The Five elements of geography
Different Types of Maps
The World in Spatial Terms
This section describes the way geographers describe and
locate certain points on the earth. Spatial relationships are the links
people and places have to one another because of their location. For
geographers this like a reference point. One way of locating a place
is by using its absolute location, the exact spot where a place is
found on the earth. They do this by using line of longitude and
latitude. While absolute location is useful most people know places
by the use of relative location. Relative location is defined as a
place’s location in relation to another place. This is the most
common form of locating oneself. Other important terms include
site and situation. Geographers use the term site to refer to a
specific location of a place, including its physical setting. The term
situation is an expression of relative location according to the place’s
geographic location.
Places and regions
A place is a particular space with physical and human
meaning. Every place on earth has its own characteristics and
determined by the people who live there and the environment.
Places are often grouped into regions, or areas with similar
characteristics. These characteristics can be human and
environmental. There are three types of regions: formal, functional,
and perceptual regions. A formal region is defined as having one
unifying and common characteristic. A functional region is defined as
a central place and the surrounding area linked to it; in laymen’s
terms this is a city or town. A perceptual region is defined by popular
feelings and images rather than by objective data.
Physical systems and Human systems
Geography is divided into two major branches called
physical geography and human geography. Physical geography
focuses on the physical factors and biotic factors of life on earth.
Human geography focuses of the cultural geography of the earth.
These two branches are further divided into even smaller branches
of geography like climatology or the long term study of the earth’s
atmosphere. An important term to know is ecosystem. An
ecosystem is a community of plants and animals that depend upon
one another, and their surroundings for survival.
Environment and society
Human-environment interaction- is the study of the
interrelationship between people and their physical environment.
This means that geographers examine how humans use their
environment and interact with it. An example of this is how a river
might slow human expansion.
Uses of Geography
Geography is important because it gives us an insight into
the past and how physical features of the earth might affect us.
People use geographic information every day to decide if a place is
inhabitable or to build better relationships with other cultures
because geography isn’t  just the study of the earth’s crust.
 
A map is a symbolic representation of an actual element or
an area on a flat surface. Maps are useful because they illustrate
specific and detailed features of a given area, region, or an object.
They represent features such as boundaries, topography, physical
features, climate, and even economic activities. There are different
kinds of maps: dimensional, static, dynamic, and interactive maps.
Maps have been in use since ancient times when they may have
been produced and used as necessary tools for identification and
navigation. Maps became more and more accurate and factual in the
17th to 19th century with various countries adopting national
mapping programs. The widespread use of aerial photography
during World War I contributed significantly to the map-making
process.
Topographic Map
 A type of map that shows large-scale detail and
quantitative information of relief by the use of contour
lines and various other methods.
 The map shows both human-made and natural
topographical features.
 A topographical map is based on a topographical survey
that has been performed on large scale and shows
varieties of elevations and landforms.
 Topographic maps have various uses including
geographical planning, civil engineering, large-scale
architecture, and for recreation such as hiking.
 Features on the map are usually represented by
conventional signs and symbols.
 For instance, different colors can be used to indicate the
different classifications of roads. The signs are usually
explained just below the map or on the margins. Apart
from contour lines, topographic maps also show forest
covers, water bodies, and buildings.
Geologic Map
A geological map is a map that is used to show geological features
such as geologic strata and rock units. The location of these features
underneath the earth's surface are shown by symbols or colors.
Other features such as fault lines, foliations, and folds are shown
with strike and dip symbols which gives them a three-dimensional
orientation. There are two main types of orientation measurements:
orientation of planes measured as “dip” and “strike” and orientation
of lines measured as “trend” and “plunge.” Trend and plunge are
symbolized by single arrows and are used for linear features while
strike and dip are symbolized by a long strike line perpendicular to
the direction of the slope. In the US, geologic maps are
superimposed over topographic maps with additional color masks
with letters to represent a geologic unit. In the UK, the term Road Map
“geological map” is used instead of “geologic map.”

Political Map

Road maps, also known as route maps, indicate roads and other
transport links. They are navigational maps that also include political
boundaries, making them part of political maps. Apart from road and
World maps are generally political or physical. A political map is a
boundaries, road maps also show certain points of interests such as
map that shows the political features of an area, country, or region.
tourism sites, prominent buildings, recreational facilities like parks
It shows a region or country’s different territorial borders or
and restaurants, train station, and airports. The maps are of
boundaries, the location of major areas or cities, and significant land
different sizes, shapes, and scales. Small maps are used to show the
masses such as bodies of water. There are different sizes of political
overview of a region’s major roads or routes while large maps give
maps. Some of these maps cover an entire continent, an entire
greater details and cover a large area. Highway maps give the
region, or a state or country. One of the main features of a political
overview of major routes within a region. Street maps mainly cover
map is the geographical boundaries. The boundaries between
areas within a city or metropolitan area. A collection of road maps
countries, cities, or states, are indicated by lines. Political maps help
bound together in a book is referred to as road atlas. Road maps
in the understanding the geography of the world and are usually the
often use thin lines to indicate minor roads and thicker or bolder
first maps that students are introduced to in school. This type of
colors to indicate major roads.
map is also known as “reference map” and are either printed on a
physical medium or paper. It can also be produced in digital form for Cadaster Map
online use.

