Abstract
Cartographic communication through crisis maps takes place in a unique environment characterised by the immediate risks of considerable loss and stress. Many such maps are designed by practitioners with limited resources, pressured for time, and who often fail to pay the necessary attention to map graphics. This can reduce map clarity and make orientation to and understanding of essential crisis information difficult. To identify the most frequent shortcomings that may compromise the interpretation of depicted objects, phenomena presented, and actions required, we assessed the map graphics of 106 maps specifically designed for communication and action in crises. The results showed that they were often visually overloaded. Crisis data were not conveyed by appropriate cartographic representations, and due to the inappropriate use of visual variables, the associative and selective properties of cartographic symbols were overlooked, and their ordered and quantitative features ignored. The use of colour was often not adapted to conventional visual language, and colour symbolism was not always taken into account. The cartographic symbols used were often incomprehensible, illegible, ambiguous, and unclassified, and they lacked symbolism and hierarchical organisation. The article aims to address these problems by proposing guidelines which do not require much time or expertise, but which would ensure that cartographically correct crisis maps are well designed. Objects, phenomena or actions specific to crisis management would be indicated using appropriate map graphics and their importance highlighted, so as to make interpretation easier for all participants in a crisis event, and so facilitate crisis communication and response.
Highlights
There is a strong awareness in the crisis management community of the important role of maps in communicating spatial, thematic, and temporal information about a crisis
Emergency service personnel and their managers must know how to use crisis maps, which must be specially adapted for use in a unique environment characterised by the immediate risks of considerable loss and stress, and where time is of the essence
Since many crisis maps today are created by the automatic layering of data from different sources over a background map, this assessment covered the visual harmonisation of the background map and the thematic data presented on the crisis
Summary
There is a strong awareness in the crisis management community of the important role of maps in communicating spatial, thematic, and temporal information about a crisis. The messages exchanged via crisis maps play an important role in crisis management (for example, finding where shelters are located, how to reach a place where the injured can receive assistance, how to act, how the evacuation is proceeding, etc.). Visual or graphic variables in cartographic design are means of controlling the symbology or visual appearance of map elements These visual techniques form the building blocks of a map and can be used to convey precise geographic information and create a visual hierarchy that can be understood by the viewer. 2. Topographic maps—general geographic maps with plenty of information on local conditions, including settlements, roads, bodies of water, landforms, vegetation, and territorial boundaries. Topographic maps—general geographic maps with plenty of information on local conditions, including settlements, roads, bodies of water, landforms, vegetation, and territorial boundaries All these objects are represented with equal importance. On background maps containing a large amount of information, such as aerial photographs and topographic maps, contrast should be adjusted so that it is obvious that the thematic data presented are the primary content of the map
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