level of the object’s study, scientific-methodic principles of cartography, classification
logic, image generalization level, the legend and other factors;
3. in the process of maps’ usage new transformations of information take place,
impacted by the goal of the research, a researcher’s qualification and experience,
technical tools’, algorithm and program usage. Along with this, any chain of the
research, from initial hypothesis to measuring tools, can distort the result, so the
obtained result needs to be correlated with the reality, interpreted and corrected if
needed.
So, in the system “making – using maps” two closely connected methods co-exist:
- mapping, or cartographic method of reflection, aiming to transfer from the
reality to map (model);
- cartographic method of research which uses maps (models ) for cognizing the
reality [3].
These methods intersect and interact, and in the process of interactive making
electronic maps, especially with geoinformation technologies usage, it is very difficult
to distinguish where making maps finishes and maps usage and transformation start.
E.g., estimated and forecast maps are made as result of transformation and synthesis of
several analytical maps, in this case outgoing maps are the source for making, they
become the material for research and synthesis. Map, unlike other communicative
methods, gives not the consequence of signals (signs), but a plural of signs at the same
moment, that creates the opportunity of their spatial combination, i.e. making up,
mutual overlapping, neighboring, uniting, crossing etc.
Narrow informational interpretation of cartographic information does not allow
to assess and measure information volume to be received by a user, as cartographic
information is not limited by map’s loading, but reveals through relations between the
depicted phenomena (interconnections, dependence, position, configuration etc). Part
of cartographic information is present at the map as in a hidden way and is not
evaluated from the point of view of formal information.
Considering cartographic information as result of perceiving cartographic images,
one can say that a map reader obtains the whole system of interconnected
interpretations, a set of data about the object under study, and these interpretation
options allow quantitative (cartometric) evaluation. The other circumstance is that
some combinations correctly built from the formal point of view, don’t make any sense
within meaningful interpretation, i.e. don’t have useful data for readers. All these ideas
about setting up the system of cartographic images allow to confirm that cartographic
information obtained by a reader from any map is not equal to the quantity of graphic
elements.
All these methods of direct work with maps are divided into four groups,
distinguished, first of all, by the character of obtaining results and technical
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