essay on maps

Geography Notes

Map: types, importance and direction | geography.

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In this article we will discuss about:- 1. Introduction to Map 2. Types of Maps 3. Importance 4. Directions 5. Contour Lines.

Introduction to Map:

We use globe to understand the actual structure of Earth which represents our planet in right manner but in very small size as compared to its original size. It represents the size, shape, direction, distance and relation between the continents, oceans and other forms found on our Earth.

But we cannot use and carry it everywhere. There are certain difficulties related with its use e.g. large size globe is also not able to provide vast information and more over its formation is also quite tough.

Map provides the solution of above mentioned problems. Map is a visual representation of an area or selected features of Earth, typically on a flat surface with the help of traditional symbols on the scale which is reduced as compared to actual scale because various types of natural and man-made features are located on Earth and their collective representation is not possible on a single map. An attempt in relation to above mentioned situation will make a map purposeless and unintelligible.

Inspite of this, in present era maps are not only used by army and students of geography. These are also used by Governments, Planners, Industrial, Commerce, Trade Sector etc.

Types of Maps:

Different Types of Maps are designed on the basis of needs of various users:

1. On the Basis of Scale:

The scale on the map is shown in same ratio proportionate to the actual distance on the Earth. Meaning thereby, a map is just reduced form of Earth or a part of it, which finds its reduction at same proportionate ratio. The relation of scale of some map also relates with the purpose and information of a map. It is purposefully that maps are prepared on bigger or smaller scale.

(a) Land Maps:

Such maps are used for Revenue records by land revenue officials and local government departments. These maps are prepared on large scale such as 1cm: 20 m or 1 cm: 40 m. Very small features such as extents of playgrounds situation of wells, trees and houses etc. are shown in such maps, origin of land use maps is found in France, where Cadasters were prepared in French language means revenue record registers were prepared in French language. These are used by the government for collection of taxes and revenue.

(b) Physical Map:

Physical maps are prepared for detail conformation about land form, natural traits, light vegetation, drainage pattern and other professional needs on the basis of extensive surveys. Generally these maps are prepared to show 1 inch: 1 mile to 1 inch: 4 mile scales. Apart from geographers such maps are very useful for armed forces and land planners.

(c) Wall Maps:

Such maps are prepared on small scale to show whole of the world, some continents or climate, vegetation, soils, minerals, agriculture, transportation etc. of the world. These maps are used as teaching aids for students in class or labs. Although such maps are prepared on small scale yet related information is printed in large font.

(d) Atlas Maps:

Various maps formed in the form of a book in an order are known as Atlas. As wall maps, these maps are also prepared on small scale and they represent various features of various countries and continents. These are meant for individual use. School Atlases are prepared for the use of students.

These include detailed maps of various regions of countries and maps representing main features of continents are included in these Atlases. Inspite of this, Atlases based on particular subject are also prepared e.g. Population Atlas, Agriculture Atlas, Census Atlas etc. provide information about related topic.

2. On the Basis of Purpose:

These are divided according to the information provided in them.

Especially natural and cultural maps are categorised as follows:

(a) Natural Maps:

Natural maps show various features related to natural aspects such as:

(i) Relief Maps:

Relief Maps show various land forms according to their classification on a map. Heights of relief, depth, slopes and drainage are commonly shown in such maps.

(ii) Geological Maps:

These are prepared according to the structure of the Rocks on the basis of their classification.

(iii) Soil Maps:

These represent the features of various types of soils and areas where they are found. These maps are very helpful for agriculture sector in particular.

(iv) Climatic Maps:

These maps represent rainfall, temperature, winds and atmospheric pressure according to the season.

(v) Vegetation Maps:

These maps represent the division of Forests, Grass plains, Shrubs etc. Natural vegetation and plantation is also depicted in such maps.

(b) Cultural Maps:

Such maps present various geographic, cultural aspects, such as:

(i) Political Maps:

These show political boundaries of different political regions e.g. country, state, district etc. These are helpful in planning and administrative purposes.

(ii) Historical Maps:

These provide information about the historical feature.

(iii) Strategic Maps:

These help armies in strategic purpose and during war. Information provided by these maps is more accurate and detailed as compare to the commonly used maps.

(iv) Social Maps:

These provide information about the language, religion, tradition etc. about the people of a country or whole world or any part of it.

(v) Classified Maps:

In such maps regional classification of any particular characteristic, which has not been covered above, is shown. Such characteristics may be about any natural or human trait e.g. population, agriculture, industries, rainfall, temperature etc.

Importance of Maps:

Map is an important tool for geographers. It helps in understanding the complications of our large size Earth in an easy way. Obviously single person cannot collect all the information of world himself only. Information about the unseen and distant parts of world presented in the form of pictures, appeal to mind and help to understand the complicated features. Other than of students of Geography, maps are used by various people in different sectors.

Like an international tourist who is not able to speak the language of a particular country in which he is touring, can use a map for his/her destinations. In present global era, international trade has been increased a lot and takes place through sea and airways. Navigation charts play an important role in the movement of ships.

During war inspite of armed strength of armed forces depends on strategy of war and information about the areas of enemies, barriers and danger. In such situation importance of relief maps is very clear to us. Large countries like India depend upon natural resources, adequate use of these for administrative and planning purposes; maps provide information about the situation and condition of these resources. Maps are used upto great extent by large business houses, who run their trade in different countries of world.

Directions of Maps :

Directions are very important. Knowledge about directions is necessary for making maps and also for reading them, especially for the army during the war.

Mainly we get information about directions from the rotation of Earth. As we all know that sun rises in East and sets in West. Hence North and South directions are diagonally at right angles to East West line. Principally any line on the Earth which touches Northern most part of Axis, points towards North. Same way any line touching southernmost part of axis points towards South.

So, out of four directions East, West, North, South, if we know about one direction then we can find out others also. In ancient times travellers and sailors were able to find their routes without compass in sea, forests and deserts.

Methods to Find out North Direction:

In map and field ‘North’ direction is easiest to locate because we know that longitudes are the semi circles which join the North and South poles. In maps these are shown as vertical lines and they point towards North in a map. So the upper part of the map depicts north and lower part depicts south. Its right hand side is east and left side is west.

These are several ways which have been used to find out ‘North’ direction in the open areas in India.

1. Pole Star:

This is the only star which is present above the North Pole of Earth. It does not change its position as other stars and seems to be still. With the help of two groups of stars. We can locate the pole star.

First group comprises seven stars, which is also known as ‘SaptaRishi’ The bright star present at the distance of 4 1/2 times the distance between the first two stars (Pointers) of this group.

Second group is present in the opposite direction of ‘SaptaRishi’ and it looks likes Alphabet ‘W’ and have five stars. It’s also known as ‘Kaemeopia’. This method is not useful during day and cloudy nights.

2. With the Help of Watch:

In this method clock is placed on a leveled surface and the arm representing hours is pointed towards Sun. For this purpose we can use a pin, its shadow tells us about the direction of Sun. Now half the angle formed by its hour hands position pointing towards 12, shall indicates toward South direction and if we extend it backwards then that line shall point towards North.

3. With the Help of a Stick:

Place a stick upright into the Earth on a sunny day before noon. Sunlight must fall on that place for whole day without any obstacle. Taking shadow of the stick as radius and stick as centre draw/mark a circle. Suppose this circle meets the shadow at point ‘A’ Shadow will decrease till noon and start increasing in afternoon. Again the shadow will touch the circle oat another point mark it as ‘B’. Centre of the circle and these two points make an angle. By-section of this angle into half shall points toward north.

Orientation of Local Map in the Field:

The correct use and the method of obtaining or gaining maximum information from a map depend upon the coordination of map with field and actual places situated on Earth. We should be efficient in finding directions so that we would be able to find North direction while moving in real world. Second step is to equate the north shown on the map and actual North of the Earth. This activity shall help us in understanding the information correctly, shown in local map.

Third stage is to select that important feature in the local map which we can locate originally also. Such features may be a bridge, a road, railway line, canal, any factory, high power line, a ridge etc. We can easily locate our location if we find more than one features on a local map and in original as well we can draw an angular direction from the original feature on the map. Use of scale can make us aware of original distance also.

Representing Earth or its any part on paper is known as a map. Symbols are important part of any map. Various natural and human characteristics that are found on land or relief are shown by some identical set of symbols on a map. Such symbols are known as traditional or cultural symbols.

Knowledge of these symbols is an identity of a good map curator because reading and understanding the information provided in map is an art. History has also proved that those countries achieved which expertise in making and using the maps and kept themselves well informed about the forces, relief and resources of other nations, got success also.

Methods of Showing Relief on Maps:

Surface of our Earth is not leveled Mountains, Plateaus and Plains are situated on it and these three important parts are also not similar. Collectively these low and high regions of earth are known as relief. Maps which represent these different aspects of land surface are known as relief maps.

To represent/show the relief on maps various methods have been used e.g. Hachures, Hill shading, Relief colours Bench Mark, Spot height and Contour Lines. Among all these contour lines are used mostly.

Contour Lines in Maps:

Contour lines are the imaginary lines which are used to connect the areas situated at the similar height from the sea level. This is the best method of understand the details of Relief and variation between slopes of particular region.

In Ancient times survey method was used to measure the height and collect information about different places. On the basis of collected data and information. Relief maps were prepared. These days, information is collected about every region with the help of aeroplanes and satellites by using Aerial photography and remote sensing techniques. With the help of this information Relief Maps are prepared by using ‘Photogrammetry’ which is an advance technology.

Commonly contour lines are drawn according to the relief at the gap of 20, 50 or 100 meters. The gap depends on the slope of that region. Low slope is represented by more gaps and for steep gradient gap between lines is reduced.

Characteristics of Contour Lines :

(1) Height of all the regions is same at one contour line.

(2) Shape of contour lines depends on the height and slope of particular region.

(3) They extend from one end to another circular shape. They never start or end abruptly.

(4) Contour lines drawn at small gaps show steep slope and lines drawn at large gap represent slow slope.

(5) Commonly contour Lines do not intersect except in the case of cliff or waterfall.

