Maps are symbolic representations of areas on a flat surface or a real element. These devices are extremely useful and handy because they represent specific details and show meticulous features of certain regions, areas, and more.
A map shows boundaries, physical features of a place, climate, topography and sometimes, even economic activities of a city or country. Different kinds of maps have different purposes, each of which is used when necessary.
Believe it or not, maps have been around since ancient times, and they have been a means of navigation and identification. During the 17th and 19th centuries, maps became more factual and accurate as different countries started opting for mapping programs.
Aerial photography, which came about during the First World War, played a massive role in map-making.
Since there are so many types of maps available, it is important to be aware of the different kinds of maps. However, even though there are thousands and thousands of unique maps around the world, most maps are identified as part of 2 major groups: reference maps and thematic maps.
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- Reference maps are used to show the locations of geographic boundaries, cultural features (including cities, roads, and places), and the physical features of certain regions. Common examples of reference maps would be political maps, physical maps, topographic maps, road maps, zip code maps, time zone maps, and geological maps. Different reference maps have been created for almost all countries in the world.
- Thematic maps are used to show the variation of a theme in a geographic region. For example, weather maps are used to show the different temperatures in a region. Different colors are used to determine the different temperatures throughout the year, and they show what you can expect from any region of the Earth. Other examples of thematic maps would be resource maps and income maps.
Types of Reference Maps
Political Maps
Political maps are the most popular reference maps. These are the maps that are mounted on classroom walls all around the world. The purpose of these political maps is to show the geographic boundaries between countries, counties, and states. They also show cities, roads, and major bodies of water, which may include lakes, rivers, and oceans.
Political maps allow people to grasp a better understanding of the world’s geography. These maps are the first kind of maps that are introduced to students in school. They are known as reference maps because they are referred to over and over again when anyone has any sort of question-related to the world or the place they are living in.
Physical maps are either printed on paper or other physical mediums, but they are also digital, which means they can be easily accessed and viewed online. Every single day, millions of people go on the internet to search for a political map that they can refer to. The most popular search when it comes to maps is “map of the world.”
There are thousands of different kinds of political maps that have been created to show different geographies of the same place. For example, there have been physical maps of entire countries, maps that show different states, maps that show different counties, and so on.
Sometimes, these maps are broken down into smaller political units for people to get a better understanding of their geography.
As mentioned before, political maps are the most common kind of maps in classrooms, but these maps have made appearances in offices as well. They are annotated with photographs, thumb pins, market flags, or sticky notes to show where the business is located, to show family travels, or other activities that may have taken place on a larger scale.
Election Result Maps
Election Result Maps are also considered as a type of political map. The purpose of an election result map is to show the geographic location of a candidate and where he or she has received the most support/votes. These geographic locations are most commonly political subdivisions of a country, state, and more.
The most famous type of election map would be the red state and blue state map of the United States of America during the presidential elections. The states that win with Republican votes are distinguished with a red color, whereas the states that win with Democratic votes are distinguished with a blue color.
When the elections are going on, and while the votes are coming in, these maps are considered thematic maps. However, when they are looked at in the future, they are referred to as reference maps because of the historical significance they hold.
Physical Maps
The purpose of a physical map is to show the natural features of Earth’s landscape. They are popularly known to show topography by tonal variation or with the use of solid colors. The color scheme of a physical map varies from dark green to brown to gray and is meant to represent the elevations of land.
The dark green shades are used to show the elevation near sea level, and the color changes into brown and tan colors. The different shades of green show the highest to lowest elevations on a map. The significance of each color is written on the key.
Bodies of water, including lakes, rivers, oceans, and seas, are shown with blue color. The light shades of blue are used to distinguish shallow areas, and the darker shades represent the deeper, larger bodies of water. Ice caps and glaciers are represented by the color white.
Physical maps also show important political boundaries, like where one state meets another or important boundaries within a country. Major roads and cities are also shown. Cultural information is not a priority for these maps, but it is included for geographical references and so that the map would be user-friendly.
Topographic Maps
The purpose of topographic maps is to show how the surface of the Earth is shaped. This is usually accomplished with the help of contour lines that show different elevations. However, the different elevations can also be shown with the use of different colors, shaded relief, color gradients, and other related methods.
Topographic maps are handy for skiers, hunters, hikers, and other individuals that are outdoors most of the time. Moreover, they are also great for engineers, geologists, construction workers, surveyors, architects, landscape planners, biologists, and more. The military uses topographic maps as well.
These maps show the important features of a region as well, including streams, lakes, and rivers. Since their location is also determined solely by topography, these natural things become important elements for topographic maps.
Cultural features are also shown on these maps. Cultural features include roads, buildings, schools, churches, hospitals, trails, place names, cemeteries, benchmarks, and much more. A set of symbols is used to distinguish each of these elements on the map.
Traditionally, topographic maps are printed on larger pieces of paper that have the four boundary lines on them (these are the lines of latitude and longitude).
Road, Street, and Highway Maps
As the digital mapping world was taking over, a lot of map creation took place during the 1990s. In 1996, MapQuest (one of the first popular online service for mapping), allowed people to create and customize maps in the United States if they had access to the internet.
After the first few months, many people became cartographers. Soon after, more and more of these people were creating unique looking maps every single day. The maps that were being created during this time have set historic records.
In this day and age, Google Maps is the most popular online mapping service in the world. Apart from having a user-friendly map that everyone can use, it also provides travel routes and directions.
It creates directions for individuals that are walking, driving, taking public transportation, cycling, or hopping on a plane.
More than thousands of maps, travel routes, and street views are created with the help of Google Maps on a daily basis. When people are traveling, it is one of the first resorts no matter what kind of traveling they are doing.
Google has another facility called Google Earth that helps people see roads, views, and satellite images in one interface. Google Earth is a free tool that can be installed onto computers, and you can easily view everything using this software.
Zip Code Maps
