Chapter 1
True Maps, False Impressions: Making,
Manipulating, and Interpreting Maps
Activity 1: Scale
Activity 2: Thematic Maps
Learning Outcomes
After completing the chapter, you will be able to:
 Convert map scale to real-world distances.
 Recognize choropleth, proportional symbol,
isoline, and dot maps.
 Recognize that changing the scale and type of a
map changes its spatial pattern.
 Understand the difference between changing
scale and changing level of aggregation.
 Use GIS to change the class limits on a
choropleth map.
 Describe the geographic distribution of African
Americans in the United States.
Theme
Location
Definition
The absolute position
of a phenomenon on
the surface of the
earth, and its relative
proximity to other
phenomena
Place
The local human and
physical
characteristics that
uniquely define a
place and impart
meaning to its
inhabitants
An area characterized
by similarity or by
cohesiveness that sets
it apart from other
areas
Region
Movement
The flow of people,
goods, money, ideas,
or materials between
locations near and far
Human/
Environment
Interaction
The ways in which
human society and
the natural
environment affect
each other
Selected Examples in Chapters
Chapter 1: Where do African-Americans live, and why?
Chapter 6: Where are different kinds of jobs concentrated, and why?
Chapter 7: What is the spatial pattern of development, and why?
Chapter 8: Where are different crops and livestock grown, and why?
Chapter 9: Where are major league baseball teams located, and where should new ones be put, and why?
Chapter 11: Where should new housing be built in the urban area, and why?
Chapter 12: Are the locations of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland growing more mixed or more
segregated over time?
Chapter 2: What characteristics of the place where you live are portrayed on postcards, and why?
Chapter 10: What can you tell about a neighborhood by observing it, and how does it compare to Census data?
Chapter 13: Why are people of the former Yugoslavia so attached to their places of birth?
Chapter 2: What are the boundaries of the Middle East or American Southwest culture regions?
Chapter 6: Which regions specialize in which industries, and why?
Chapter 9: How and why would a new baseball team affect the market areas of existing teams?
Chapter 10: What kinds of subregions exist within a city, and why?
Chapter 11: How and why have urban regions expanded over time?
Chapter 13: How did mismatches between political and ethnic regions lead to war in Yugoslavia?
Chapter 3: How and why has AIDS spread throughout the United States?
Chapter 4: From where do people move to your state, and why?
Chapter 8: What kinds of food are imported from other countries, and why?
Chapter 11: How will different urban growth strategies affect traffic congestion?
Chapter 13: When did Islam spread to Bosnia, and why?
Chapter 14: How does the movement of water or beef lead to environmental problems?
Chapter 2: How have humans adapted to arid climates in the Middle East and the American Southwest?
Chapter 5: How does population growth in India affect the environment?
Chapter 8: Which crops grow best in which climates?
Chapter 11: How does urban sprawl affect the environment?
Chapter 14: What are the causes and effects of environmental problems, and what are the positions of the various
stakeholders?
Figure 1.1
The distance between each of the five stops from
Van Ness-UDC to Farragut North varies greatly,
yet the stylized inset map of the Washington DC
Metro shows them evenly spaced. Note also the
inset map exaggerates the distance between
Farragut North and Metro Center.