Drawing-Contour Lines:

Enjoining places with same height by drawing contour lines on a given map is called drawing a contour map or interpothen of contours.

While drawing contours, following points are to be kept in mind:

(1) Meaningful contours maps may be drawn if height of maximum places is provided in a map.

(2) Note the highest and lowest point on the map.

(3) Note the difference between the highest and lowest point because on the basis of this we have to decide the range of contours lines.

(4) The interval of contour lines should be at some whole number such as 10, 20, 30, 50 or 100 meters.

(5) Value of contour lines are specified keeping in mind range and interval

(6) List of all contour with lead height be drawn and then the value in ascending order be drawn, reaching to the contour with maximum height.

(7) To find out exact position of contour between two heights, connect two heights with a line and divide it into two equal parts.

Drawing of a Cross Section or Profile from Contours:

Vertical front view of a relief feature is called a cross section profile from contours. This is same as an apple is cut in two with the help of a knife and it’s both parts from cut line shall be taken as cross section profile.

Drawing of cross section is necessary to understand the landforms shown on map. It helps in identifying height, depth and slope in a cross section.

Following methods are used to prepare a cross section:

(a) Right Angle Method:

This is a simple method. As shown in example, a right angled line is to be drawn which passes through all the contours. This A’-B’ line intersects al the contours at points A,C,E,G,I,J,H,F,D&B respectively. Draw another line A”-B” parallel to A’ -B’ at some distance. Draw two right angled lines enjoining A’ -B’ with A”-B”.

Extend these A’ – B’ and A”- B” lines more than lowest rated contour extents as shown in the figure highest valued contour here in the given figure is of 500 meters and shown between I & J points but still height between these two points may be lower than 500 meters but certainly more than 400 meters.

Now draw perpendiculars from A,C,E,G,I,J,H,F,D & B down wards N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,W respectively. Enjoin these points through free hand curves.

Point to be noted here is that horizontal scale in such a cross section is maintained while vertical scale is extended 5 times to 10 times so that relief may be represented in clear way.

The cross section shown above in showing a hill in North-south direction while we may prepare such cross section from east-west.

Identification of Simple Relief Features from a Contour Map :

With the help of contours we can identify almost every type of land form found on our mother earth.

Detail about some of the important land forms is given below:

An angle formed horizontally with plane relief is called slope. Information about slopes is very important for the study of land forms.

Commonly we can divide slopes into different types:

a. Gentle Slope:

When the contours are situated at large distance in a region of a map and variation in height because of distance is less than 1/10 to 6°. This type of slope is known as Normal slope.

b. Steep Slope:

Abrupt change in the height of relief is represented by contours drawn near to each other. It is different from 1/10 and 6°.

c. Concave Slope:

When a lower part of region has normal slope and upper part has steep slope. Contours of lower part have been drawn at large gap and in upper part these are draw close to each other.

2. Volcanic Mountain Peak:

The contour map of volcanic Mountain to similar to that of conical mountain in the context that contour lines are marked at regular intervals. As the volcanic eruptions create a dent at the top of mountain, called as crater, central contour shows its value less than that of its adjoining contour value. It means that contour value is lesser at interior most point which rises as we go outer and then starts decreasing as we proceed further.

Contour map of a water body known as lake or whatever is similar to that of a conical mountain volcanic mountain but value of contours goes on decreasing as we proceed towards central point or interiors.

Valley is a low region situated between two mountains formed by the erosion process of Glacier or River.

(a) ‘U’ Shape Valley:

In high mountainous regions valleys are formed by the erosion process of Glaciers. The valley is formed by the erosion process of Glaciers. The Valley is wide with steep slopes and they look like Alphabet ‘U’.

(b) ‘V’ Shape Valley:

‘V’ shape valleys are formed in mountaineous regions due to erosion process of rivers. Contour maps of such valleys show increasing value of outer contours and at regular intervals.

Gorges are formed in high mountains, having hard rocks. Erosion is higher due to vertical flow of rivers which results in the formation of deep and narrow valleys. These valleys have steep sides.

5. Waterfall:

When a river falls from a very steep height in any mountainous region, the form is called water fall. Cross section or contour map of water falls shows intersecting contours on a map.

In coastal areas, the slope of mountainous region adjoining the sea looks steep due to erosional process of waves. Contour maps of cliff region also intersect and hence these maps show intersecting contour lines.

Related Articles:

• Maps: Characteristics and Types | Cartography
• Procedure for Drawing a Geological Section | Structural Geology
• Symbols Used in Different Types of Maps | Geography
• Why a Scale is Must in a Map? | Geography

Geography , Maps , Introduction to Maps

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Maps and Spatial Thinking Skills in the Classroom

“Geography is the art of the mappable.” Peter Haggett “So important is the use of maps in geographic work that... it seems fair to suggest to the geographer if the problem cannot be studied fundamentally by maps, ...then it is questionable whether or not it is within the field of geography.” Richard Hartshorne “The map speaks across the barriers of language.” Carl Sauer

These quotes from three notable geographers make it clear: The map is an essential tool and component of geography. The map is defined as a graphic representation of a portion of Earth that is usually drawn to scale on a flat surface. It is the central way geographers organize and analyze information. Maps are also a powerful means of displaying and communicating geographic information. This essay examines maps and the roles they and other graphics play in human geography, particularly in supporting spatial thinking. It also includes specific strategies that will sustain student development as spatial thinkers and give concrete ways to hone student appreciation for geography as “the art of the mappable.”

Increased Interest in Maps

Over time, maps have become an important part of society at large. To paraphrase a common expression, maps are not just for geography anymore. Maps are more widely available than ever before. The new technology of geographic information systems (GIS) has expanded the ease and ability by which maps are produced. We find maps in newspapers, television weather forecasts, automobile navigation devices, the internet, and handheld PDAs. Mapping systems are being used to track repair technicians, to share information about environmental issues, to sell houses, to manage 911 services, and for homeland security. Animated maps and other visualizations have become a key tool in studying a range of scientific phenomena. Because of the widespread use of maps today, learning how to read, interpret, and produce them has become a new essential skill.

Geographers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists are becoming interested in the kind of thinking, termed spatial thinking , that underlies map reading and interpretation as well as forms of analysis in geography, other social and physical sciences, and mathematics. Spatial thinking is defined as the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to use concepts of space, tools of representation like maps and graphs, and processes of reasoning to organize and solve problems (Downs and de Souza 2005).

Three contexts for spatial thinking

Spatial thinking occurs in different contexts. On a daily basis we think spatially when we navigate between home and school or when we arrange papers and books in a backpack. We might think of this as thinking in physical space.

Studying human geography provides examples of a second type of spatial thinking. Learning about the shapes and structures of urban areas, the diffusion of cultures and agriculture, or the organization of the world economy, that is, learning human geography, is learning about physical space. Maps certainly are essential to researching these topics.

Using space as a metaphor or analogy, thinking with space, is a powerful strategy in problem solving, learning, and communicating and is the third context. There are many examples in human geography of taking nonspatial information and putting it into a spatial context to display, summarize, and stimulate analysis. Illustrating the taxonomic relationships of language subfamilies through the analogy of a tree is an example of thinking with space. The physical proximity of the languages on the tree branches provides a memorable way to observe relationships. Graphics such as concept maps, population pyramids, and climate graphs also take nonspatial data and “spatialize” it into a form that facilitates thinking with space.

Developing Geographic Skills

Learning to think geographically is learning to think spatially – to consider objects in terms of their location in space, to question why objects are located where they are, and to visualize relationships between and among these objects. One of the key differences between expert and novice geographers is the ability to think spatially. The Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994 identified five key geographic skills. They are:

• Asking geographic questions
• Acquiring geographic information
• Organizing geographic information
• Analyzing geographic information
• Answering geographic questions

For fledgling geographers, the most difficult of these skills is the first. Asking geographic questions requires both an understanding of the key perspectives of geography and the knowledge and skills related to spatial thinking. It takes time, guidance, and practice to develop the ability to ask questions related to the “where” and the “how and why there” of a problem. It also takes repeated experiences in thinking spatially to become fluent with spatial concepts, to think in terms of patterns of objects in space (where), and to consider the processes that produce these patterns (how and why there). Maps are an essential tool to organize and display geographic information. Patterns and relationships among objects can become apparent on a map in a way that supports spatial thinking and problem solving. Thus learning to think geographically often leads students to a new appreciation for maps and the information they provide.

An important part of the AP ® Human Geography course involves using maps to learn significant content, to “think through maps,” as Liben explains it. (Liben 2001, 76). However, human geography students must be critical consumers of maps and other spatial representations. “Maps cannot be seen as separate from the contexts in which they are produced and used” (Morgan and Lambert 2004, 109).

Just as texts are written by individuals with varying points of view and can be read and interpreted in different ways, maps are not pure representations of reality but rather social productions subject to critical analysis. When examining a map, the careful consumer should consider the conditions under which it was produced, whether it may be portraying a particular point of view, and what messages it may be conveying about power and perspective. It is important to develop a healthy, critical awareness and skepticism about maps as well as other graphics and images. As the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991) explained, maps and images both represent and reproduce space.

Take, for example, the well-known 2004 election map showing red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states. The map has taken on iconic status and reinforces the erroneous view that President George W. Bush’s victory was a landslide. The population-based cartogram constructed by Michael Gastner and colleagues at the University of Michigan offers a more accurate representation of the vote. This example should encourage young human geographers to speculate about other misleading maps and graphics and the role they may play in legitimating or disputing specific ideologies, beliefs, and practices.

10 suggestions for developing skills as a geographer

Thinking through maps and in , about , and with space are all productive habits of mind for AP Human Geography students. Here are 10 suggestions to help students develop as geographers and spatial thinkers. They are organized under the three contexts for spatial thinking.

Thinking in Space

• Be aware of your location in space and the role space plays in daily life. When you walk or ride, take note of landmarks and the routes you take. Consider ways you regularly use spatial concepts such as when you pack a bag of groceries, arrange items efficiently in your locker, or maneuver around a traffic jam.
• Think about how other people perceive and use space. Do your friends measure distance in time, metrics, or both? Do they give directions in terms of street names or landmarks?
• Examine the ways athletes conceptualize and use space while playing virtual and real games, such as hockey, basketball, football, and the many games played on Xbox or PlayStation.

