Types of Maps: Topographic,
Political, Climate, and More
Buyenlarge/Getty Images
The field of geography relies on many different types of
maps in order to study the Earth's features. Some maps
are so common that a child would recognize them while
others are used only by professionals in specialized fields.
The most common types of maps are political, physical,
topographic, climate, economic, and thematic.
Fast Facts: Types of Maps
Simply defined, maps are pictures of the Earth's surface.
General reference maps document landforms, national
boundaries, bodies of water, city locations, and so on.
Thematic maps display specific data, such as the average
rainfall distribution for an area or the distribution of a
certain disease throughout a county.
Political Maps
A political map does not show topographic features like
mountains. It focuses solely on the state and national
boundaries of a place. These maps also include the
locations of cities large and small, depending on the detail
of the maps.
A typical example of a political map would be one showing
the 50 U.S. states and their borders along with the United
States' international borders.
Physical Maps
A physical map documents the landscape features of a
place. These types of maps generally show mountains,
rivers, and lakes. Bodies of water are commonly shown in
blue. Mountains and elevation changes are sometimes
shown with different colors and shades to show elevation.
On physical maps, greens usually indicate lower
elevations while browns usually indicate higher elevations.
This map of Hawaii is a physical map. Low-elevation
coastal regions are shown in dark green, while higher
elevations transition from orange to dark brown. Rivers are
shown in blue.
World Map 3D Render Topographic Map. FrankRamspot/Getty Images
Topographic Maps
A topographic map is similar to a physical map in that it
shows different physical landscape features. Unlike
physical maps, though, this type of map uses contour
lines instead of colors to show changes in the landscape.
Contour lines on topographic maps are normally spaced
at regular intervals to show elevation changes (e.g. each
line represents a 100-foot elevation change). When lines
are close together, it means the terrain is steep.
Climate Maps
A climate map shows information about the climate of an
area. These maps can show things like the specific
climatic zones of an area based on the temperature, the
amount of snow an area receives, or the average number
of cloudy days. These maps normally use colors to show
different climatic areas.
This climate map for Australia uses colors to show
differences between the temperate area of Victoria and
the desert region in the center of the continent.
Vegetation zones of the world, lithograph, published in 1897. ZU_09/Getty Images
Economic or Resource Maps
An economic or resource map shows the specific types of
economic activity or natural resources present in an area
through the use of different symbols or colors depending
on what is being depicted.
This economic activity map for Brazil, for example, uses
colors to show different agricultural products of given
areas, letters for natural resources, and symbols for
different industries.
Road Maps
A road map is one of the most widely used map types.
These maps show major and minor highways and roads
(depending on the degree of detail), as well as airports,
cities, and points of interest such as parks, campgrounds,
and monuments. Major highways on a roadmap are
generally shown with thick, red lines, while minor roads
are lighter in color and drawn with narrower lines.
A road map of California, for example, would depict
Interstate highways with a wide red or yellow line, while
state highways would be shown in a narrower line in the
same color. Depending on the level of detail, the map may
also show county roads, major city arteries, and rural
routes. These would be depicted in shades of gray or
white.
Thematic Maps
A thematic map focuses on a particular theme or special
topic. These maps differ from the six aforementioned
general reference maps because they do not just show
features like rivers, cities, political subdivisions, elevation,
and highways. If these items appear on a thematic map,
they are background information used as reference points
to enhance the map's theme.
This Canadian map, for example, shows changes in
population between 2011 and 2016 and is a good example
of a thematic map. The city of Vancouver is broken down
into regions based on the Canadian Census. Changes in
the population are represented by colors ranging from
green (growth) to red (loss) based on the degree of
change.
