How Maps Work Representation, Visualization, and Design [Hardcover]

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, it explores how maps work at multiple levels--from the cognitive to the societal--and provides a cohesive picture of how the many representational choices inherent in mapping interact with the processing of information and construction of knowledge. «MDUL»«MDNM»Utilizing this complex 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 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 «MDUL»How Maps Work«MDNM».

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. --Professor D.R.F. Taylor, Ph.D., President, International Cartographic Association, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

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. In many ways this is a most timely publication. With the emergence of computers onto the cartographic scene a new freedom is being offered tolCv