You thematic maps they are graphical representations of the earth's surface illustrated according to some pre-established criterion. To designate the different aspects of the geographic space, the subtitles and the symbols corresponding to them to spatialize certain phenomena.
More than just making spatial descriptions about certain activities or natural phenomena, thematic maps also have the merit of presenting different ways of reading and interpretations of reality, offering your reader a better notion of social and nature manifestations, such as the cultural activities of a region or the rainfall of a parents.
Therefore, the production of thematic maps goes far beyond the representation of areas and their forms, they are reinterpretations of these to better describe data and phenomena. Below are the main types of thematic maps.
historical maps: as its name indicates, this type of map represents some historical event in its most varied scales. They need a title that indicates the period of its occurrence to better situate the reader as to the time context of the information described.
Some historical maps also have the important function of describing how the cartography technique was performed in past times, as well as the worldview that was held in the past, before the discovery of the Americas, by example.
Colonial world map existing in 1945 ¹
Demographic Maps: are designed to describe data related to the population of a given territory. They can explain the number of inhabitants, the location, the density of occupation or the migratory flows.
economic maps: describe economic activities and the appropriation of geographic space carried out by them. Economic maps are important in understanding issues such as agricultural expansion, industrial location, availability and extraction of natural resources, energy production systems, the set of means of transport existing in a territory, among others questions.
World map of land use ²
physical maps: indicate the location and distribution of natural elements, dividing into several subtypes, such as topographic maps (forms of relief), hydrographic (watercourses), hypsometric (altitude variations), climatic (atmospheric variations), among many others. With them, it is possible to carry out actions to plan economic activities or forms of land occupation and transformation.
political maps: describe the territorial boundaries of countries, states and municipalities, with their boundaries. These do not exist in nature, they are a human intellectual construction represented cartographically for a better understanding of the divisions of the world geographic space.
To produce these different types of maps, cartographers and geographers use techniques and tools for extreme importance, such as geographic location, scales or even the distortion of certain characteristics of the space. In this sense, more than just representations, maps function as documents and worldviews.
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¹ Map adapted from penarc and Wikimedia Commons
² Source: IBGE. School Geographic Atlas. 6th ed. Rio de Janeiro: IBGE, 2012. p.65.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/mapas-tematicos.htm