Thinking About Space

• Use maps as a key resource. Train yourself to look for patterns on maps, noting clusters, associations, outliers, and anomalies in the distributions of objects. Look for changes over space and time as you seek relationships among spatial patterns.
• Collect a wide variety of maps and graphics from newspapers, news magazines, the internet, and other sources and critique them. Are they clear? Are they accurate? Are they biased?
• Read the maps in your AP Human Geography textbook carefully. Get as much information as possible from them. Examine them critically. Use sketch maps and diagrams to illustrate practice free-response questions. Such representations can help you to organize your thinking, to illustrate key points you wish to make, to spark your reasoning processes, and to add rigor and structure to your answer.
• Make a special point of using terms associated with space in your geographic discussions. Thinking in terms of points, lines, areas, associations, diffusion, spatial hierarchies, regions, buffers, boundaries, distance decay, nearest neighbor effects, and so on can help to reinforce the development of your spatial-thinking skills.

Thinking with Space

• Set nonspatial ideas into spatial contexts. For example, use concept maps as a tool to think; place similar things close and dissimilar things far away. Consider the connections between objects or ideas, and use lines to show relationships. An example of spatial thinking about a nonspatial item is a scholarly paper analyzing Supreme Court decisions in terms of core and peripheral cases.
• Draw diagrams, graphs, and sketches to both communicate and think. Many examples of thinking with space appear at threetwoone.org .

Downs, Roger, and Anthony de Souza. 2005. Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K–12 Curriculum . Committee on the Support for Thinking Spatially: The Incorporation of Geographic Information Science Across the K–12 Curriculum, Committee on Geography. Washington D.C.: National Research Council and National Academies Press.

Gastner, Michael, Shalizi, Cosma, and Newman, Mark. 2004. Maps and Cartograms of the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election Results . University of Michigan.

Geography Education Standards Project. 1994. Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994 . Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.

Haggett, Peter. 1990. The Geographer’s Art . Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Hartshorne, Richard. 1939. The Nature of Geography . Lancaster, PA: Association of American Geographers.

Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The Production of Space . Oxford: Basil Publishing.

Liben, Lynn S. 2001. “Thinking Through Maps.” In Spatial Schemas and Abstract Thought . Ed. Meredith Gattis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Morgan, John, and David Lambert. 2004. Geography: Teaching School Subjects 11–19 . London: Routledge.

Sauer, Carl O. 1956. “The Education of a Geographer.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 46: 287–299.

Authored by

Sarah W. Bednarz Texas A&M University College Station, TX,

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How To Write an IELTS Map Essay

IELTS map questions are the easiest to answer. There are no numbers to analyse, just 2 or 3 maps to compare. Very occasionally, there might only be a single map, but this is rare.

The maps will be of the same location at different times. This could be in the past, the present time or a plan for a proposed development in the future. You are required to write about the changes you see between the maps.

There are 5 steps to writing   a high-scoring IELTS map essay:

1)  Analyse the question

2)  Identify the main features

3)  Write an introduction

4)  Write an overview

5)  Write the details paragraphs

I must emphasise the importance of steps 1 and 2. It is essential that you complete this planning stage properly before you start writing. You’ll understand why when I guide you through it. It should only take 5 minutes, leaving you a full 15 minute to write your essay.

In this lesson, we’re going to work through the 5 stages step-by-step as we answer a practice IELTS map question.

Before we begin, here’s a model essay structure that you can use as a guideline for all IELTS Academic Task 1 questions.

Ideally, your essay should have 4 paragraphs:

Paragraph 1  – Introduction

Paragraph 2  – Overview

Paragraph 3  – 1 st  main feature

Paragraph 4  – 2 nd  main feature

We now have everything we need to begin planning and writing our IELTS map essay.

Here’s our practice question:

The maps below show the village of Stokeford in 1930 and 2010.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Step 1 –  Analyse the question

The format of every Academic Task 1 question is the same. Here is our practice question again with the words that will be included in all questions highlighted.

Every question consists of:

• Sentence 1 – A brief description of the graphic
• Sentence 2 – The instructions
• The graphic – map, chart, graph, table, etc.

Sentence 2 tells you what you have to do.

You must do 3 things:

1.     Select the main features.

2.     Write about the main features.

3.     Compare the main features.

All three tasks refer to the ‘ main features ’ of the graphic. You  do not  have to write about everything. Just pick out 2 or 3 key features and you’ll have plenty to write about.

Step 2 – Identify the Main Features

All you are looking for are the main features. Start with the earliest map. Identify the key features and look to see how they have changed in the later map, and again in the final map if there are three.

Here are some useful questions to ask?

1) What time periods are shown?

Are the maps of past, present or future situations? This is important to note because it will determine whether you write your essay using past, present or future tenses.

The two maps in our practice IELTS map question show the village of Stokeford at two different times in the past. This immediately tells us that we will need to use the past tense in our essay.

2) What are the main differences between the maps?

What features have disappeared? What new features are in their place?

3) What features have remained the same over the time period?

Although the location on the maps will have undergone major development, some features may remain unchanged.

Also, think about directional language you can use, such as:

So,  what information is contained our maps? Here they are again.

Source: IELTS past paper

There are a number of different features we could select such as, the loss of the shops, the disappearance of farmland, the enlargement of the school and the development of the large house into a retirement home.

Many maps will contain far more changes than our sample maps and the changes may be more complex. In such cases, you won’t have time to write about all of them and will need to select just 2 or 3 main features to focus on.

Our maps are quite simple so we’ll list all 4 of the major changes I’ve just identified. 

Main feature 1:  The farmland has been built on.

Main feature 2:  The large house has been converted into a retirement home.

Main feature 3:  The school has been enlarged.

Main feature 4:  The shops have disappeared.

The key features you select will be the starting point for your IELTS map essay. You will then go on to add more detail later. However, with just 20 minutes allowed for Task 1, and a requirement of only 150 words, you won't be able to include many details.

We’re now ready to begin writing our essay. Here’s a reminder of the 4 part structure we’re going to use.

For this essay, we’ll adapt this a little to write about two of the features in Paragraph 3 and the other two features in Paragraph 4.

Step 3 – Write an Introduction 

In the introduction, you should simply paraphrase the question, that is, say the same thing in a different way. You can do this by using synonyms and changing the sentence structure. For example:

Introduction (Paragraph 1): 

The two maps illustrate how the village of Stokeford, situated on the east bank of the River Stoke, changed over an 80 year period from 1930 to 2010.

This is all you need to do for the introduction.

Step 4 – Write an Overview (Paragraph 2)

In the second paragraph, you should describe the general changes that have taken place. The detail comes later in the essay.

State the information simply. No elaborate vocabulary or grammar structures are required, just the appropriate words and correct verb tenses.

For example:

Overview  (Paragraph 2): 

There was considerable development of the settlement over these years and it was gradually transformed from a small rural village into a largely residential area.

Two sentences would be better than one for the second paragraph but we’ll be getting into the detail if we say more about these maps at this point, so we’ll leave the overview as one sentence.

Step 5  – Write the 1st Detail Paragraph

Paragraphs 3 and 4 of your IELTS map essay are where you include more detailed information. In paragraph 3, you should give evidence to support your first 1or 2 key features.

In the case of our main features, 1 and 3 are closely related so we’ll write about these two together.

Here they are again:

And this is an example of what you could write:

Paragraph 3 :

The most notable change is the presence of housing in 2010 on the areas that were farmland back in 1930. New roads were constructed on this land and many residential properties built. In response to the considerable increase in population, the primary school was extended to around double the size of the previous building.

Step 6  – Write the 2nd Detail Paragraph

For the fourth and final paragraph, you do the same thing for your remaining key features. 

Here are the two we have left:

This is an example of what you could write:

Paragraph 4 :

Whilst the post office remained as a village amenity, the two shops that can be seen to the north-west of the school in 1930, no longer existed by 2010, having been replaced by houses. There also used to be an extensive property standing in its own large gardens situated to the south-east of the school. At some time between 1930 and 2010, this was extended and converted into a retirement home. This was another significant transformation for the village.

Here are the four paragraphs brought together to create our finished essay.

Finished IELTS Map Essay

This sample IELTS map essay is well over the minimum word limit so you can see that you don’t have space to include very much detail at all. That’s why it is essential to select just a couple of main features to write about.

Now use what you’ve learnt in this lesson to practice answering other IELTS map  questions. Start slowly at first and keep practicing until you can plan and write a complete essay in around 20 minutes.

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Ielts academic writing task 1 – all lessons.

IELTS Academic Writing  –  A summary of the test including important facts, test format & assessment.

Academic Writing Task 1  – The format, the 7 question types & sample questions, assessment & marking criteria.  All the key information you need to know.

Understanding Task 1 Questions  – How to quickly and easily analyse and understand IELTS Writing Task 2 questions.

How To Plan a Task 1 Essay  –  Discover  3 reasons why you must plan, the 4 simple steps of essay planning and learn a simple 4 part essay structure.

Vocabulary for Task 1 Essays  –  Learn key vocabulary for a high-scoring essay. Word lists & a downloadable PDF.

Grammar for Task 1 Essays   – Essential grammar for Task 1 Academic essays including, verb tenses, key sentence structures, articles & prepositions.

The 7 Question Types:

Click the links below for a step-by-step lesson on each type of Task 1 question.

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10. Conclusion

Steven Manson

Mapping is central to many things we do as individuals and as groups. Throughout this book, we’ve seen the ways in which people have used maps for thousands of years, and indeed, it’s likely that they were using maps in times before we had evidence in the form of clay tablets or wall drawings. Today, mapping is a large and growing sector of the economy as well as an important social, cultural, and political phenomenon. Mapping is also important for lifelong learning. Spatial thinking skills are used in many fields, careers, and pastimes. The National Research Council report “Learning to Think Spatially” emphasizes that “with advances in computing technologies and the increasing availability of spatial data, spatial thinking will play a significant role in the information-based economy of the twenty-first century.” Mapping and related technologies and societal practices are the foundation of spatial thinking.

