A legend is not only a fictional story about an event or person. This word has another meaning. This article will discuss what a map legend is about geography. What is it and why is it necessary?
What is a map legend ?
A map is the ABC of geography. Without it, it is very difficult to imagine this science in principle. The map is one of the main tools for geographical research. At the same time, it often acts as a clear result of the activities of geographic scientists.
A geographical map, like any book, must be able to read correctly. And if books are written using letters, words and sentences, then cards also have their own specific “language”. What does he look like? To answer this question, you just need to understand what a map legend is.
A legend (English: map legend) is a list of all the symbols that were used to compile a particular map, with textual explanations of their meanings. It can take the form of a table or a simple list.
The map legend is placed on the free space of the sheet, most often in the lower part or in the corners. In complex geographical atlases it can be found on separate pages of the publication (at the beginning or at the end). As a rule, in a legend all conventional signs are grouped. That is, the designations of hydrological objects (rivers, swamps, ponds), settlements, vegetation, communication lines, etc. are separately indicated.
Now it’s clear what the map legend is. Perhaps it will not be amiss to get acquainted with the main types of conventional cartographic signs.
Types of conventional cartographic signs
Symbols that are used in compiling geographical maps are many. However, they are all divided into four main groups:
- Large-scale (contour or areal) - those that can be expressed on the scale of the map (for example, forest, field, residential quarter of the city).
- Non-scale (point) - designations of objects that cannot be expressed on the map scale (for example, a mine, factory, temple).
- Linear - signs with which on the maps indicate extended objects (roads, state borders, power lines, etc.).
- Explanatory signs are all kinds of signatures, fonts, which give an additional characteristic of the depicted terrain objects.
So now you know what a map legend is. With its help, you can "read" any geographical map and extract from it a lot of useful and interesting information about a particular area. But for this, of course, it is necessary to learn all the conventions used in modern topography.