Physical Map

A cadaster map is a map showing the real estate of a country. It

includes the location, area, ownership, value, and tenure of an
As the name suggests, physical maps are maps that have been
individual parcel of land. According to the International Federation
designed to show the physical or natural landscape features of the
of Surveyors, a cadaster is an up-to-date land information system
Earth. The maps are best known to show several geographical
that contains records of interest of lands such as restrictions, rights,
features such as soil type, mountains, and land use including
and responsibilities. It includes the geometric description of the land
infrastructural developments such as roads and buildings. Physical
and used alongside other records that describe the nature of the
maps are some of the most colorful maps with a different color used
interest, controls of such interest, and the value of the parcel of
to indicate different physical features. Most maps use green to
land. Some maps also show additional information such as parcel’s
brown to gray color scheme to show elevation. A dark green color is
identification number, survey district name, certificate of title
used to indicate near-sea level elevations and brown for higher
number, adjacent street names, and position of existing structures.
elevations. Water bodies such as lakes, rivers, and oceans are often
indicated by a blue color (light blue for shallow areas and dark blue
for deeper waters). Ice and glacier are shown in white color. Cultural
information is not a focus of physical maps but may be included on
the map for geographic reference.
Dot Distribution Map
As
the name suggests, a dot distribution map is a type of map that uses
dot symbols to indicate the presence of features and depends on
visual scatters to show spatial patterns. There are two main types of
dot distribution maps; one-to-one and one-to-many. In one-to-one
dot map, each of the dots shows one single recording of a feature. In
one-to-many dot map, a dot on the map shows more than one
feature being mapped but the dot distribution does not show the
actual location since they are arbitrarily placed on the map. Dot
distribution maps come in handy when mapping features that
change smoothly over a space. However, the random placement of
the dots may make the map ineffective in communicating its
messages.
Thematic Map
A thematic map is a map designed to highlight a theme connected
with a specific geographic area. Unlike general reference map that
shows several phenomena (geographical, political, and geological),
thematic map focuses on a specific subject area and uses base data
only as a point of reference for the feature being mapped. Thematic
maps also put emphasis on a spatial variation on a number of
geographical distributions such as climate, population density, and
health. The map serves three main purposes: to provide information
about a piece of specific information, to provide general information
about the spatial pattern, and to compare patterns on different
maps.
Map projections
Map projections are a systematic transformation of longitudes and
latitudes of a location on the surface of the sphere. Map projections
are important in creating maps with map projections distorting the
surface in some way. Some of the distortions on the maps are
acceptable while other distortions are not acceptable depending on
the purpose of the map. The map projection is classified depending
on the type of projection surface on which the globe is projected
conceptually. There are several map projections which preserve
some of the properties of the sphere at the expense of others.
Cylindrical
A cylindrical projection is any projection in which the
meridians are mapped to parallel spaced vertical lines and latitudes
are mapped to horizontal lines. The projections stretch from east to
west according to their geometric constructions and are the same at
any chosen latitude. Cylindrical projections are distinguished from
each other by the north to south stretching denoted by φ. The north
to south stretching equals east to west but grows with latitude faster
than east to west stretching in the case of central cylindrical
projection. Mercator projection is an example of cylindrical
projection which became a standard map projection because of its
ability to represent lines of steady course. Mercator distorts the size
of geographical objects because its linear scale increases with the
increase in latitude. The distortion caused by the Mercator distorts
the perception of the entire planet by exaggerating the areas laying
far from the equator.
Pseudocylindrical
Pseudocylindrical projections present the meridian as a
straight line while other parallels as sinusoidal curves which are
longer than the central meridian. The scaling of the
pseudocylindrical projections are straight along the central meridian
and also along the parallels. On a pseudocylindrical map, points
further from the equator have higher latitudes than other points,
preserving the north-south relationship. Pseudocylindrical
projections include sinusoidal with same horizontal and vertical
scales. The Robinson projection was created to show the globe as a
flat image readily. The projection is neither equal-area nor
conformal because of the compromise to show the whole planet.
The meridians of the Robinson projection curves are gently
stretching the poles into long lines.
Van der Grinten Projection
Van der Grinten is a compromised projection which is
neither equal-area nor conformal. It is an arbitrary scaled projection
of the plane projecting the entire earth into a circle. Van der Grinten
projection preserves the image of Mercator projection and reduces
its distortion. However, the Polar Regions can still be distorted by
the Van der Grinten projection.
Conic Projection
Conic projections have meridians mapped to equally
spaced parallels originating from the top while the parallels are
mapped to circular arcs which are centered at the top. Two standard
lines visualized as secant lines are picked in the process of making a
conic projection. When a single parallel line has used the distance
along the parallels is stretched. Examples of conic maps include
equidistant, Albers, and Lambert conformal conic.
Pseudoconic Projection
Pseudoconic Projections are projections with parallels
which are circular arcs with common central points. Unlike conic
projections, the meridian is not constrained to be a straight line.
Examples of pseudoconic projections include "bonne", which is an
equal-area map projection. The maps are not constrained to
rectangles or discs. Pseudoconic projection is one of the oldest map
types and although they were used by Ptolemy, they are seldom
seen today.
Maps
Scale Distortions On Map Projections
Maps are the geographic container for the data layers and
Map projections without distortions would represent the analytics you want to work with. GIS maps are easily shared and
correct distance, direction, shapes, and areas on a map. However, embedded in apps, and accessible by virtually everyone,
map projections have distortions which depend largely on the size of everywhere.
the area being mapped. Scale distortions on maps are shown on the
map by an ellipse of distortion or using scale factor which is the ratio
of the scale at a given point to the true scale. Distortions on maps of
countries or cities are not evident to the eye and can only be
identified when computing distances and areas.

