Map Legibility Research Articles

Some Objective Tests of the Legibility of Relief Maps

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.

A Small-Scale Map of Rural Settlement in the USSR

AbstractThe methods used in mapping two versions of a map of rural settlement of the USSR are described. Both versions use 17 basic economic types of settlement as suggested by rural settlement patterns shown on topographic sheets. The first version, which includes in the typology additional indicators such as density and size of places, yields a highly complex map legend and reduces map legibility. The second version simplifies and generalizes the settlement patterns by the proportional plotting of settlement symbols against a shaded or tinted background representing the 17 basic economic types.