Example of skill: Use the Winkel Tripol projection, as favoured by National Geographic. This results in less distortion.

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1 Atlas Name Map of skill: Atlas Map Good practice (should always include..) clear title north arrow scale. Allows us to study a very large area (global scale). Allows closer inspection of smaller areas - can see major cities within each country. Allows us to see the topography and physical landscape - mountain ranges and rivers etc. when investigating differences on a national and global scale when identifying physical features of interest (rivers, mountain ranges, seas/oceans) when looking for spatial differences and the impact this might have, e.g. global position, near or far from equator, northern or southern hemisphere etc. Could be considered too large scale! Map projection (the earth is spherical and maps are rectangular) can result in countries size and shape being distorted. Can become quickly out of date (34 new countries have been created since 1990). Use the Winkel Tripol projection, as favoured by National Geographic. This results in less distortion. How does this improve my geographical understanding? Can help to identify any spatial patterns, therefore improving my geographical Explaining these spatial patterns further improves my understanding of the world around me. Identifying and further investigating any anomalies would also increase geographical Page 1 of 10

2 Sletch Name of skill: Sketch Map Locates the study area and helps advise on sampling locations. Simplify what is shown on published maps by only showing features of interest. Unnecessary detail is ignored and therefore the map is easier to interpret. Can be used to summarise results and as a base map. Requires knowledge of area, some degree of artistic ability and spatial awareness. Trustworthy source? By omitting any feature deemed not of interest you could come to invalid conclusions. How do you construct? 1. Draw a box the same shape as the map area you are using. 2. Sketch in the main relief features, main rivers, woodland areas and main routeways. 3. Mark and label (or add a clear key) the main features you want your map to show add a scale. 4. Add a title, north direction and use colour. How does this improve my geographical understanding? Requires you to investigate a wide area in order to be able to construct a sketch map, this surely improves By collating all features of interest and seeing how spatially they interact with each other and the impact they have also improves geographical Good practice (should always include): distance to known settlements key north sign scale landmarks accurate specific case study detail. on a relatively small scale (city wide maximum) to look at multiple features of interest that may or may not impact your study could be used prior to your investigation to gain background knowledge of the area could then be used during the investigation to locate features/ areas for fieldwork could be used at a later date for data presentation methods. Use an atlas/town centre map as a base map. Can add/omit any features not of interest but retain accuracy Page 2 of 10

3 Town Name Center of skill: Town Centre Plan Allows us to look at a more microscale than atlas maps. Useful for finding points of interest hence why they have heavy use for tourism purposes. Clear and relatively easy to read. Colour codes are very straightforward to understand. Can become out of date quickly May omit relevant information for our study leading us to invalid conclusions May contain lots of non-relevant information. Use GIS have a base map in which layers could be added or removed for investigation purposes, e.g. only main roads could be added to see the impact of these on settlement locations. How does this improve my geographical understanding? By collating all features of interest and seeing how spatially they interact with each other and the impact they have improves geographical Good practice (should always include): distance to known settlements key north sign scale landmarks accurate specific case study detail on a relatively small scale (city wide maximum) to look at multiple features of interest that may or may not impact your study could be used prior to your investigation to gain background knowledge of the area could then be used during the investigation to locate features/areas for fieldwork could be used at a later date for data presentation methods Page 3 of 10