Learning to Think Spatially. The National Research Council report “Learning to Think Spatially” describes how mapping is central to the information-based economy of the twenty-first century. [1]

We’ve seen how scholars, policy makers, students, workers, and others have employed spatial approaches that recognize the spatiotemporal nature of people, places, and processes. The key to these efforts is using concepts such as location, space, scale, and distance. This work is all part of a broader and vital cross-cutting need for society to broaden and deepen the use of spatial approaches so that we may better see the connections within and among the various challenges and possibilities that people and the environment face. Mapping technologies have always exemplified the interplay between society and technology, but these social and technological components are increasingly inseparable when they come together in mapping.

Maps are useful in part because they allow us to see large areas of the world that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to see on our own, whether it be the bus lines on the next block or the entirety of the earth. Maps are helpful because they can present a variety of complex social and environmental information in a way that is easy to interpret. Maps can demonstrate basic spatial relationships and highlight features of interest, but they can also provide information on things that cannot be directly observed even if one were standing in the mapped location. For instance, maps allow us to ‘see’ invisible phenomena such as mineral deposits below the ground, pollutants in the air, and the day’s pollen count. Many of our maps are reference maps, generalist views depicting one world that essentially stores and displays a variety of features for a variety of uses. In contrast, thematic maps highlight specific themes, be it the fastest route to work or the best places to eat.

More broadly, we have seen how maps are both technology—be it pen on paper or pixels on a screen—and an artifact of society derived from the data, analysis, display, and use to which maps are put. As such, it is hard to know what the future holds. Our maps today reflect artistic and scientific standards that are centuries old, such as the underlying projection systems or color conventions used by most online and mobile maps. Like the societies from which they spring, however, maps both drive and are driven by changes in society and technology. Clearly, mapping today is a story of geographic information science and cognate technologies, like GPS, big data, virtual reality, or machine learning. Mapping will remain an important part of this larger evolving mix of society and technology.

What will not change, however, is the need to see maps explicitly in terms of society and technology. Mapping is a way of knowing and changing the world, and as such, mapping can only make sense in the context of a broader education that allows a person to critically and ethically engage with its various dimensions. We have seen how mapping is built on various fundamentals including data, symbolization, simplification, and classification, as well as many forms of spatial analysis. Throughout this book, we have explored the numerous scientific and policy dimensions of maps, particularly in how there is no such thing as just data or maps outside of a broader social and technological context. Even the most basic aspects of science and engineering of mapping technologies pose various kinds of promises and pitfalls, including foundational technologies like GPS, the internet, remote sensing, and crowdsourcing. Many mapping technologies, including satellite imaging, GPS units, and the location-aware internet are grounded in a complicated set of interplays among various parts of society, including the government, military, commercial firms, not-for-profit organizations, and regular people going about their lives.

It will also remain important to examine the continuing roles that individuals play in their cultural, social, economic, and political worlds as it relates to mapping. We must ask questions about what surveillance practices mean for individuals and society or how individuals can take advantage of mobile mapping technologies to change the way they understand and effect change in the world. Mapping offers a multidisciplinary framework with which to understand a range of local, national, and global issues. Mapping also involves critically evaluating maps produced by different individuals, social groups, and researchers. This informed understanding of these social and technological features of mapping is more important now than ever. We have seen how individuals and groups are tracked via their mobile phones by companies like Facebook or by government agencies. If you are reading this book via the internet or as a download on your phone or tablet, you are being tracked by a few different organizations, and likely more than you would expect. Mapping is a useful way to understand relationships between society and technology, as mapping technologies are driven by social needs, and these technologies, in turn, advance and change with societal shifts.

In sum, mapping is an essential and ever-growing human activity. It is the result of the interplay among many facets of society and technology, and has been for most of recorded history (and likely before then as well). With the advent of computerized mapping, people experience how spatial data, analysis, visualization, and thinking are transforming our society in many ways. Billions of people use technologies such as GPS, mapping, location-based restaurant service, and car-hailing companies. Governments use mapping to identify crime hot-spots, plan social interventions, and identify routes to evacuate vulnerable populations from harm. Companies use spatial analysis to find optimal sites for stores, evaluate supply chains, and determine how much to charge for goods and services. We combine spatial approaches with spatiotemporal data gleaned from maps, satellites, smartphones, sensor networks, drone-based cameras, and social media. These technologies help commuters plan how to minimize travel time, farmers to best plant and protect crops, epidemiologists to identify emerging disease hotspots; emergency planners to develop smarter evacuation routes, policy makers to visualize spatiotemporal climate-change scenarios, and first responders to use high-resolution imagery to map areas of need. These are just a few of the many high-impact and relevant ways in which mapping is used in people’s lives.

National Research Council. 2006. Learning to Think Spatially. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/11019.

•  In the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. ↵

10. Conclusion Copyright © 2017 by Steven Manson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Map Making History and Development Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Understanding map creation, size and importance in map creation, centrality and map development, challenging the idea of centrality, map development and the age of european colonization, modern day map creation, works cited.

Starting off with sets of lines carved on a flat stone to modern-day digital maps that are created through satellite imaging, map creation as we know it has gone through numerous iterations over several hundred years due to new techniques and methods of observation that have been developed. Maps, in essence, were created as a means for easy navigation over land and sea and have been around for a significant portion of human history. While they are taken for granted in 2015, maps used to be the prized possessions of sailors and merchants due to their necessity in being able to go from one region to another. What is interesting to note though, is that maps, as society knows of them today, are actually quite far from their original iterations.

While most of these changes can be attributed to modern-day technology, some of their differences are in part due to changes within present-day society. Globalization has made the world interconnected at a level that was unprecedented in the past resulting in people thinking of the world and the various countries and societies within it in a way that is distinctly different than how they did in the past. It is due to these changes in perspective that the manner in which maps have been designed and created today is distinctly different than how they were in the past. It is based on this that this paper will examine how to map creation has evolved over time and what factors influenced its creation into how we view maps in the present. It is the assumption of this paper that developments in map creation are inherently impacted by changes in the society that the maps originated from.

What would you say if someone told you that a standard world map that you bought at a local bookstore and believed to be accurate was wrong? It is doubtful that you would actually believe them at first since modern-day world maps have been in use as teaching tools decades and, with the advent of modern-day technology, something as important as a potential inaccuracy in a world map sold to students is unlikely to have gone uncorrected. However, inaccuracies do exist, which can be easily identified by virtue of a simple observation of the sizes of Greenland and Africa in your standard world map that can be bought in a local bookstore.

What is immediately obvious is that both landmasses appear to be almost the same size on the map; this is rather strange considering the fact that Greenland has a total landmass of 836,300 square miles while Africa is well over 11.67 million square miles in size. The same can be said about comparing the relative sizes of Europe and South America wherein Europe (depicted as being larger) is only 3.8 million square miles in size while South America is well over 6.9 million. The reason behind this apparent distortion in size is due to many of these maps utilizing what is known as the “Mercator Projection” when it comes to the depiction of landmasses.

Developed by Gerardus Mercator during the mid-1500s, the Mercator Projection was originally utilized as a means of navigation due to how it was able to preserve the linear scale of geographical points of reference when it came to navigation. However, one problem with its use as a general teaching tool is that the projection’s linear scale actually increases with the latitude of landmasses resulting in considerable distortions in geographical perception regarding the size of particular regions the farther they are away from the equator.

This helps to explain why some world maps bought at a local bookstore show inaccurate projections regarding the scale of particular areas. The maps are not necessarily “wrong”; rather, their purpose was originally meant as a means of navigation and not necessarily as a teaching device to explain the relative size of different countries. However, what the bookstore example does show is that assumptions can be developed quite easily, especially in cases where these assumptions are utilized as a tool to emphasize the importance of particular regions or countries.

Potter explained that distortions in relative sizes and even at times the location of certain countries (Germany being depicted as being more central in Western Europe when in reality it is located more towards the North West) have their basis on the concept of social equality (Potter 16). Even before the original inception of world maps within Western Europe, the correlation of size with power and importance has been present. Basically, the idea is that the larger and more well represented the object, the more people think how important it must be.

This is one of the reasons why, during the age of European imperialism, the ruling class in paintings were often depicted as being larger than life than their more “ordinary” contemporaries who were in the background of the paintings (Potter 16). Going back to the development of world maps, it is theorized that the distortion in sizes created by early cartographers is in part based on how they perceived the importance of particular countries, with maps originating from certain cartographers often showing their country to be distinctly larger or more well represented as compared to other countries within the same region. This shows a trend in visualization based on socio-cultural influences rather than geographical accuracy.

Map development based on socio-cultural influences is an important starting point in understanding how the creation of maps evolved over several hundred years. For example, from 600 BCE to at least the 6th century, map creation had a distinct “central” style in their development. This means that, depending on the region, the map depicted the country of origin as being in the center of the map with outlying regions expounding outward. Evidence of this can be seen in one of the earliest examples of maps created from Babylon in 600 BCE, as well as a more elaborate example by Eratosthenes in 276 BC. Both maps showed the countries of origin as being the central focal point of the map and depicted and expanding landmass and bodies of water from the central location. The basis behind why maps were developed this way was due to the socio-cultural influences of societies that the map makers belonged to at the time wherein both the Babylonians and the Ancient Greeks looked at their respective countries as being the “centers” of their respective worlds.

This means that, regardless of actual geographical positioning, there is a societal belief that their country is at the center of the known world. This particular attitude is actually quite prevalent among many past societies and influenced the manner in which cartographers created their respective maps with this cultural notion in mind. For example, 200 years after the initial work of Eratosthenes, Ptolemy created a similar map in 100 AD that detailed the expansion of the Roman Empire, also with the same centralized theme, but much more detailed and had lines indicating longitude and latitude. In fact, from the 1st century onward, maps became more detailed as more cartographers built upon the work of those that came before them. This resulted in maps showing rivers, towns, mountains, etc.

