Thematic Maps

By Khaled Alhosani
And Ahmed Alshamsi
12B
isoline maps
• Characteristics:

• Isoline maps feature lines that connect points of equal value, known as isolines.

• Common types of isolines include isobars (pressure), isotherms (temperature), and contours (elevation).

• Uses:

• They are often used in meteorology, geology, and geography to represent gradients and variations across a space.

• In weather maps, for example, they illustrate temperature changes and barometric pressures.

• Data Representation:

• The distance between the lines indicates the rate of change. Closer lines represent a steeper gradient.

• Isolines provide a visual method to interpret large sets of numerical data

cartogram maps
• Characteristics:
• Cartograms distort the shape and size of regions to represent a particular variable such as population size or economic indicators.
• There are two main types: area cartograms, which scale areas, and distance cartograms, which distort distances.
• Uses:
• They are useful for highlighting the relative sizes of the variable of interest, such as the GDP of different countries or states by
resizing them proportionally.
• It can be used to represent election results, showing the importance of regions by the number of votes.
• Data Representation:
• The geometry or space of the map is altered, not just the color or size of symbols, to reflect the data.
• They can be challenging to read because of the distortion but are effective at conveying the chosen theme.
choropleth maps
• Characteristics:
• They use different shades or colors within predefined areas like countries, states, or counties to represent
data.
• The color intensity correlates with the value of the data, using a sequential color scheme.
• Uses:
• Common for representing demographic data like population density or economic data such as income levels.
• Useful in public policy and political science for displaying voting patterns or public health for showing
disease prevalence.
• Data Representation:
• The data must be standardized, often by area or per capita, to be accurately represented.
• It's important to choose appropriate color gradients to avoid misinterpretation.
graduated symbol maps
• Characteristics:

• They use symbols of different sizes to represent data associated with different
locations.

• The size of the symbol varies in proportion to the magnitude of the data.

• Uses:

• Frequently used to indicate the population of cities or the number of occurrences of

an event in different locations.

• Effective for displaying quantitative data where the exact value is less important than
the relative difference.

• Data Representation:

• They avoid the issue of area size influencing perception, which can be a problem
with choropleth maps.

• Symbols must be chosen carefully to ensure clarity and avoid overlap.

heat maps
• Characteristics:
• Heat maps use color gradients to represent the density or intensity of variables, such as the number of
people in a location.
• Colors typically range from cool (low density or intensity) to warm (high density or intensity).
• Uses:
• Commonly used in various fields, from website analytics (showing where users click most) to
meteorology (temperature distributions).
• They are also popular in biology for gene expression data and in real estate for visualizing property
values.
• Data Representation:
• They provide an immediate visual impact and can show hot spots where data is concentrated.
• The map can be literal, representing geographic data, or metaphorical, such as representing data points
in an abstract space, like a webpage layout.