Cybergeo (Nov 2000)

The third choice

  • Jan Ketil Rød

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.1625

Abstract

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30 years ago Jacques Bertin launched the theory of graphic semilogy. This theory has formed one of the pillars in cartographic education and in practical cartographic work. The objective of this paper is not to review this fruitful adoption but rather to draw attention to an inconsistency between Bertin’s term organising level and the corresponding concept from the literature of statistics, measurement system. The fact that the former is three-levelled and the latter is four-levelled obscures the schemata used for cartographic symbolisation. This issue becomes more urgent in constructing a rule-base for an expert system accommodated for statistical mapping. A framework for understanding the issue is provided. It reviews some of the obvious inconsistencies and investigates a possible solution, that is a symbolisation schema that might be applied as a cartographic rule base. This suggests a symbolisation schema applied to two main purposes of maps: those used as a visualisation tool and those used as a communication device.

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