How Maps Work: Representation, Visualization, and Design - Hardcover

MacEachren, Alan M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0898625890 ISBN 13: 9780898625899

Publisher: Guilford Press, 1995

Synopsis

Now available in paperback for the first time, this classic work presents a cognitive-semiotic framework for understanding how maps work as powerful, abstract, and synthetic spatial representations. Explored are the ways in which the many representational choices inherent in mapping interact with information processing and knowledge construction, and how the resulting insights can be used to make informed symbolization and design decisions. A new preface to the paperback edition situates the book within the context of contemporary technologies. As the nature of maps continues to evolve, Alan MacEachren emphasizes the ongoing need to think systematically about the ways people interact with and use spatial information.

About this title

Review

"Should be required reading for anyone making maps."--C. E. Tiedemann, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Alan MacEachren has made a significant and important contribution to our understanding of cartography. The map is as old as societies themselves and is a fundamental building block of human knowledge. This book should be mandatory reading for all those interested in the role of maps in the emerging information era."--D. R. F. Taylor, past president, International Cartographic Association

"I believe this book to be a milestone in the literature of cartography. There have been texts on the history, on the production/design and to aid the teaching of maps and mapping but there has never been such a comprehensive and balanced examination of maps as tools....With its rich array of subtopics, levels of treatment and specialized sections worthy of deep quarrying, and also its extensive and fascinating range of illustrations, I believe that this book can command a wide and varied readership. It will certainly become a foundation stone in my own teaching and research library."--Michael Wood, Centre for Remote Sensing and Mapping Science, Department of Geography, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

"In looking at maps as spatial representations that stimulate other spatial representations, Alan MacEachren provides an insightful and coherent examination of the cognitive mechanisms underlying map reading and map analysis. How Maps Work is a tour de force for academic cartography and other fields concerned with perceptual, cognitive, and metaphysical aspects of spatial information--a masterful synthesis of interest to anyone curious about the map as a unique and valuable tool for exploration, discovery, and hypothesis testing."--Mark Monmonier, Department of Geography, Syracuse University

From the Back Cover

This book is the first systematic integration of cognitive and semiotic approaches to understanding maps as powerful, abstract, and synthetic spatial representations. Presenting a perspective built on four decades of cartographic research, along with research from other areas, it explores how maps work at multiple levels - from the individual to societal - and provides a cohesive picture of how the many representational choices inherent in mapping interact with the processing of information construction of knowledge. Utilizing this perspective, the author shows how the insights derived from a better understanding of maps can be used in future map design. Although computers now provide the graphic tools to produce maps of similar or better quality than those produced by previous manual techniques, they seldom incorporate the conceptual tools needed to make informed symbolization and design decisions. The search for these conceptual tools is the basis for How Maps Work.

Edition details

• Publisher: Guilford Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0898625890
• ISBN 13: 9780898625899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 513