Fundamentals of Mapping

Types of Maps – Introduction

There are many different types of maps, which are generally classified according to what they are attempting to show.

It must be noted that there are many diffent interpretaions as to what are the types of maps. One common point of view is that there are only two types of maps:

those which summarise the landscape (topographic and general reference maps); and
those which describe/comment on the landscape (all other maps – usually called thematic maps)

For ease of describing functionally quite different maps; and to explain what can be confusing differences; we have opted to use a greater number of map types:

General Reference (sometimes called planimetric maps) read more →
Topographic Maps read more →
Thematic read more →
Navigation Charts read more →
Cadastral Maps and Plans read more →

It must be noted that even this is a simplistic approach as there are often overlapping features between maps. For example a topographic map may be used to show the distribution of a native orchid (therefore it is both a topographic and thematic map) or may be used to show features of particular interest to tourists (topographic, general reference and thematic).

All of these map types may be a unique, stand-alone, map with no relationship to other maps or they may be part of a series of related maps, these are generally called Series Maps. Read more about Series Maps → .

One confusing issue is that people often refer to a group of maps as a type of map. An example are the World Aeronautical Charts (WAC's). These are often refered to as a type of map, when in reality they are a group of maps of the type navigation chart.

Map Specification

All of the above maps have one thing in common – they have a set of rules which determine how they are made and what they show. This is called a Specification. Read more about Specification →

The specification should also contain information on assumptions, limitations and information sources. This is known as 'metadata' and is an important aid to the map reader. Read more about Metadata →

For a single, stand-alone map (such as a map of a tourist resort) this may be very simple. At the other extreme, for series maps the specification is likely to be very complex because it is important that all maps in the series have similar content, as-well-as a consistent 'look and feel'.