Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
These results suggest that the symbology of these maps reflects the charac-
ter of the structure of employment to a wide extent and in so doing, their
design is more likely to meet the needs of a variety of users. The high
number of correlations between the economy and Canals symbols may in-
dicate an overall level of industrialization, which is supported by the most
highly correlated sectors such as manufacturing, construction, and trans-
port, storage and communications. It is also perhaps reinforced by the
negative correlation between the total labour force (and total employed)
and the proportion of symbols devoted to the Natural Features class (
Table
8
). However, while canals are clearly linked to the process of industrializa-
tion and remain a critical mode of bulk transfer in countries devoting a
higher proportion of their symbology to this type of feature, in Great Brit-
ain the high share of the symbology perhaps reflects their use as a recrea-
tional resource, especially as features associated with tourism also receive
a relatively high proportion (Kent and Vujakovic 2009, p.201).
There is also a significant negative correlation between the number of
symbols in the General Built-up Features class and the number of people
employed in real estate, renting, and business activities (
Table 9
). It is
tempting to speculate that countries with an emphasis away from these
features on their maps adopt more conservative planning policies for the
construction of new buildings, with the consequence that the built envi-
ronment is a commodity that demands a higher degree of management.
Such an association, however, is more likely to be spurious than causal.
3.2.4 Transport
The symbol classes associated with transport are not reflected exhaustively
in the range of statistics employed here, although figures for the number of
domestic rail journeys, cars per capita, and cars in use provide an indica-
tion of whether these aspects are reflected in state topographic map sym-
bology. According to Kent and Vujakovic (2009, p.190), countries with a
lower symbol count tend to be located on the geographical periphery of
Europe (based on the total number of symbols counted in the map leg-
ends). But more specifically, transport and accessibility play a key role in
characterizing this core-periphery structure:
The economic growth of Europe is strongly concentrated at the
centre. In France, the UK and Germany the great growth areas
are close to the continental centre together with the Netherlands