Rank Map Projection Name Examples

1 Cylindrical Mercator, Cassini, Equirectangular

2 Pseudocylindrical Mollweide, Sinusoidal, Robinson

3 Conic Lambert conformal conic, Albers conic

4 Pseudoconical Bonne, Bottomley, Werner, American polyconic

5 Azimuthal Gnomonic, Lambert azimuthal equal-area, Stereographic

6 Polyhedral Authagraph, Octant projection, Cahill's Butterfly Map

7 Other GS50, Peirce quincuncial, Van der Grinten

GIS
A geographic information system (GIS) is a framework for
gathering, managing, and analyzing data. Rooted in the science of
geography, GIS integrates many types of data. It analyzes spatial
location and organizes layers of information into visualizations using
maps and 3D scenes. With this unique capability, GIS reveals deeper
insights into data, such as patterns, relationships, and situations—
helping users make smarter decisions. 

How GIS Works

GIS technology applies geographic science with tools for Data

understanding and collaboration. It helps people reach a common
goal: to gain actionable intelligence from all types of data. GIS integrates many different kinds of data layers using
spatial location. Most data has a geographic component. GIS data
includes imagery, features, and basemaps linked to spreadsheets
and tables.
  Hazard assessment: Track hurricanes, earthquakes,
erosion, and flooding. Data can be used to assess the
impacts of a natural disaster and create preparedness
strategies to be used before and after a hazardous event.

 Natural resource management: Monitor land use, map

wetlands, and chart wildlife habitats. Data can be used to
minimize the damage that urban growth has on the
environment and help decide how to best protect natural
resources.

Analysis

Spatial analysis lets you evaluate suitability and capability,

estimate and predict, interpret and understand, and much more,
lending new perspectives to your insight and decision-making.

Apps

Apps provide focused user experiences for getting work

done and bringing GIS to life for everyone. GIS apps work virtually
everywhere: on your mobile phones, tablets, in web browsers, and
on desktops.

REMOTE SENSING

Remote sensors collect data by detecting the energy that

is reflected from Earth. These sensors can be on satellites or
mounted on aircraft.

Remote sensors can be either passive or active. Passive

sensors respond to external stimuli. They record natural energy that
is reflected or emitted from the Earth's surface. The most common
source of radiation detected by passive sensors is reflected sunlight.

In contrast, active sensors use internal stimuli to collect

data about Earth. For example, a laser-beam remote sensing system
projects a laser onto the surface of Earth and measures the time that
it takes for the laser to reflect back to its sensor.

Remote sensing has a wide range of applications in many

different fields:

 Coastal applications: Monitor shoreline changes, track

sediment transport, and map coastal features. Data can be
used for coastal mapping and erosion prevention.

 Ocean applications: Monitor ocean circulation and current

systems, measure ocean temperature and wave heights,
and track sea ice. Data can be used to better understand
the oceans and how to best manage ocean resources.