Products of a GIS: Maps and Other Information - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 173

CHAPTER 3 OVERVIEW

Products of a GIS: Maps
and Other Information

IN WHICH you investigate the
relationship between GIS and
map-making, look at a variety of
types of output from a GIS, and
learn the rudiments of mapmaking
with ArcGIS.

GIS is the worst thing that ever
happened to cartography. 1

GIS and traditional cartography share a fundamental idea:
Depict a part of the real world so that human beings can
understand it and use the knowledge for navigation, planning,
resource management, or other forms of decision making. The
traditional cartographic product, the map, is a single entity that
is usually the result of a major project. For example, a USGS
topographic map may take several years to produce. Decisions
about the font and placement of textual information, colors
used, and so on are carefully considered. It has fixed size and
scale. To many, making maps is a work of art.

Unattributable
Circa 1990

GIS and Cartography—
Compatibility?

Earlier, in Chapter 2, we discussed the differences between
maps and GIS. Here I want to illustrate a dramatic, seldom
recognized difference between published maps and GIS-
developed maps. It turns out that, no matter how good the
tools in GIS become in facilitating the production of paper
maps, there is a fundamental incompatibility between GIS
data and even a fairly large-scale paper map. In addition to the
previously discussed advantages of GIS over maps is the fact
that cartographers sometimes have to distort the positions of
features in order to let the map convey important information.
For example, suppose that in a mountainous region there is a
populated valley. Running through this valley may be several
linear features: a stream, a road, a power line, a gas main, and
a railroad track. These elements may have to exist within a
corridor only a couple of hundred feet wide. Further, the road
may cross the stream and the railroad. A distance of 250 feet

1 Probably said because the tools weren't there to make high-quality maps
and because it lets amateurs like the author, with all the artistic ability of a
can of spray paint, make maps.