Representations, Diagrams and Visualizations of Space and Place - Advances in Cartography and GIScience - page 81

a naïve concept of their geography. Naive geography was defined by
Egenhofer and Mark (1995) as “the body of knowledge that people have
about the surrounding geographic world” - the primary theories of space,
entities and processes (Mark and Egenhofer, 1996). The term describes a
formal model of common-sense geography (Mark and Egenhofer, 1996).
This would form the basis for developing intuitive and 'easy-to-use' Geo-
graphic Information Systems. It “… captures and reflects the way humans
think and reason about geographic space and time. Naive stands for
instinctive or spontaneous” (Egenhofer and Mark, 1995, p. 4).
If users cannot recognise where they are they endure stress, and search for
geographical information to place things in (spatial) perspective (eg find-
ing bearings, orientation to north etc.). According to Golledge (2000, p. 1)
“We often assume there is no need to learn this type of geography because
we already “know” it! And, we have not bothered to make this underlying
geography explicit. Golledge thinks that naïve geography gives an implicit
knowledge via environmental perception and that landmark or feature
recognition and an awareness of the built environment is part of geographical
understanding. He says that “People who claim they 'can't do' geography
can provide accurate assessments of their local area. …“Users 'already
know it” (Golledge, 2000, p. 1). For example, aspects of the geography of
daily life that we “implicitly “know” but have not bothered to make the
underlying geography explicit ( ibid , p. 7). Naïve geography gives an
implicit knowledge via environmental perception, using landmark or feature
recognition ( op cit .).
Figure 4: Sketch of a Londoner's mental map of wealth in London. New Simplified Map of
London drawn from memory… (by Nad @ flickr).
Source: http://www.allmaps.com.au/unusual-maps/new-simplified-map-of-london/