The article describes how the plan differs from the map, what is their purpose, what are their types and where are they used.
Ancient times
In time immemorial, even before the widespread development and discovery of the continents, people began to draw up the first maps. Including marine. But due to the imperfection (or lack) of measuring instruments, their first samples, to put it mildly, did not differ in accuracy and varied greatly depending on regions and authors. Often, due to the impossibility of creating more accurate landmarks and other things, the compilers compensated for this with artistic design.
But in the Middle Ages, this became a little better, especially with the advent of great geographical discoveries, cartography began to develop more and more. But how is the plan different from the map? And what is their purpose? This we will understand.
Map
According to the official definition, a map is an image of the Earth’s surface with the placement of objects, a clear definition of distance and scale. And the cards vary greatly depending on the destination and type. The whole hemisphere, as well as individual regions of the continents, can be transferred to paper.
Three main types can be distinguished - general geographical, thematic and socio-economic.
Geographical are distinguished by a clear content of the Earth's relief, altitude, riverbeds, seas, lakes and more.
Thematic ones are devoted to individual phenomena, regions, cities or natural areas. For example, a separate forest, nature reserve, a site in the mountains, a tourist route or a city.
Socio-economic not only show the site of a particular continent, but also reflect its condition. For example, by the number and type of cultivated crops grown, mining or the natural zone - steppe, forest, desert, etc. Such maps can also include political ones, which show the outline of the borders of states in detail, and demographic maps, which show the number of population or its growth and decrease.
We figured it out, but how does the plan differ from the map?
Plan
A plan is not a map in the usual sense, it differs from it primarily in its large scale, in the absence of geographical coordinates, for example, such as meridians. Simply put, the plan shows a small area with the legend of the latter. It can be either official, in compliance with the proportions of objects and distances, or self-made, not differing in actual accuracy, but faithfully conveying meaning.
The plan and the map are similar in purpose, both are needed for orientation on the ground, but serve different purposes. For example, the first can be cadastral, showing all the buildings and the boundaries of the holdings, or evacuation, in which people leave the premises in the event of a fire or other accident.
Also, a plan is usually drawn up in conditions where there is no way to resort to a map or its scale is not enough. So now we know how the plan differs from the map.
Modern technologies
With the development of the aerospace industry, mapping has greatly simplified. The thing is that satellites in orbit do this task perfectly, with the help of their optics you can even see the smallest objects, and if necessary, a specific person.
For a long time, satellite maps were at the disposal of only military forces, but relatively recently, with the advent of the Internet in our lives, everyone has access to them. They are updated much more often than usual paper ones, and it’s convenient to use them. In addition to the very surface of the Earth, various relevant information is applied to them - names of cities, numbers of houses with streets, data on the work of various organizations, etc.
It is also worth mentioning the maps of sea currents, which serve as a guide for sailors.
To summarize: a map is a geographic image of the Earth with precise symbols and scale. And the plan is a large picture of a plot of land or a building, the landmarks of which can be both real and very approximate.
This is the difference between a plan and a map.