However, it was also during this period that more “philosophical” thought was placed into map development resulting in design choices that reflected notions and ideas that were prevalent at the time, many of which were not necessarily accurate. For example, in 14th century China had extensive maps of both its interior as well as various surrounding countries and bodies of water. Despite the fact that China was aware of the presence of Europe, Africa and various regions in South East Asia, most of the country’s maps still depicted China as being in the center of the “world” and showed other countries and regions to be much smaller than they really were. This shows that visualization of landmasses and the influence of socio-cultural influences are not limited to European cartographers, but also extends to Asian ones as well. This shows a cross-border societal tendency to believe that their country/region is at the center of everything with everything else merely being outliers.

The concept of centrality in map making and design continued from the 1st century all the way to the 12th century AD. This is despite improvements in visualization and detail by cartographers such as Muhammad Al-Idrisi, who helped to create a map of the Eurasian continent via information from explorers and merchants. Even the “Mappa Mundi” (one of the most detailed ancient European maps) created during the 1300s continued to express the same centrality that was noted in other iterations that came before it. This is despite the fact that explorers at the time already had a fairly accurate approximation of the position of different landmasses and the location of various regions resulting in the development of the idea that the world was round instead of flat. Simon helped to answer this question by explaining that the idea of centrality in map design and visualization was in part due to the lack of interconnections between civilizations prior to the 1400s (Simon 241).

Yes, there was trade, war and some aspects of cultural exchange; however, cultures at the time still lacked the idea of an “expansive” global environment and still clung to the notion of the world being contained within a specific sphere of influence with everything outside of it being labelled as “strange”, “savage” or “uncivilized” (Simon 241). There are of course counterarguments to this perspective with researchers such as Manhard stating that the centrality evident in early maps was due to the fact that early travelers were primarily confined to specific regions (Manhard 2).

Ship design prior to the 14th century lacked the capacity to make the long distance trips needed to circumnavigate continents and had limited stores of food. Thus, travel was primarily isolated to distances close to ports and colonies that could provide the necessary supplies. As such, Shiga stated that this helps to explain why maps tended to be more focused on depicting particular countries as being at the “center” of the world since, for all intents and purposes, the distance people were capable of traveling within particular regions were set based on the limits of the maps that were created (Shiga 47).

It was only during the late 1400s to the 1500s onward that map design came to resemble what it looked today. The “oceanic” map developed by German cartographer Heinrich Hammer showed a distinct deviation from centrality in design wherein it started incorporating the seas, oceans and helped to show distinct delineations between the position of different countries. The map, despite being German in origin, showed Germany in its appropriate position as being towards the North West of the European continent instead of being at its center.

From the early 1500s onward, a literal “explosion” in map development within Western Europe occurred wherein map designs such as the Mercator map, the Ricci map and the Theatrum Orbis (known as the first atlas that is the most similar to modern designs) were created which depicted continents, the oceans, seas and other details in their accurate positions. This “movement” into a less centralized and more “globalized” depiction of the world will be discussed in the next section.

Improvements in map design and the divergence from the trend of “centrality” to a more “global” depiction of the position of countries coincided with the initial waves of European colonization into different parts of the world. Starting with the invasion of Ceuta by Portugal in the early 15th century, this set off a trend in colonization by various European powers as seen in the case of Spain conquering the Philippines, Britain conquering India and the initial colonization attempts in North and South America. Carhart stated that it was this era of colonization that helped to improve the creation of maps since the European powers thought of this period as a time of imperial expansion wherein colonization and conquest paved the way for more riches (Carhart 102). The creation of the “Galleon Trade” between Spain, Mexico and the Philippines, the Spice Routes of India and the mines of South America created an influx of wealth that made the concept of expansion and colonization more appealing. It was due to this that a change occurred within European society at the time resulting in people becoming more open towards the concept of global trade, of the potential riches they could attain should they become a colonist as well as the opportunities that the new spice and galleon trade presented.

Carhart stated that this sort of thinking had an influence on the development of maps during this period wherein they became more expansive, detailed the world more so than their country of origin and focused more on showcasing proper sea routes and points of navigation (Carhart 106). Thus, it can be stated that the age of European colonization actually created the needed societal consensus as well as created a necessity for the development of maps that diverted away from the idea of their country being at the center of the world and acknowledged its proper geographic position based on its proximity to other land masses. This was also due to increased demand for proper maps for navigation due to merchants and opportunists seeing the value in international trade and exploration (Keski-Säntti 122). As such, map designs became more standardized based on set rules and production methods making them closer to what can be defined as “modern day” standards when it comes to positioning locations based on longitude and latitude.

Modern day map creation has taken the form of realism over artistry. For instance, map creation from the 14th century to around the 16th century utilized materials such as velum, wood blocks and special paper in order to create maps that were artistic as well as practical. While map creation became far more refined and expedient through the use of brass molds in order to create repeatedly accurate initial sketches on materials, the fact remained that they were often finished by hand with a wide variety of different artistic flourishes. This made maps during that period of time a valuable navigation tool as well as pieces of art that could be admired for their attention to detail as well as their general uniqueness. However, present day map making has undergone numerous technological advances through developments in satellite imaging and GPS positioning. Map data can now be updated in real time with various iterations such as Google Maps and Google Street View allowing an average individual to access images of a particular locations whereas in the past the ownership of specific maps was limited due to their inherent cost.

Modern day map designs focus more on realistic depictions of locations and due to present day advertising and social media technologies, digital maps now come with more information than ever before ranging from the location of particular shops to knowing where the most interesting places are within a particular region. In fact, through the use of GPS positioning, a person can literally know where they are in virtually any location on the planet. This has enabled people to more accurately determine their proximity to their intended location. What this shows is that while present day maps have lost their artistry, they more than make up for it when it comes to their accuracy, effectiveness and wide spread usage in many different applications for people across the planet.

Based on everything that has been presented so far in this paper, it can be stated that developments in map creation are inherently impacted by changes in the society that the maps originated from. This can be seen in the gradual changes that occurred in various parts of European society, such as developments in technology and a more globalized societal consciousness, that resulted in a shift away from centrality in map design to are more “globalized” depiction of country locations. All in all, what this paper has revealed is that the evolution of map creation has been influenced by a myriad of factors, both technological and societal, and shows that cartographers were often highly influenced in map visualization and creation based on the society that they were a part of at the time.

Carhart, George. “The 24Th International Conference On The History Of Cartography, Moscow, Russia, 2011.” Imago Mundi 64.1 (2012): 101-107. Print.

Keski-Säntti, Jouko. “The Drum As Map: Western Knowledge Systems And Northern Indigenous Map Making.” Imago Mundi 55.1 (2003): 120-125. Print.

Manhard, Manuel. “The Challenge Of Historical Cartography.” H-Net Reviews In The Humanities & Social Sciences (2012): 1-4. Print.

Potter, Jonathan. “History In The Map-Making.” Geographical (Campion Interactive Publishing) 74.3 (2002): 16. Print.

Shiga, David. “The Hipparcos Chronicles.” New Scientist 205.2748 (2010): 47. Print.

Simon, Jesse. “Antiquity Without Cartography? Some New Approaches To Roman Mapping Traditions.” Imago Mundi 64.2 (2012): 241-242. Print.

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How to Describe Maps for IELTS Writing Task 1

Posted by David S. Wills | Mar 17, 2021 | IELTS Tips , Writing | 0

Today, I am going to show you how to describe maps for task 1 of the IELTS writing test. I have written about this before, but this will be the first in-depth lesson on map descriptions. In this lesson, you will find out everything you need to know in order to get a great score if you encounter a map in your next writing test.

Maps and IELTS: An Overview

First of all, you need to understand the purpose of IELTS map description. In fact, it is important to recognise the purpose of task 1 of the IELTS test! This part of the exam is designed to see how well you can describe things. In that regard, it is quite different from task 2.

Maps are used in IELTS because they require you to describe the physical layout of a location in addition to showing changes over time. Normally, you will be given two maps of the same area and you will be asked to explain what changes have occurred.

It is really important to know this because otherwise you might not understand how to approach the essay. There are many misconceptions about IELTS but really it is quite simple – you are required to show that you can use the language for different purposes.

Types of Map

You will see different types of map in the IELTS writing test. There are maps of streets, towns, villages, islands, parks, and even interior layouts of buildings in some rare cases. However, they pretty much all serve the same function – there will be two maps that show changes over a period of time.

You should not think too much about the type of map as the function is basically the same – it will show a physical location . Your job is to describe that location and then highlight the changes that take place.

Vocabulary for Map Descriptions

I have a full article on vocabulary for describing IELTS maps so you should read that if you want to know the details. This lesson is quite important because it teaches you about the key things you need to know. I will summarise the important parts here.

In describing a map, you have to imagine that your reader cannot see the same image that you see. Your job is to put that image into their head. This requires you to be accurate and concise in the words that you use.

Start with cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west. These will help you immensely. It is not enough to say “on the right” because that is relative. One person’s right could be another person’s left.

You need to know prepositions as well. This is incredibly important. If you get your prepositions wrong, it could lead to a totally inaccurate description of the map. That would be a huge problem.

Example of Direction and Preposition Use

Look at these two maps of a place called Felixstone:

We can see many changes but before we begin to describe them, we need to explain where those things were.

Where is the farmland?

• In 1967, there was an area of farmland in the eastern part of the map, just to the north of the road.

Where is the private beach?

• In 2001, there was a private beach in the southeast of the map. It meets the road at its northernmost point and leads all the way to the sea at the south.

Where are the wind turbines?

• By 2001, four wind turbines had been added between the dunes and the sea.

Please note that there could be other great ways to describe any of these things. These are just a few examples to show you the uses of accurate language.

Sample Answer

Here is my full description to the Felixstone map:

There are two maps of a place called Felixstone. One map is from 1967 and the other from 2001. Many changes took place in the intervening years, including the removal of a marina and pier. In 1967, Felixstone was comprised of a road with a golf course, high street, and farmland to the north of it. To the south, there were trees and dunes, a hotel and a café, and a marina and fish market. By 2001, the farmland to the north of the road had been replaced by a hotel with a swimming pool and tennis courts. Half of the shops on the main street had been converted into apartments. To the south of the road, the hotel had gained a large car park and some wind turbines were added between the dunes and the sea. However, the biggest change was the removal of the marina and pier, which were replaced by a public beach and a private beach. The fish market beside the pier was also removed.

