Cartography Review

In this section, you have a chance to think about what you have learned from the Cartography series. Your answers to the questions below might be different from the answers of the person next to you.

Topic 1: Preferences

Which Cartography activity was your favorite? Why did you prefer it?

Topic 2: What is a Map?

You have now completed many activities using photographs, images and maps. You read the "What is a Map" section in World Maps and probably also read the definitions in Technical Terms.

1. Using your own experience, how would you define the word "map?"
2. Would you ever consider a photograph to be a map? If so, when?
3. Scientists often have data which depends on position (the value depends on latitude and longitude). Suppose this type of data is plotted using longitude as x, latitude as y, and color to represent the data values. According to your definition, would this be a map? (The Washington state Landsat image is an example of this kind of plot.)

Topic 3: Map Image Colors

For the AVHRR image in Maps of North America and the USA and the Landsat image in Maps of Washington State, make a short list of the main colors used in the image and what they represent. Is one image easier for you to interpret than the other? If so, explain why. If you were going to make a map of ground cover, would you use the AVHRR scheme, the Landsat scheme, or invent a color scheme of your own? If you would invent one, describe it.

Related Information

• Cartography Table of Contents
• Technical Terms in this series
• Cartography Web Sites
• Up to Geography: Observing and Representing the Earth

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