大象传媒

Cartographic skills - OCRAtlas maps - physical and human features

Maps represent the real world. Cartographic means anything relating to the drawing or making of maps. Atlas maps show large areas and Ordnance Survey maps show smaller areas in more detail. Sketch maps, satellite images, photos, GIS maps and geology maps are all useful, too.

Part of GeographyGeographical skills

Atlas maps - physical and human features

provide maps on global and national . Some atlas maps show , whilst others show .

Physical maps

Physical maps show natural features such as mountains, lowlands, major rivers, seas, oceans and like deserts and rainforests on a global scale. On a national scale, physical maps show and drainage features, such as rivers.

Some maps show physical features that are experienced rather than seen. Examples of this are average temperature and rainfall maps.

Northwest Scotland has the greatest average rainfall, with over 3,000 mm. East England receives the least, with less than 700 mm.

How to read human and political maps

Political maps show country boundaries and major cities. Human thematic maps show features that people have created. Examples of these are , flows, and layout.

Some maps show human features that are experienced rather than seen. Examples of this are , or even measures of world happiness.

Countries are shaded in different colours. A key shows what the colours correspond to.

Direction

Often, maps should have a arrow to show which way is north. North is at the top of the globe and south is at the bottom. East is to the right and west is to the left. Compass points in between these four are shown as combinations, eg the point in between north and east is called north-east. If the point is slightly closer to the east, it is called east-north-east.

The compass directions are, in clockwise order from the top: North, East, South, West. In between these are North-East, South-East, South-West and North-West.

What are latitude and longitude?

and enable users to find locations on atlases.

  • As the Earth is a sphere, lines of latitude and longitude are measured using degrees of a circle.
  • Lines of latitude run from east to west. The is a line of latitude that lies at 0掳. Lines above this are shown as 掳N (north) and lines below this are shown as 掳S (south).
  • Lines of longitude run from north to south. The or in London is a line of longitude at 0掳. Lines to the right of this are shown as 掳E (east) and lines to the left of this are shown as 掳W (west).

Latitude is shown first and longitude is shown second, eg Manchester in the UK is at 53.5掳N, 2.2掳W.

Two globes, one showing the lines of latitude across the Earth and the other showing the lines of longitude across the Earth.