Tenses and IELTS Task 1 Maps

One thing that people often overlook is the importance of accurate tense use in IELTS task 1. Of course, verb tenses are always important in English. They are complicated but essential for conveying meaning. However, in task 1 people often focus on just describing the physical layout. This is important, but so is capturing time.

Considering my example above, let’s look at the first sentence of paragraph three:

• By 2001, the farmland to the north of the road had been replaced by a hotel with a swimming pool and tennis courts.

Why did I use the phrase “had been replaced”?

This is the passive form of the past perfect tense . I used the passive form because it was appropriate here. In describing map changes, we do not know who made the change, so passive voice is necessary. As for past perfect, this is how we look further into the past from the perspective of a point in the past.

Let me explain more: This map referred to two points of time – 1967 and 2001. Both of these points of time are in the past. Thus, when we look at changes that have occurred by 2001, we must use look back into the past from the past! It seems so complicated, but it really isn’t.

Choosing What to Describe

When it comes to IELTS maps, you might face two potential problems about choosing what to describe:

• There are too many things to describe.
• There aren’t enough things to describe.

This can be difficult, particularly in an exam scenario. I would offer the following advice:

• If it seems that there are too many things, then begin by picking the most important and then describe it as best you can. Then pick other things logically. If you find it is taking too long, you can finish and not worry about the others. After all, you don’t need to describe everything .
• If it seems that there aren’t enough things, you are going to need to get creative. You should devote a little extra effort to giving details about the key aspects of the map. Don’t just say “there is a bridge in the north.” Say “there is a bridge in the north of the map that goes over the Severn River. It connects the towns of Dorwith and Forlsom.” This will help you to use more words. However, it really shouldn’t be a problem as IELTS maps tend to contain enough data to easily write 150 words.

Anyway, the most important thing is that you select the most important data and sequence it logically.

How to Structure an IELTS Map Description

I wrote this article on IELTS writing task 1 essay structures. You should read this because maps really don’t require anything special. The structure will basically be the same as it would for charts, tables, and so on. It should look like this:

• Introduction – say what the map is and highlight a key change
• Body paragraph one – describe the first map
• Body paragraph two – describe the second map and highlight changes

There are other reasonable ways to approach this. You may, for example, devote a paragraph to the main changes and another paragraph to lesser changes. However, it is usually best to give a paragraph on each of the two maps.

One thing is the “general trend” sentence. As you probably know, IELTS writing task 1 essays require a sentence that gives the general trend of a chart or table. However, there is no such thing for maps. You can instead highlight a significant change or try to capture the gist of the differences.

Video about Difficult Maps for IELTS

Last year, I made this video about describing difficult IELTS maps. You might find it useful given the information in this lesson.

You can also find sample map descriptions here and here . On a related note, you can find IELTS listening map skills here .

About The Author

David S. Wills

David S. Wills is the author of Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the 'Weird Cult' and the founder/editor of Beatdom literary journal. He lives and works in rural Cambodia and loves to travel. He has worked as an IELTS tutor since 2010, has completed both TEFL and CELTA courses, and has a certificate from Cambridge for Teaching Writing. David has worked in many different countries, and for several years designed a writing course for the University of Worcester. In 2018, he wrote the popular IELTS handbook, Grammar for IELTS Writing and he has since written two other books about IELTS. His other IELTS website is called IELTS Teaching.

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IELTS Writing Maps and Plans

Published by awalls86 on september 21, 2021 september 21, 2021.

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Instead of a graph or chart showing numerical data, you could be given two or three maps or plans showing changes to an area or floor of a building. In this case, you should write at least 150 words describing the changes.

If you follow the structure below, you should be able to write an essay on maps or plans fairly easily.

Step 1: Understand the Maps or Plans

Before you begin writing, you should spend a minute or two looking at the maps or plans to understand the changes. In particular, you should notice:

• When are the maps dated? Have the changes happened yet, or are they expected in the future?
• Is there a compass?
• Is there a scale?
• What items are marked on the maps/plans? Are there any items which are consistent?

Step 2: Write the Introduction

As with any other IELTS academic writing task 1 question, the introduction should consist of:

• paraphrasing the description of the maps or plans;
• the overall trend.

Paraphrasing

You need to sum up what the two maps or plans  show in your opening sentence. This can be done by paraphrasing the description provided, for example:

The maps below show developments along Main Road in the village of Woodby.​

We need to take the ideas in this sentence and put it into our own words:

The two maps provided compare the layout of buildings and amenities in a village before and after some development in the area.

Overall Trend

For maps and plans, the overall trend can describe how much change there has been. This might involve noting what has stayed the same.

For example, for the maps below, we could say:

With the exception of some housing, all of the buildings and facilities have changed use.

While the road layout has remained the same, the use of the land has changed.

The maps below show developments along Main Road in the village of Woodby.

Step 3: Write the Body

In the body you need to describe the changes to the maps or plans. You do not need to describe anything that has stayed the same in this paragraph.

Location, Location, Location

In order to describe the changes, you need to refer to the objects in the maps or plans so that there is no confusion with other items. As there are two “Housing” areas in the first map, I need to make it clear which I am talking about.

As there is no compass on this map, I can’t refer to the housing as in the north-east and south-west. Instead I can refer to them as in the top-right and bottom-left of the map.

While referring to these items, you can paraphrase them if it makes sense. One thing you shouldn’t do however, is to copy the word into your essay with a capital letter (unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence or contain a name).

Describing the changes

To score well on this task, you need to use accurate vocabulary for the changes which you see. Verbs like construct, demolish, extend, convert and combine are all good examples.

Of course, we don’t know who exactly is responsible for the changes. For this reason, we should use the passive voice when writing about these changes.

Step 4: Write the Conclusion

In the conclusion for this essay, we can answer the question “what is the nature of the changes?” What we are doing here is looking for a common theme between the changes.

For example, if the map shows an area that had a lot of factories and warehouses but these have been replaced by flats and houses, we can say that it has changed from an industrial area to a residential area. Other useful labels include agricultural, commercial and recreational.

We could also comment on if it has gone from being rural to more urban. For floor plans, we might comment that the changes accommodate more facilities.

We do have to be careful here though not to state something that isn’t apparent from the map or plan. For example, saying that the population has increased would not be clear even if an area has more housing than before. We can possibly get around this however by saying that the area appears to be able to accommodate more people.

Practice Questions

Click here for all IELTS writing task 1 practice questions and sample answers.

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map and globe

Introduction.

Types of Maps and Globes

A map is always smaller than the area it represents. Most maps include something called a scale to show how much smaller the map is. The scale shows how distances on the map are related to the actual distances.

Map scale can be shown in a number of ways. The simplest way is a graphic scale. A graphic scale is a ruled line or bar that is usually marked off in miles or kilometers. Such a scale can be used to measure distances on the map.

Some maps have a verbal scale. A verbal scale uses words such as “one inch equals 60 miles.”

A third kind of map scale uses a mathematical expression called a ratio. For example, the scale ratio 1:50,000 states that one unit of measurement on the map is equal to 50,000 such units on the ground. If the unit of measurement is a centimeter, then one centimeter on the map equals 50,000 centimeters (500 meters) on the ground.

Showing Direction

Finding a Place

Any place on Earth can be located using a system called latitude and longitude . Latitude and longitude are sets of imaginary lines that circle Earth. Lines of latitude run east and west. Lines of longitude run north and south. They are often printed on maps. Any place can be found on a map using its measurements of both latitude and longitude.

Some maps are divided into sections that are like squares on a checkerboard. Rows across may be lettered “A,” “B,” “C,” and so on. Rows that go up and down may be numbered “1,” “2,” “3,” and so on. These maps often have an index that tells where to find a place by using the letters and numbers. If the index says a place is located at “B 2,” for example, it can be found on the map in the area where the “B” and “2” rows cross. Road maps commonly use this system.

Map Symbols

In the past mapmakers used drawings to show where things such as castles and mountains were located. The drawings were large so they could be clearly seen. Such artwork was nice to look at and easy to understand. However, it produced maps that were cluttered and not very detailed.

Over time maps were made more simple. Mapmakers replaced pictures with symbols. Each symbol represents one particular thing. A map may have different symbols for cities, rivers, lakes, roads, railroad tracks, and so on. Mapmakers usually show the most important information using symbols that stand out. For example, a main road may be shown by double black lines with red between them. A legend is a list that describes the symbols used on a map.

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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 - Map questions (Lessons and questions included )

In your IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 preparation, you'll need to practice a total of 7 IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 data types. In this post, we'll look at the Map questions in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 questions in detail and provide you 5 map practice questions.

Table Of Contents

How to tackle maps in ielts writing task 1 questions, vocabulary for ielts academic writing map questions.

• IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 - 5 Map Questions.

Maps occasionally show up in IELTS academic writing task 1 and when they do, you will see two maps. Often one map is in the past map, while the other is in the present. You’ll also encounter scenarios where both maps are in the past. You might also get maps which show proposals for the future such as a redevelopment scheme. Therefore, it is important to use the proper tenses to describe the changes.

Since there are 2 maps, the essay structure for this question is simple:

• Introduction: Paraphrase the question
• Overview: Describe what you consider to be the major changes over time.
• Body paragraph 1: Describe the first map in detail
• Body paragraph 2: Describe the second map in detail

We will use this essay structure for all map questions. Now, let’s join IELTS Instructor Tina below to learn how to approach IELTS Writing Task 1 Map questions.

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 Maps Lesson

• Question 1 from the video
• Question 2 from the video

The diagrams below show the coastal village of Seaville in 1980 and 2010. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Model Essay

Important functional words are highlighted in red Useful vocabulary and phrases are highlighted in green Synonyms and topic vocabulary are highlighted in blue

The maps illustrate significant changes in the seaside town of Seaville, over a thirty-year period, from 1980 to 2010.

