What are the types of geographical maps?

Before talking about what kinds of geographical maps happen, it is worthwhile to learn the definition of this term. A geographic map is a conditional image of the Earth's surface on a plane. When it is constructed, the curvature of the earth's surface and its character are taken into account. Represented as a small area, and the entire surface of the planet. This makes it possible to see what the magnitude, shape and relative position of various objects. Also with the help of maps it is possible to determine distances, coordinates, altitude of the earth's surface above sea level. For example, the physical world map depicts the location of natural objects located on the whole surface of the Earth, taking into account their interconnection, their specific quantitative and qualitative characteristics.

There are several classifications of these reference materials. For example, the following types of geographical maps are distinguished by scale: large-scale, medium-scale and small-scale. Different scales allow cartographers to place on the canvas of the same area an image of the earth's surface of different sizes. Knowing the scale allows you to determine the distance between the displayed objects by simple calculations.

Also there are such types of geographical maps as general geographic and thematic. If the first are designed to represent certain natural objects, then the application of the second has broad boundaries. They are divided into two main types: physical and geographical, which depicts the terrain and shows the nature of climatic conditions in this area, and socio-economic. The second type of thematic maps includes even more subcategories, which differ in the kind of information displayed. These can be cards of economy, science, population, economy, culture, education, health and so on.

Separately, it is worth highlighting the development, which depicts the totality of natural and social parameters. These types of geographical maps are due to the appearance every year of the growing interest of society in the environment, the influence of man on nature. This type includes engineering geography, agroclimatic maps, natural resource assessment maps, and others.

Geographic maps are also divided according to their purpose. It can be educational, reference, navigation and others. They can also differ in the area of the territory that they cover: the map of the world, continents, parts of the world, individual regions, countries, smaller units of states, and so on.

Geographic maps can be either highly specialized or include a wide range of topics. For example, a map showing the climatic features can be represented as one parameter (for example, average temperature, humidity, rainfall, etc.) and several. Thus, materials of the first type are called private (private climatic map), and the second - common (common climatic map).