Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
operating in a country? The view that maps are 'texts' - vehicles for
cultural expression - naturally leads to the presumption that topographic
maps should provide a rich and detailed reflection of society, offering
interpretation on many levels.
As the production of state topographic maps tends to subscribe to the
authority of scientific positivism (with its implications for the 'objective'
representation of landscape), they are not perhaps as likely to convey so-
cietal values as overtly as their more persuasive relation, national atlases;
if variations exist in the surface of the Earth, then surely they will exist on
topographic maps. But diversity in the appearance of topographic maps
cannot result purely from variations in the land. It is
choice
that affects the
selection of features and design of individual symbols, which in turn affect
the map holistically as a symbol of the (national) landscape. If maps con-
struct their own worlds through the filtering, translation, and hierarchical
and taxonomical organization of data (Jacob 1996, p.192), and the very
presence of a feature on a map can suggest at least its general relevance,
the presentation of higher amounts of detail in describing some features as
opposed to others can therefore imply differences in relative importance:
In many regions there are important differences in the qualities
and characteristics of water, and where this is limited they can be
of great importance for both population and agriculture. Although
the general category “water” may seem to be adequate, and the
distinction between fresh and salt simply inferred from other map
information, there are many situations where it needs to be further
refined, in order to devise suitable distinctions or categories
(Keates 1972, p.173).
Keates (1989, p.9) later points out that if a particular feature is important in
the content of the map, even to the point of being the major map informa-
tion, then the general category may be broken down into a number of sub-
classes.
As national mapping organizations (NMOs) are usually responsible for
meeting the need to provide adequate spatial information to the state, it
seems plausible to suggest that representations of similar phenomena may
be compared on a national basis. So, if waterways hold more importance in
some countries than others, we would expect cartographers to anticipate
this need by providing a higher level of information to its users, perhaps
through the introduction of interval data that indicate quantified canal
widths. This would provide more detail and hence assign a higher signifi-
