Lab 2

Cartography: Types of Maps

Isarithmic maps are designed to help depict a particular trend within a geographical area. Isarithmic maps have contour lines separating the differences in trends.  Isarithmic maps are also known as contour maps.  These trends can be "physical, social, political, cultural, economic, sociological, agricultural, or any other aspects of a city, state, region,nation , or continent."  Isarithmic maps usually show a smooth continuous trend.  The example above is an isarithmic map of barometric pressure.

Dot density maps use dots to represent the presence of a certain trend or phenomena.  Each dot represents a one-to-one ratio or a one-to-many ratio.  The more concentrated the dots, the more data in that area.  Dot density maps can be used to show the population in certain areas. The picture above is an example of a dot density map. 

Chloropleth maps are based on a predefined areal units such as countries and states.  Chloropleth maps are specifically used for showing records of the census or the percentage of republicans or democrats in a given state.  The picture above is an example of a chloropleth map.

 The above image is a proportional symbol map of the mobile telephone subscribers in 2003.  The size of the circle indicates how many people fit into this category.


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 Above is the image of an Isarithmic Map of The Annual Precipitation in Georgia.