Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
THE 'PRODUCT' OF THE PLANNING PROCESS: STYLE AND
CONTENT OF CARTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS IN
STRATEGIC SPATIAL PLANNING
In this section, relevant cartographic literature on a hermeneutic analysis of maps
will be discussed, followed by a review of previous work that has explored types
and functions of cartographic representations in planning documents. Carto-
graphic representations in legally binding documents versus informal planning
strategies will be differentiated, as they are assumed to serve different purposes
according to the status of the plan.
ELEMENTS OF MAP DESIGN: HERMENEUTIC APPROACHES TO
UNDERSTANDING MAPS AND CARTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS
AND THEIR ROLE IN PLANNING
The traditional view of maps as a form of 'scientific' and 'objective' knowledge is
now increasingly replaced by an understanding of maps as being socially pro-
duced and discursively embedded within broader contexts of social action and
power (Harley, 1989; Crampton, 2001). For the interpretation of maps, Pickles
(1992) suggested to think of two different internal structures of the map, one
graphical, the other linguistic. In this section, graphic key features of maps and car-
tographic representations will be reviewed that will help to identify significant differ-
ences in the design and layout of cartographic representations in strategic spatial
planning documents. A hermeneutic understanding of map interpretation, and the
'linguistic' structure of maps, are discussed subsequently. Every single element of
a map is a source of distortion, as - consciously or unconsciously - selection, gen-
eralisation and schematisation procedures have influenced what is finally depicted.
The discussion in this section is aimed at breaking the assumed 'scientific ration-
ality' of cartographic representations and at explaining how they exercise power.
THE GRAPHICAL STRUCTURE OF CARTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS
Maps have three basic attributes: projection, scale and symbolisation, and the
selection, schematisation and generalisation process of map production includes
innumerable possibilities of choice and therefore distortion. Every map is thus just
one possible cartographic expression of a topic. In this section the graphic ele-
ments of map design will be reviewed, as they help to understand how carto-
graphic representations are constructed and perceived.
Generalisation is the process of reducing the amount of detail in a map in a
meaningful way (Kraak and Ormeling, 1996). Graphic generalisation is charac-
terised by simplification, enlargement, displacement, merging and selection, and
mostly deals with the geometric component of spatial data. None of these