Overall , the village developed substantially from a holiday settlement to a permanent town over the 30 year period . Similarly, infrastructure and amenities increased, along with the town’s capacity to provide for tourists.

In 1980, Seaville was tiny, attracting only a few tourists, who were accommodated in cottages or a small hotel. In contrast , East Bank was unspoilt .   To the east of the cottages, was a marsh, and there was woodland to the north . Regarding recreation, besides the beach, the town only offered a tea room.

However , the village had grown dramatically by 2010. Retirement villages had been built to the west of the main road. The marsh had been drained and the cottages demolished in order to construct houses. To cater for tourists, both a new high-rise hotel and holiday cottages on East Bank had been constructed. The woodlands had been cleared and supplanted by a golf course. Similarly , a boat club had been built on the west bank of the river. New infrastructure was created to access East Bank. On the other hand, the town had preserved the original hotel.

PRACTICE QUESTION 1 ON OUR IELTS APP

The maps below show the centre of a small town called Islip as it is now, and plans for its development. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

The diagrams illustrate some proposed changes to the central area of the town of Islip.

Overall, the principal change to the town will be the construction of a ring road around the centre. Various other developments with regard to shops and housing will accompany the building of this road.

As the first map reveals , lslip town center now is relatively small. There is a main road from the west to the east with shops on both sides . The northern area is rarely countryside , while the southern area is filled with houses with a school at the end of the fork road in the southwest corner and a park in the southeast area .

In the future , the main road is expected to reform into a dual carriageway as a round containing all the new buildings. The shops along the north side of the new pedestrian street will be demolished to make way for a bus station, shopping centre, car parks and new housing area. The shops along the south side of the street will remain, but it seems that the town’s park will be reduced in size so that more new houses can be built within the ring road.

PRACTICE QUESTION 2 ON OUR IELTS APP

When describing the location of something on a map, you can use the following phrases and vocabulary:

Now that you're familiar with the IELTS Writing Task 1 Map questions, it's time to practice. Check out the practice questions below.

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 - Map Questions

This section presents a list of common IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 - Map questions. If you want to prepare for the IELTS Writing Test, these questions are a must study.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

The diagrams below show the coastal village of Seaville in 1980 and 2010. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. 

The maps below show the centre of a small town called Islip as it is now, and plans for its development. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. 

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MAPS ESSAY EXAMPLES

View High Band Score Examples Of IELTS Writing Task 1Academic Maps Essays.

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From Fire Hazards to Family Trees The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

By Tobiah Black

Created for US insurance firms during a period of devastating fires across the 19th and 20th centuries, the Sanborn maps blaze with detail — shops, homes, churches, brothels, and opium dens were equally noted by the company’s cartographers. Tobiah Black explores the history and afterlife of these maps, which have been reclaimed by historians and genealogists seeking proof of the vanished past.

June 12, 2024

1905 Sanborn insurance map of San Francisco whose edges were damaged by the fires that arose in the wake of the 1906 earthquake — Source .

On the evening of April 4, 2024, dozens of people crowded into the Whitsett Room in Sierra Hall at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), for a symposium about a collection of fire insurance maps created by the Sanborn Map Company. The attendees were excited — several people greeted each other warmly, having only met on Zoom calls.

The age range of the attendees was wide. Undergraduates sat next to retirees. One family had brought their infant. A man sitting in front of me with a closely cropped white beard was posting videos he’d taken of CSUN’s Sanborn map collection to TikTok. The symposium was supposedly about “the ways in which Sanborn fire insurance maps have informed the work of artists, archivists and researchers”. But the message of the evening was simpler: people love these maps. To understand the Sanborn maps’ enduring appeal — many of which have been rescued, like CSUN’s collection, from the dumpster or basement or forgotten storage closet of a Sanborn office or customer — we must understand what they are.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the United States was on fire. In October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed about 17,500 buildings, leaving a third of all Chicagoans homeless, and killing as many as 300 people. In April 1872, the Great Boston Fire ripped through downtown, causing $73.5 million in damages. In the summer of 1889, the Great Seattle Fire, the Great Ellensburg Fire, and the Great Spokane Fire each did significant damage to those cities. Fires devastated Hinckley, Minnesota, in 1894; Jacksonville, Florida, in 1901; Baltimore, Maryland, in 1904; and San Francisco, California, in 1906. These fires literally reshaped the urban American landscape, leveling whole neighborhoods that would have to be rebuilt or abandoned.

Detail of 1867 Sanborn map of Boston, Massachusetts, showing the area depicted in the photograph below (the intersection of Washington and Broomfield is at the top of the image) — Source .

John Adams Whipple, View from Corner Washington & Bromfield Sts. , 1872, showing the aftermath of the Great Boston Fire of 1872. The view looks out south-east from 172 Washington Street. At the centre of the image is the ruins of a clothing factory on Franklin Street and, in the distance, to the right, Summer Street's Trinity Church still standing — Source .

Urban fires were nothing new. But a combination of dense concentration, shoddy construction, poor regulation, and inadequate firefighting services meant that fires in the period of swift industrialization from roughly the end of the Civil War to the Great Depression were particularly destructive. This was also the era when kerosene lamps became ubiquitous. When Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, the oil boom he ignited was due entirely to the use of refined petroleum for light. Kerosene was cheaper than whale oil, less smoky than coal oil, and brighter than candles — but also highly flammable. It’s not hard to see where sloshing buckets of kerosene across the densely packed, swiftly constructed American cities of the nineteenth century would lead. These fires also received tremendous coverage in the era’s sensational penny newspapers, which were hungry for stories of death and violence after the conclusion of the Civil War.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire; and where there’s fire, there’s insurance (at least since around the beginning of the eighteenth century). In 1866, Daniel Alfred Sanborn established the D. A. Sanborn National Diagram Bureau to provide maps of North American cities and towns to fire insurance companies. These maps used an elaborate system of color coding, symbols, and abbreviations to indicate a dizzying amount of information — from building materials to street widths; from locations of standpipes to the presence of flammable chemicals; from the height of a structure to the number of skylights. Sanborn’s company didn’t provide any insurance itself — it supplied the insurance companies with the information, in the form of maps, they would need to assess risk and assign premiums.

The most interesting piece of information that Sanborn’s mapmakers gathered was what each building was being used for. “S” meant store and “D” meant dwelling. But they didn’t stop there. The maps identify hotels, churches, breweries, stables, manufacturers of flint glass bottles, orphanages, launderers, cigar factories, chewing gum factories, jewelers, butchers, cobblers, drugstores, barbers, canneries, boarding houses, manufactories of artificial hair, dry goods wholesalers, cabinetmakers, photographers, window shade factories, and hundreds — possibly thousands — of other kinds of businesses. Later, they label roller rinks, movie theaters, garages. Even opium dens, gambling parlors, and brothels are dutifully marked down. In larger buildings, they might label the kitchen, the coal shed, where particular pieces of factory equipment can be found. They sometimes note whether a building has a nightwatchman. The maps are Whitmanian in their profusion of detail.

Detail of 1905 Sanborn map of Laredo, Texas, featuring City Hall, a “Mexican Theatre”, a building labelled ”Mexican Produce”, a “cock pit”, gambling den, bicycle mechanic, and other shops and services — Source

Detail of 1916 Sanborn map of Butte, Montana, showing “Pleasant Alley” (later called “Venus Alley”), the red light district. “Female Boarding” (F. B.) was often used by Sanborn agents as a shorthand for brothels — Source .

Detail of 1899 Sanborn map of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, showing the Cherokee Male and Female Seminaries, tribal colleges that were among the first institutes of higher education to be established west of the Mississippi River — Source

The Sanborn Map Company, as it came to be known, eventually used their system to map more than 12,000 North American towns and cities, covering almost every community with a population over 1000. To do so, the company sent out employees known as “striders” or “trotters”. One or more striders would set up shop in a town for a few months, sometimes renting office space. Following a hundred-page manual supplied by the company, they would sketch, measure, and chart every street and building in the territories they had been assigned. In 1917, during World War I, a Sanborn field surveyor was seen making drawings of the buildings in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Not knowing what the stranger was doing, several residents called the police, worried that he was a German spy. The anecdote paints a vivid picture of what these surveyors had to do. They had to observe. They had to ask questions, possibly intrusive ones. (Outhouses are occasionally discretely noted on Sanborn maps.) They listed illegal businesses (when they could find them) next to legal ones. Making a good map must have required some combination of nosiness, charm, officiousness, tact, and pushiness, depending on the situation.

The striders would send their material back to one of the main offices — Sanborn had permanent offices in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and, later, Atlanta — where cartographers would create the detailed, precise maps supplied to the insurance companies.

The maps were periodically updated with “pasters” — corrections literally pasted into the old atlases until the pages could bear no more and a new map would be commissioned. It was a profitable business, and the Sanborn Map Company had a near monopoly on it in North America. The maps were expensive and time-consuming to make; no new competitor could ever hope to match Sanborn’s enormous back catalogue. D. A. Sanborn died in 1883, but the company continued to thrive under the general management of his son, William A. Sanborn, who used his intimate knowledge of city planning to make a fortune in Connecticut real estate. At its peak in the 1930s, the company brought in more than $500,000 a year in after tax profits and employed seven hundred “skilled map workers” and two hundred “specially trained engineers”.

1922 Sanborn map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, updated with “pasters” through 1951 — Source .

Detail of 1922 Sanborn map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, updated with “pasters” through 1951 — Source .

For a variety of reasons — consolidation in the insurance business, complacency because of their perceived monopoly, more sophisticated methods for assessing fire risk, and new forms of data storage that made the huge, heavy Sanborn atlases increasingly obsolete — the company’s profits had dropped to $100,000 a year by the late 1950s. 1 They stopped creating new maps in 1961 and stopped issuing “paster” updates to their old maps in 1977. That same year, the company’s president, S. Greeley Wells, donated forty-five atlases of old maps to the Library of Congress. This is where the second act of the Sanborn maps’ lives began.