4 We Name of skill: Weather Maps & Synoptic charts Contour and isolines indicate a clear and obvious pattern. Available on a large scale (global) and also national. Can be used to make predictions and preparations for extreme weather events. Summarises multiple sets of data onto one chart temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure and cloud coverage) over a wide area at a given time. It is based on your judgment therefore it is subjective. Too many items in the key could lead to confusion. The reader has to interpret a pattern could be biased by trying to prove what you were expecting to find? How to construct & good practice: Weather observations are taken at agreed times at weather stations worldwide. They are then plotted onto a synoptic chart. What should they always include? Isobars joining areas of equal pressure - usually drawn at intervals of 2 or 4 mb. when investigating past or future weather patterns dependent upon season a high pressure system (anything over 1000 mb) will create cold clear skies in winter and hot sunny weather in summer. Conversely, low pressure systems bring cloud and rain could be used to select appropriate days for field work could be used to analyse worst affected areas during a meteorological event such as a hurricane. How does this improve my geographical understanding? Can identify weather patterns and their resultant impact. Using the statistical data to explain the weather patterns improves Could be used to explain differences in climate, populations, occupations, etc. further improving geographical Page 4 of 10

5 Name of skill: Flow, desire & trip line maps Category of skill: Cartographic Straight forward visual impression. Can see sequences, e.g. how tributaries feed main rivers. Scale/width of lines shows proportions. Show spatial movements and patterns of movements. In order to achieve a clear image: o real distance is distorted o direction is distorted. Too many lines can cause difficulties in interpretation. Examples of, and justification for why you would use each technique? Flow: When wanting to incorporate volume, e.g. quantity of migrants. Desire: When wanting to show origin and destination, e.g. tourists. Trip: When wanting to show regular trips, e.g. where people travel from to visit a town centre. How to construct & good practice: Flow line: Width of line is proportional to volume. Shows where coming from, going to and amount. Desire line: Shows origin and destination of something. Trip line: Shows regular trips, can incorporate more than one destination or origin. How does this improve my geographical understanding? Are there spatial trends/patterns? Whether yes or no, geographical understanding would be improved by explaining them/justifying the patterns which emerge. Any anomalous results would need to be explained, this would mean further investigations which develops geographical Page 5 of 10

6 Name of skill: Choropleth maps \ Visually effective reader can see general patterns. Location shown. Provides context. Show scale. Show densities. Easy to construct. Describe how to construct: A suitable base map divided into small areas is needed. Then you need to work out the number of categories which will best present your data. Between four and eight classes is best, depending on the range of your data and what it is you are trying to show. Each class should be shaded from light (small change or low numbers) to dark (large change or high numbers). All areas should be shaded unless there is "no data" for an area. There are 3 ways the data can be grouped into classes:(i) divide the range of values into equal-size classes; (ii) rank the values in order and then divide the list into the number of groups you want; (iii) inspect the data values carefully and divide them up to reflect the distribution of the data (good with extreme values). when looking for patterns/concentrations of patterns spatially. Good practice (should always include): Map assumes the whole area has the same value, but there could be important variations within the area. Abrupt changes in boundaries, realistically would merge, therefore are not accurate. Data could be misrepresented depending on scale used. Could add a bar chart showing difference in quantities. A complimentary visual data presentation. Title, key (should be shaded in a gradient of the same colour light to dark), north arrow, scale. How does this improve my geographical understanding? Are there spatial trends/patterns? Whether yes or no, geographical understanding would be improved by explaining them/justifying the patterns which emerge. Any anomalous results would need to be explained, this would mean further investigations which develops geographical Page 6 of 10

7 Name of skill: Dot map Useful, it shows the spatial distribution of data. Visually effective, so reader can see general patterns easily. Dots are equal sized for easy comparison between locations. Show scale. Easy to construct. It is very difficult to count a large number of dots so accurate reading of the map is not possible. This mapping technique relies on the dots being plotted accurately on a map representing a specific location rather than a broad region. Detailed knowledge of the data is therefore necessary. Dot is equal to given value, therefore presuming that anywhere without a dot is empty. Do not show precise values. Needs accompanying information about the distribution otherwise data can be misleading. Clustering may make it impossible to plot and interpret, e.g. in urban areas. Need one size of dot consistently. Describe how to construct: The value of each dot should be high enough to avoid extremes and low enough to avoid too many areas having no data plotted giving the false impression of emptiness. The dots should be drawn the same size and ideally not too large that they merge together. How does this improve my geographical understanding? Are there spatial trend /patterns? Whether yes or no, geographical understanding would be improved by explaining them/justifying the patterns which emerge. Any anomalous results would need to be explained, this would mean further investigations which develops geographical Justify (why use this technique?): when looking for concentrations of phenomena. Clustering can indicate large concentrations of said phenomena. absence of dots could indicate little/no impact of phenomena. Good practice (should always include): A clear title A scale A north arrow A key Could use a choropleth map as a base map and be able to investigate 2 types of phenomena at once looking for causation. Different coloured dots could be used to represent different data for comparison Page 7 of 10

