The Geographer’s Toolkit:Maps

What is a map?

• A representation of the earth’s features drawn on a flat surface

• Not a photograph – maps use symbols and colours to represent the features of an area

Maps

• We’ll be coming back to maps next week… making maps, reading maps, etc.

• For now let’s continue our look at Canada using some maps

Types of maps

• Maps can show many things– Political boundaries (countries, provinces)– Ecozones (climate, wildlife, landforms)– Statistics (population density, income, life

expectancy, etc.)

Some interesting global maps

• Income

• Literacy

• Life expectancy

• Energy use

• Access to clean water

• Water consumption

Back to Canada

• Let’s start with some very basic map-making