Despite being virtually essential in our lives, many people fail to understand the importance of maps. Through them we represent space and the different locations on Earth.
Maps are representations of reality, they illustrate in a reduced way a certain area of the Earth or geographic space. More than just a drawing or an image, maps are a form of communication, a way for people to express and share information.
Therefore, we can list below the main uses of maps:
the localization: through maps, we can locate ourselves on different places in the world, discover the route of a given route to be taken or find out where we are if we are lost (especially if we know atGeographical coordinates).
b) communication: as we have already stated, maps are a form of communication. Through them we can say and describe the space where we live.
c) knowledge: maps can be read as they represent a form of language. Thus, in addition to simply locating points on Earth, they can characterize them, designating their meanings through colors and symbols that must have their contents expressed in the subtitle. Thus, by looking at the maps, we can learn about various things, such as the world's vegetation, urbanization rates, among countless other terrestrial phenomena.
d) measure distances: with maps, we can calculate some distances using scale, which is the relationship between the map size and the actual size of the area represented. Consider the following example:
A map has the following scale: 1:1000, that is, each 1 cm on the map is equivalent to 1000 cm in the real area, that is, 10 meters. So if a street on that same map is 2 cm long, it will obviously be 20 meters in the real world.
There are several sites where you can observe and get to know the world better through maps. In them you can scale up or down, walk through streets and see places you've never been without leaving your home! The best known are the Google Maps and O Maplink, which provide information about traffic and city streets, in addition to the IBGE Countries, which offers the location and some information about all countries.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
Take the opportunity to check out our video lesson on the subject:
