Before talking about what types of geographical maps are, it is worth knowing the definition of this term. A geographical map is a conditional representation of the Earth's surface on a plane. When constructing it, the curvature of the earth's surface and its nature are taken into account. Both areas of a small area and the entire surface of the planet can be depicted. This makes it possible to see what is the size, shape and relative position of various objects. Also, using maps, you can determine distances, coordinates, and the height of the earth's surface above sea level. For example, a physical map of the world displays the location of natural objects located on the entire surface of the Earth, taking into account their relationship, their certain quantitative and qualitative characteristics.
There are several classifications of these reference materials. For example, the following types of geographical maps are distinguished by scale: large-scale,medium scale and small scale. Different scales allow cartographers to place on the canvas of the same area an image of the earth's surface of different sizes. Knowing the scale allows you to determine the distance between the depicted objects by simple calculations.
There are also such types of geographical maps as general geographical and thematic. If the former are intended to depict certain natural objects, then the use of the latter has wide limits. They are divided into two main types: physical-geographical, which depicts the terrain and shows the nature of the climatic conditions in this territory, and socio-economic. The second type of thematic maps includes even more subcategories that differ in the type of information displayed. These can be maps of the economy, science, population, economy, culture, education, he althcare, and so on.
Separately, it is worth highlighting the developments, which depict a combination of natural and social parameters. These types of geographical maps owe their appearance every year to the growing interest of society in the environment, the influence of man on nature. This type includes engineering-geographical, agro-climatic, natural resource assessment maps and others.
Geographic maps are also divided according to their purpose. It can be educational, reference, navigation and others. They may also differ in the area of the territory they cover: a map of the world, continents, parts of the world, individual regions,countries, smaller units of states, and so on.
Geographic maps can be either highly specialized or include a wide range of topics. For example, a map that displays climatic features can be represented as one parameter (for example, average temperature, humidity, rainfall, and so on), or several. Thus, materials of the first type are called private (private climate map), and the second - general (general climate map).