8 Name of skill: Isoline maps They avoid the problems that boundary lines create on choropleth maps. Spatial representation of data. Represent equal values along their length. Can add colour or density shading to enhance patterns/trends. Describe how to construct: The interval between the isolines should be consistent and the numerical values should be added to each line. Good practice (should always include): Looking at the impact of: title numerical value added on each line key north sign scale relief (topography) temperature/climatic variables pressure and resultant impact on weather. They only work where there is plenty of data spread all over the study area and the changes across space are fairly gradual. Allow flexible interpretation of data. May be errors in the plotting. Too much data may be difficult to plot. Too little data leads to assumptions of line location between points of the same value. Explanation of what the values mean, i.e. a key stating that 890mb for example is a hurricane or a mountain is anything in excess of 610 metres. How does this improve my geographical understanding? Are there spatial trends/patterns? Whether yes or no, geographical understanding would be improved by explaining them/justifying the patterns which emerge. Any anomalous results would need to be explained, this would mean further investigations which develops geographical Page 8 of 10

9 Name of skill: Proportional Symbols map visually effective Placed on map to show spatial difference Scale used for comparison Describe how to construct Firstly, an appropriate base map is required. Use the data to create an appropriate scale for the proportional symbols. If it s too big the symbols could overlay each other and be difficult to interpret. Too small and patterns may be difficult to identify. Use the scale to draw the appropriate sized symbol and locate it spatially in the correct place. Justify (why use this technique?): Good practice (should always include): title key with correct scale the larger the symbol the higher value/quantity. north arrow scale. Too many symbols can be difficult to interpret Too much overlap can be confusing, difficult to show exact location Size may obscure location when wanting to identify a relationship between location and quantity of a particular phenomenon clear spatial patterns can be identified by a simple, varying sized circle. Located proportional symbols pie charts. The radius indicates the quantity and the segments in the pie chart could indicate different types. For the map above it could be different events, e.g. track events, field events. How does this improve my geographical understanding? Are there spatial trends/patterns? Whether yes or no, geographical understanding would be improved by explaining them/justifying the patterns which emerge. Any anomalous results would need to be explained, this would mean further investigations which develops geographical Page 9 of 10

10 Image Credits Algovia (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ( via Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file%3acarta_politica_d'africa_2013.png Stevage (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ( via Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file%3acapital_city_trail_map_stevage.png By National Centers for Environmental Prediction (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file%3a _Surface_Weather_Map_NOAA.png Eric Fischer, 2012, flic.kr/p/dydkra Derek Montaño (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ( via Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:choropleth_map.png?uselang=en-gb 2006 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man) (from U.S. Census Bureau source) [GFDL 1.2 ( or CC BY-SA ( via Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file%3alancaster_county_existing_covered_bridges_dot_map.png Blaser2 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ( via Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file%3ablaser_wikipedia_final_2.svg en:user:mapxpert (English Wikipedia (en:image:cntr-map-1.jpg)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file%3acntr-map-1.jpg Pepe Robles - Mapa tomado de World Wind 1.3 (NASA-PD). Itinerario confeccionado por el autor, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid= By United Kingdom Government Viceregal Commission on Irish Railways [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file%3amap_rail_ireland_viceregal_commission_1906.jpg Page 10 of 10