Lecture

Map Creation and Layout: Elements and Aesthetics

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In course

ENV-444: Exploratory data analysis in environmental health

This course teaches how to apply exploratory spatial data analysis to health information. Teaching focuses on the role of GIS and spatial statistics in spatial epidemiology. It proposes a context to investigate the relationship between health, quality of l ...

Description

This lecture covers the elements required in a final map layout, such as scale, orientation, legend, and inset maps, as well as the aesthetics of map design including harmony, visual equilibrium, and clarity. The role of formatting in map creation using QGIS Print Composer is explained, enabling the export of maps in various formats for electronic publication.

Instructors (2)

Stéphane Joost

Expertise Geographic Information Science and spatial statisticsMolecular ecology, Landscape genomics, Seascape genomicsSpatial epidemiology, Health geographics Publications Publications- List of publications Teaching & PhD PhD Students Marco André Vieira Ruas, Manon Laetitia Pribille, Martine Valérie Besse Past EPFL PhD Students Estelle Rochat, Solange Catherine Gaillard, Oliver Michele Selmoni, Anaïs Ladoy, Annie Sandrine Guillaume Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Sylvie Stucki, Kevin Leempoel, Martí

Idris Guessous

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Map projection

In cartography, a map projection is any of a broad set of transformations employed to represent the curved two-dimensional surface of a globe on a plane. In a map projection, coordinates, often expressed as latitude and longitude, of locations from the surface of the globe are transformed to coordinates on a plane. Projection is a necessary step in creating a two-dimensional map and is one of the essential elements of cartography. All projections of a sphere on a plane necessarily distort the surface in some way and to some extent.

Mercator projection

The Mercator projection (mərˈkeɪtər) is a cylindrical map projection presented by Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection for navigation because it is unique in representing north as up and south as down everywhere while preserving local directions and shapes. The map is thereby conformal. As a side effect, the Mercator projection inflates the size of objects away from the equator. This inflation is very small near the equator but accelerates with increasing latitude to become infinite at the poles.

Equirectangular projection

The equirectangular projection (also called the equidistant cylindrical projection or la carte parallélogrammatique projection), and which includes the special case of the plate carrée projection (also called the geographic projection, lat/lon projection, or plane chart), is a simple map projection attributed to Marinus of Tyre, who Ptolemy claims invented the projection about AD 100. The projection maps meridians to vertical straight lines of constant spacing (for meridional intervals of constant spacing), and circles of latitude to horizontal straight lines of constant spacing (for constant intervals of parallels).

Harmony

In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined or composed into whole units or compositions. More concretely, harmony often refers to the effects created by distinct musical pitches or tones coinciding with one another. These effects are variously identified, defined, and categorized as harmonic objects like chords, textures and tonalities. Harmony is broadly understood to involve both a "vertical" dimension (frequency-space) and a "horizontal" dimension (time-space), and often overlaps with related musical concepts such as melody, timbre, and form.

QGIS

QGIS is a free and open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system (GIS) application that supports viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data. QGIS functions as geographic information system (GIS) software, allowing users to analyze and edit spatial information, in addition to composing and exporting graphical maps. QGIS supports raster, vector and mesh layers. Vector data is stored as either point, line, or polygon features. Multiple formats of raster images are supported, and the software can georeference images.

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