DEVELOPMENT OF A CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM FOR TOURIST MAPS

D. Forrest

University of Glasgow, UK

david.forrest@ges.gla.ac.uk

Tourist maps vary widely from more-or-less standard topographic maps with a few additional symbols for selected features likely to be of interest to tourists, to highly artistic renditions of an area, often non orthogonally projected, with just about every possible option in between these themes. As part of a larger investigation into the development of tourist mapping in the Twentieth century, a necessary preliminary stage is to create a classification system to facilitate subsequent analysis. Such a classification needs to be multidimensional, covering the basic nature of the map, the intended use of the map, the scale, and the relationship between the map and any other associated information. Assessment on several of these topics will necessarily be subjective, but by developing clear descriptors of classes a greater measure of objectivity can be achieved.

What is presented here is a initial attempt at developing this classification and the associated descriptors. Each of the elements of the classification is described and justification given for the approach taken. At this stage feedback is seen as important in developing this classification into something robust that can be applied effectively to such studies.