Figure 1.2
Figure 1.3
Figure 1.4
Figure 1.5
Figure 1.6
Figure 1.7
Figure 1.8
Figure 1.9
Figure 1.10
Figure 1.11
State
African
% African
American
American
Mississippi
915,057
36
Louisiana
1,299,281
31
S. Carolina
1,039,884
30
Georgia
1,746,565
27
Alabama
1,020,705
25
Maryland
1,189,899
25
N. Carolina
1,456,323
22
Virginia
1,162,994
19
Delaware
112,460
17
Arkansas
373,912
16
New York
2,859,055
16
Tennessee
778,035
16
Illinois
1,694,273
15
Florida
1,759,534
14
Michigan
1,291,706
14
New Jersey
1,036,825
13
Texas
2,021,632
12
Missouri
548,208
11
Ohio
1,154,826
11
Pennsylvania
1,089,795
9
Connecticut
274,269
8
Indiana
432,092
8
California
2,208,801
7
Kentucky
262,907
7
Nevada
78,771
7
State
African
% African
American American
Oklahoma
233,801
7
Kansas
143,076
6
Massachusetts
300,130
5
Wisconsin
244,539
5
Alaska
22,451
4
Colorado
133,146
4
Nebraska
57,404
4
Rhode Island
38,861
4
Arizona
110,524
3
Washington
149,801
3
West Virginia
56,295
3
Hawaii
27,195
2
Iowa
48,090
2
Minnesota
94,944
2
New Mexico
30,210
2
Oregon
46,178
2
New Hampshire
7,198
1
North Dakota
3,524
1
Utah
11,576
1
Wyoming
3,606
1
Idaho
3,370
0
Maine
5,138
0
Montana
2,381
0
South Dakota
3,258
0
Vermont
1,951
0
Province or Territory
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Nunavut
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Yukon Territory
Number of Aboriginals
122,835
139,640
128,670
10,375
14,200
39,695
12,755
21,095
141,505
955
71,390
111,235
6175
Percent Aboriginal
4.60
3.78
11.69
1.36
2.60
61.91
1.25
84.09
1.33
0.72
1.01
11.39
20.15
Figure 1.12
Definitions of Key Terms
• Aggregation: The level of detail for dividing a thematic map into
geographic units, ranging from a coarse division (e.g., countries) to a
fine division (e.g., zip codes).
• Choropleth Map:
A thematic map in which ranked classes of
some variable are depicted with shading patterns or colors for
predefined zones.
• Dot Map:
A thematic map in which a dot is used to represent some
frequency of the mapped variable.
• Human/Environment Interaction:
The ways in which human
society and the natural environment affect each other (the fifth theme
of geography).
• GIS: A computer hardware and software system that handles
geographically referenced data. A GIS uses and produces maps and has
the ability to perform many types of spatial analysis.
• Human Geography: The study of the distribution of humans and
their activities on the surface of the earth and of the processes that
generate these distributions.
• Isoline Map: A thematic map with lines that connect points of equal
value.
• Location:
The absolute position of something on the surface of the
earth, and also its relative proximity to other related things (the first
theme of geography).
• Map:
A two-dimensional graphical representation of the
surface of the earth (or of events that occur on the earth).
• Map Projection:
surface to a flat map.
A systematic method of transferring a spherical
• Map Scale: The ratio of map distance to earth distance, measured in
the same units.
• Movement: The flow of people, goods, money, ideas, or materials
between locations near or far (the fourth theme of geography).
• Place:
The local human and physical characteristics that
uniquely define a place and give it meaning to its inhabitants (the
second theme of geography).
• Primary Data:
Information collected directly by the
researchers or their equipment without any intermediary. This can
include surveys, interviews, observations, or measurements obtained in
the field.
• Proportional Symbol Map:
A thematic map in which the size of a
symbol varies in proportion to the frequency or intensity of the mapped
variable.
• Reference Map:
A general-purpose map that shows
recognizable landmarks, roads, and political units.
• Region:
An area characterized by similarity or by cohesiveness
that sets it apart from other areas (the third theme of geography).
• Secondary Data:
Information obtained indirectly from another
source that was previously collected, processed, and made available to
a larger audience.
• Simplification:
Elimination of unimportant detail on maps, and
retention and possibly exaggeration and distortion of important
information, depending on the purpose of the map.
• Spatial Data: Information that has a geographical or locational
component.
• Thematic Maps:
A map that demonstrates a particular feature or
a single variable. Four types of thematic maps are (1) dot maps, (2)
choropleth maps, (3) proportional symbol maps, and (4) isoline
maps.