•
Cognitive one, which means studying objects of nature and society and acquiring
new knowledge about them;
•
Operative one, as direct connection to solving different practical tasks (as in
navigation, in agriculture management etc);
•
Constructive one – map functioning is revealed in the process of its development
and implementation of economic and social projects;
•
Prognostic role of map, which can be considered as continuation of the cognitive
one and which gives the opportunity to foresee spatial and time changes in spread of
objects and their statе.
The principle opportunity of scientific research by maps originates from the fact
that a precise and detailed map is made on the strict scientific basis, documents diverse
and quite multi-sized information about geographical environment, and at the same
time, serves itself as a source of objective information in different researches. For
scientific research it is extremely important that a map allows to study separately many
factors which act together in nature [1,2]. This is where the principle of selectivity of
cartographical models is revealed. And as accurate approach to natural object as you
wish is possible, i.e. improvement of a model similarity level.
The opportunity to solve many scientific and practical tasks with the help of maps
determined setting up such a cartography section as maps usage. It studies peculiarities
and directions of utilizing cartographic works (maps, atlases, globes etc) in different
spheres of practical, scientific, educational activities, develops the methods of work
with cartographic works and assesses the reliability of results achieved through the
maps. The methods of maps usage are developed not only by cartographers, but also
by specialists of other branches where cartographic works are widely utilized, and
cooperation of different specialists lead to a better use of maps, i.e. maps usage has
always been and continues its development on the border of cartography and other
sciences about the Earth and society. Cartographic method is a method of using maps
for cognizing phenomena featured on them.
Research results. Cognition is understood as studying by maps the structure,
interconnections, dynamics and evolution of phenomena in time and space, prognosis
of their development, acquiring qualitative and quantitative characteristics etc. Maps
usage is closely connected with their making, i.e. a system “making – using” appears,
the main content of which is in the following:
1. the environment serves as the source of outgoing information. In the process of
mapping selective observations are transformed into maps, i.e. reality models are
created;
2. cartographic modelling includes complicated scientific processing of data
which is connected with abstraction, analysis and synthesis, determined by objective
and the purpose of map. The process of modelling is impacted by the knowledge level,
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