SLC S22W1 /Basic Notions of Digital Cartography

Make a freehand map of your country. Inside the freehand map you made, locate where the capital of your country is and where the state/department/province where you live is.

I made a free hand map of my country Nigeria which has 36 states and it’s divided into four regions namely the East, North, south and the west. Located at the middle of the map is the capital city of my country called Abuja.

I presently live in Lagos state which is situated on the western part of the country and its location on the map is as shown below.

Locate within the map you made, some states/departments/provinces that you know by heart

I have visited a couple of states in my country hence I know them by heart. I lived in Abia state while growing up and later relocated to IMO state for my tertiary education. I have also visited states like Enugu, Ebonyi state and I hail from Anambra stage. These states are interconnected as you can see on the map.

Mention 3 places that you still do not know in your country and that you would love to visit and why.

I have not been to some states and don’t know what they look like. I look forward to visiting states like Kebbi, Sokoto and Yobe state. Sokoto state of popular for its exportation of cattle skins and hides and other food items.

Yobe is known as gold of the dessert and its popular for its agricultural products production and exportation while Kebbi state is popular for rice production and other legumes.

These states are agricultural based states and are like the hub of agriculture in the country hence I would love to know what they look like.

What is a map for you?

A map is a tool that’s used to graphically or symbolically represent a place or region showing selected characteristics of that region or place.

Maps pass across information about a place such as the shapes, size, distance and locations and they also show the distribution of things or the pattern of settlements in that region or area.

In your opinion, what are the most relevant elements to understand a map and why?

Maps have relevant Elements and they includes;

• Title: The title simple indicates the name of the map.

• Scale: Points to the relationship between reality and the map/paper. There are graphic scale and numerical scale. In scale, the lower the detail level, the larger its value meaning that scale is inversely proportional.

• Conventional signs: These are conventional symbols that are used within the map to identify aspects. These symbols in maps are universal meaning they cut across all types of maps.

• Coordinates: coordinates helps us to know. Detailed locations on the earth surface. Universal transverse Mercator and Geographic Coordinates are commonly used coordinates. Universal transverse Mercator is conveyed in meters while Geographic Coordinates are conveyed in degrees, minutes and seconds.

In your opinion: Is cartography important or not so important? Why?

Cartography is very important because;

• Cartography creates awareness and gives us abreast of where we are. Makes for self orientation. Imagine if you do not know which part of the earth you are in?
• Cartography helps for easy navigation around our environment and move from place to place even where we may not have visited before. For example the use of goggle map by most drivers to convey people to where they’ve not been before.
• It aids us to have a good understanding of our environment
• Cartography make for proper planning of our territory and the resources available to us.
• It’s enable to keep track of how our environment evolves hence making for historical memories.
• Helps with data visualization that make be difficult to verbally explain. Maps shows economic growth, population trend and urbanization.

Thanks for this eye opening class. I ask @jovita30, @benson6 and @vickeyson to join the learning challenge.