegetative soil cover, all settlements and economic objects, all borders and communications. The State Cartography Service deals with both the registration of objects and the cadastre. This is Rosreestr. Large scale physical maps with all objectslocalities are called topographic, and the same medium-scale topographic-review. Small-scale physical maps are always overview only.
Theme
Thematically, the cards differ significantly from each other. They can show everything - from the location of objects to the dynamics and relationships of natural phenomena, from the social sphere and the economy to population growth and decline. It is possible to divide the maps according to the thematic feature into two groups: those that explore natural phenomena, and those that are devoted to social phenomena. Cartography is a rather ancient science, you can start studying it literally from rock paintings. But it didn't take long for it to really develop. Especially this process accelerated with the beginning of the development of airspace and space.
So the most detailed maps of natural phenomena were compiled, which cover absolutely the entire natural environment in all its combinations. These are geological and geophysical maps, with details of the surface of the earth and the ocean floor, climatic and meteorological, botanical and oceanographic, soil and hydrological maps, maps of geographical and physical landscapes and minerals, and so on. Attention has already been paid to socio-political maps here, but it is also quite difficult to give a complete list of them.
Methods of using cartography
In addition to maps that tell everything about the population, there are historical, political, economic and socio-geographical maps, and each of these subspecies also hasstructural division, highly branched. An example of a cartographic method in geography is economic maps. There is also industry - general and sectoral, and agriculture, and the fishing industry, and transport, and communications, and much more that is being studied in detail. A special sign system is always used, which is the basis of the cartographic research method in almost any science, and statistics always provide material for cartographic work.
From the methods of using maps in scientific analysis, many are used, among which the most relevant are graphical techniques, visual analysis, cartometric work (measuring coordinates, distances, calculating population density and evenness of occurrence of minerals, etc.), mathematical and statistical analysis, mathematical modeling, building derivative maps after processing cartographic images, and so on. In any case, the basis of the cartographic research method is reliance on the accuracy and reliability of statistics.
Application
Scientific analysis today is impossible to imagine without the help of the cartographic method. The entire study of the Earth is based on it: geology, geography, geochemistry, geophysics, oceanology and all planetology, the results of the research are placed on maps, then they are summarized and analyzed. This is how new hypotheses are formed and formulated, this is how forecasts are made and tested. Almost all branches of knowledge, to varying degrees, are based on mapping.
For example, geomorphologythe entire structure is made up of information about the relief, which are obtained from topographic maps. And for medical geography, maps are compiled with the areas of occurrence of epidemics and diseases according to socio-economic and natural maps. The most striking example is planetology. The regularities of the surface structure of our planet and any other celestial bodies are compiled on the basis of maps and photographs. This is how we get to know the ocean floor, where, just like deep space, man has never been. The method of cartography gives all sciences a single language through which the world is known. Neither electronics, nor physics, nor technology can do without cartography, just as without mathematics.
Science Connections
Almost all socio-economic, philosophical, natural, technical sciences and almost all scientific disciplines are closely connected with cartography, since interaction occurs with all branches of knowledge. The cartographic method of cognition is most closely connected with the sciences of the planets - geographical, ecological, geological and many others. The cartographer is armed with the knowledge that is necessary to correctly reflect the typical features, features, characteristics of certain phenomena that are included in the content of specific maps.
Sociology, economics, demography, history, archeology and other socio-economic sciences also give certain content to thematic mapping. This is how new cartographic methods appeared - network planning, mathematical modeling, for example. In philosophy, this method is now based on the theoryreflections, modeling theory, logic, system analysis. Cartography concepts, sign system, modeling methods, system mapping have been developed.
Help from other sciences
Geodesy, topography, gravimetry, astronomy provide the science of cartography with more and more accurate data on the size and shape of the Earth and alien planets, which provides the basis for compiling thematic and physical (general geographic) maps. Mathematical analysis, trigonometry, geometry, statistical data of probability theory and set theory, mathematical logic and other sciences are extremely widely used for constructing map projections, creating algorithms, mathematical and cartographic modeling, using maps in programs, in the development of information systems.
Instrument making, printing, chemical technology, electronics, laser and semiconductor technology, as well as many other industries are present in the creation of cartographic systems. New sciences - remote sensing: space, underwater and aerial photography, image interpretation, photometry, photogrammetry, monitoring help to compile and update maps, create databases of digital information and participate in many other cartographic processes. Geoinformatics interacts most closely with cartography. Atlases and maps are the main source of temporal and spatial information for modeling.
Ways and techniques
The cartographic method is always used to study patterns: how spatially placedphenomena, how they are interconnected, how much they depend on each other, how they develop, and so on. There are a lot of application methods for analyzing and processing geographic maps, therefore only the most basic ones will be considered here.
Visual analysis is when the spatial distribution, combinations, connections, dynamics of each phenomenon are visually explored on maps. Graphical analysis - when profiles and sections are built from maps, giving visibility to the vertical to structural phenomena; block diagrams are built, where the image of the terrain in perspective and vertical sections are combined; various graphs and charts.
Cartometric work
The maps determine coordinates, lengths, heights, distances, areas, volumes, angles and the like, that is, the quantitative characteristics of objects that are depicted on the map. Further, mathematical and statistical analysis is applied to study the homogeneity of phenomena (temperature, population density, productivity and any other parameters) to determine their location and changes over time, which are determined by very many factors, and their functional dependence is unknown.
Next is the turn of mathematical modeling, which creates a spatial mathematical model, a description using mathematics of processes or phenomena based on the initial data taken from the maps. Then the model is studied, the phenomena are interpreted and explained, the maps are processed, converted into derivatives, convenient and intended for a particular study (for example, the steepness of the slopes atstudy of soil erosion processes and their prediction).
Analysis
When maps of different content are analyzed, the conclusions about the relationships and the limits of research in general are greatly expanded. This is a complex mapping method. This is how topographic maps and thematic branch maps are compared - soil, geological, geobotanical, and the like. For example, when studying natural relationships using soil and topographic maps of a particular region, it can be established that soil contours are most often associated with individual relief elements.
Saline marshes to lakeside depressions, also chernozems to the bottom of valleys and gullies, alluviality to river floodplains. Further, the regularity in the pattern of soil contours is also determined: solonetzes and solonchaks are rounded, within the boundaries of the old lake basins, meadow chernozem soils are horizontal, then you can go on and on. Sometimes even a visual analysis is enough to establish the first relationships. Further cartometric work reinforces, refines and details the initial conclusions with qualitative and quantitative characteristics.