It began slowly. When a municipal government needed to decide if a building was worth preserving, they might consult an old Sanborn map. When a historian or historical novelist wanted to get a sense of the types of businesses on a particular street in a particular city in a particular year, they might consult a Sanborn. When a demographer wanted to chart the growth or decline of an American city, the Sanborns were there.

But the real explosion of interest can probably be attributed to the genealogists. Legacy Tree Genealogists, Genealogy Gems, traceyourpast.com, and Family Tree Magazine — to name just a few — all have articles explaining how to use Sanborn Maps for genealogical research. Paulette Hasier, Chief of the Library of Congress’s Geography and Map Division, says that when her department tweeted that their collection of Sanborn maps was being made available online, it became the account’s single most retweeted message ever. She attributes a significant portion of that interest to genealogists — and what she calls “historical research for personal pleasure”. The Library of Congress has the largest collection of Sanborn maps in the country. There are a few contenders, but the second-largest collection is probably the one at CSUN — 4,100 atlases mapping out 1,600 North American towns and cities.

Left: 1907 Sanborn map of Corona, California; right: 1911 Sanborn map of Atlanta, Georgia — Source: left , right .

1887 Sanborn map of Brooklyn, New York — Source .

1903 Sanborn maps of Manhattan. The left is an index of maps that detail the blocks around Central Park; the right shows the buildings between 5th and 6th Avenue from 52nd to 55th Street, featuring Hotel Gotham, a university club, St. Thomas Church, and the shops of various artisans — Source: left , right .

CSUN is located deep in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. It was founded in 1958 and has the broad streets and anonymous boxiness of many of LA’s modernist enclaves. When I arrived at Sierra Hall at 5 p.m. for the Sanborn symposium, which had been organized by staff cartographer David Deis, the lobby was empty with the kind of emptiness that can only be found in a school building after hours. My footsteps echoed off the floor tiles, which ranged in color from beige to pinkish. The fluorescent lights cast no shadows. But emerging from the elevator on the fourth floor, I was greeted by the warm hum of the fifty-plus attendees’ voices.

The topics of the presentations ranged from a discussion of how to use digitized Sanborn maps to visualize sociological phenomena (like pinpointing the proliferation of saloons along the Erie Canal), through a case study of how the maps helped convince the local government in Pasadena to preserve an architecturally significant factory building, to curious discoveries: an opium den, “ruins”, and a 25-foot-tall panorama of the Battle of Gettysburg in a tent across the street from Los Angeles City Hall. 2 Despite their varied subjects, the presentations shared a common feature: each speaker performed the same instinctive action that everyone seems to do when they discover the Sanborn maps — they looked up their own addresses and found their homes.

Details from 1906 and 1886 Sanborn maps of Los Angeles, California. Left shows the area near the Los Angeles Plaza, featuring an “opium joint”, Chinese dwellings, billiards hall, and the L. A. Coffin Co. Right shows City Hall in an unfinished state and a 25-foot-tall panorama of the Battle of Gettysburg. — Source: left , right .

1915 Sanborn map of San Francisco, California, showing the Panama-Pacific-International exhibition that showcased the city’s recovery from the 1906 earthquake — Source .

The final presentation of the day was by the multi-disciplinary artist Debra Scacco, who described using the maps for an installation called Compass Rose . The project examined gentrification, displacement, and memory in Northeast Los Angeles, where Scacco has been based for many years. One component was a series of oral histories recorded by residents of Highland Park. Another component was a series of colorful glass panels — the shapes of which were drawn from the Sanborn maps of the neighborhood — which had been suspended in a white gallery space. When light from the windows hit the glass panels, their shadows — blue, yellow, purple, red, orange, pink, green — mingled on the walls.

Scacco, while claiming to be less of a map expert than the other presenters, had the clearest understanding of why people respond to the Sanborn maps. Her project had begun with Scacco going to the LA Central Library and asking Creason to show her “maps of rivers and maps of freeways”. She says she didn’t yet know where she was going with the project, but she knew that this was where she wanted to start. When Creason pulled out the Sanborn maps, Scacco (a self-described “paper nerd”) says her reaction was, “Oh my God — this is the history of America, and it’s pasted over, just like American history.”

By “blowing apart” the Sanborn maps, Scacco is trying to make the point that maps are not neutral. Maps obscure; they leave things out. As Scacco’s website says, “early maps of Los Angeles make no mention of our Tongva origins, and scarcely acknowledge early boundaries in which California was Mexico”. The Sanborn maps didn’t include every neighborhood in every city they covered. And they occasionally used explicitly racialized language to define neighborhoods literally outlined in red — presumably to warn insurers away or get them to charge higher prices. The insurance business has a long and well-documented history of racist and discriminatory practices; the Sanborns are an important data set in the effort to document that history.

But during her presentation, Scacco also described showing the maps to the residents she was collecting oral histories from and “seeing folks see themselves in the archives”. For all their faults and elisions — sometimes because of them — the maps seem to reflect our own histories and memories back at us. Maybe that’s why the instinct to look up one’s own address on a map is so common. We create maps to make the unfamiliar familiar. To show us how to get home.

Notes Show Notes

• Around this time, the Sanborn company caught the attention of a young investor named Warren Buffett. Buffett thought the mapmaking business was brittle, stagnating, and not worth much. But he noticed that the Sanborn company had — back in the days when it had extra cash sitting around — made $2.5 million worth of wise and flourishing investments. “Thus”, Buffett wrote in his letter to his investors in 1960, “in the last decade particularly, the investment portfolio blossomed while the operating map business wilted.” With other investors focused on the dying map business, the stock price had declined precipitously. At the time that Buffett became interested in the business, he calculated that Sanborn’s investment portfolio was valued at 70 cents on the dollar and the map business at literally nothing. Buffett invested 35 percent of his partnership’s money in the business and made about a 50 percent profit.
• The panorama — also described as a cyclorama — was painted by an artist named Carl Browne. A photo of Browne identified by panorama researcher Gene Meier shows him with a slight potbelly poking through a fringed western jacket and a forked beard. The Gettysburg panorama opened in July 1886 and according to contemporary newspaper accounts was so popular that ticket sales had to be suspended.

Public Domain Works

• Library of Congress
• David Rumsey Map Collection
• Musselman Library, Gettysburg College
• DC Public Library
• New York Public Library

Further Reading

In this book Schulten uses maps to explore five centuries of American history, from the voyages of European discovery to the digital age. With stunning visual clarity, the book showcases the power of cartography to illuminate and complicate our understanding of the past.

Firefighters and fire insurers created a physical and cultural infrastructure whose legacy — in the form of heroic firefighters, insurance policies, building standards, and fire hydrants — lives on in the urban built environment. In Eating Smoke , Mark Tebeau shows how the changing practices of firefighters and fire insurers shaped the built landscape of American cities, the growth of municipal institutions, and the experience of urban life.

The Public Domain Review receives a small percentage commission from sales made via the links to Bookshop.org (10%) and Amazon (4.5%). Thanks for supporting the project! For more recommended books, see all our “ Further Reading ” books, and browse our dedicated Bookshop.org stores for US and UK readers.

Tobiah Black is a writer and Emmy Award–winning documentary producer. His documentary work has appeared on National Geographic, Smithsonian Channel, and Disney+. His fiction has appeared in Roanoke Review , Tilted House Review , MORIA , and other journals. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, daughter, and cat.

The text of this essay is published under a CC BY-SA license, see here for details.

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On Degree of Smooth Maps between Orbifolds

15 Pages Posted: 28 May 2024

Andrey Bagaev

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Nina Zhukova

HSE University

We develop the degree theory for proper orbifold maps. For a proper map between connected oriented smooth orbifolds of the same dimension, Pasquotto and  Rot (Topol. Appl. 282(2020),107326) introduced a definition of a degree. Here we propose another definition of degree and show that it is equivalent to the Pasquotto and Rot definition. Our definition is much simpler. Besides, we establish a connection between the degree of a map and the integration of external forms on orbifolds, which is very important for applications. As a result, we present an integral formula for the degree of a map between orbifolds, this is a generalization of the corresponding formula for manifolds. In some classes of orbifolds, we find out the specifics of the degree of a map.

Keywords: orbifold, proper orbifold map, volume form, orbifold stratification

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Andrey Bagaev (Contact Author)

Affiliation not provided to ssrn ( email ).

No Address Available

HSE University ( email )

https://www.hse.ru/eng Moscow Russia

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Judge Strikes One Element From Trump Indictment in Documents Case

Judge Aileen Cannon threw out one basis for the case against the former president, involving a highly sensitive military map he showed an aide after leaving office.

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By Alan Feuer

A federal judge on Monday slightly narrowed the classified documents case against former President Donald J. Trump, saying prosecutors cannot charge him based on an episode in which he is said to have shown a highly sensitive military map to a political adviser months after leaving office.

The decision by the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, was more of a swipe at prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, who brought the case than a major blow to the allegations against Mr. Trump. Even though Judge Cannon technically removed the incident from the 53-page indictment, prosecutors may still be able to introduce evidence of it to the jury if the case finally goes to trial.

The incident that Judge Cannon struck took place in August or September 2021 at a meeting at Mr. Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J. During the meeting, prosecutors say, Mr. Trump showed a classified map related to a continuing military operation to a representative of his political action committee, widely believed to be Susie Wiles, who is now a top adviser to Mr. Trump’s campaign.

As he displayed the map, prosecutors say, Mr. Trump told Ms. Wiles that the military campaign was not going well. The indictment pointed out that she did not have a security clearance at the time or “any need-to-know” about the classified information concerning the campaign.

The episode about the map, while indicative of Mr. Trump’s lax handling of classified materials, was not central to the formal allegations in the case. Those focus on his removal from the White House of nearly three dozen documents containing sensitive national security secrets and his repeated efforts to obstruct the government from retrieving them from Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida.

Even though Judge Cannon struck the incident about the map from the indictment, she left untouched a similar allegation that is said to have occurred a few months earlier at Mr. Trump’s Bedminster property. In that episode, prosecutors say the former president showed a classified battle plan to a group of people who had come to interview him for a memoir being written by his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

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