Some Objective Tests of the Legibility of Relief Maps

Abstract

The legibility of four different types of relief map (contours, contours with hill shading, layer tints and digital or spot height maps) was compared using 13 different map reading test questions administered to 179 subjects. Many of the questions showed large and statistically significant differences between the four types of map, but no single type of map was best for all purposes. The results demonstrate that the choice of an appropriate relief map has a very real effect on the map reader's performance, and that this choice must depend on the way the map is to be used.