Mapwork skills Locating exact position You can find any place on Earth by finding the point at which its line of latitude and line of longitude intersect, All of South Africa is south of the equaler and east of the Prime Meridian through Greenwich in England. tase (ot HSE 1 The relationship between degrees, minutes.and seconds Each degree (*) can be subdivided into 60 minutes (°) and each minute divided into 60 seconds ("). This subdivision enables us to determine the position of any place of object very accurately. The geographic co- ordinates must be described in full as degrees, minutes, and seconds South and East,Locating relative position ‘What is direction? When we referto direction we use the points of a compass card to describe the general direction from one feature to another (see Figure 3}. Hat} Conserting map dianon ¥ ground ainWhat is a bearing? Bearings indicate direction and are measured using a protractor and given in degrees, True bearing True bearing Figure 4). The starting point to determine true bearing is the north-south line, North will then always be O°. True bearing is always measured clockwise from marth at 0°, the angle measured relative to the true north line (see Fon a True ben 9. nagatic bearieg and magnesc dectrationMagnetic beating Magnetic bearing is Ihe angle measured retalive to the magnetic north line (see Figure 5). Remember that for South Africa, magnetic north abways: les weet of trae north. [PONE Haw rmaghetiecdecSination Is shewnien South Africa's wapegeaphic reaps How do you calculate true bearing and magnetic bearing? ‘The magnetic decination of any specific map area is shown on eur Sopagraphic maps, * True bearing = magnetic bearing - magnetic dectnaton Calculating area of regular and irregular shapesWorking with 1:50 000 topographic maps + Contours are shown as brows lines on maps. Contours jain all places of equal height above mean sea level (0m). * The Soulh Alrican 1:50 000 topographic maps have a contour interval of 20 mi. On the 1:10 O00 erthophote mape the interval is 5 rm * Contour lines close to each other indicate steep slopes, * Cantourlines that are far apart show genile slopes. eid ool eer TF IT TT ly | 1 WEVA | | | selec d Hh i, UL | Il | bi a Be Fost? Landforms andasseclaned canmoursWhatis vertical exaggeration used for? Vertical exaggeration Is the daliberate vertical stretching of a cross seclion to emphasise the heigh! of smaller landscape features such as valleys, hills, low mountains. The ratio between the vertical scale and the horizontal scale ts Known as the vertical exaggaratian,Haar 1] Contour rap te cakulane grachert,‘The vertical diflerence (VD) is the height of the beacon minus the height of the wind pump. VO=408,3m—320m =aham The horizontal distance between the beacon and the wind pump is 5,2.em as measured on the map. This distance must be converted to metres, Therefore 5,J om « map scale divided by 100 will give us the distance in metres, HO=5,3.cm™ 50000 00 =2850m Gradient= VD =883m =4 HO 250m =O written as. ratio 1:30 This means that for every 30 m walk these is a.climb of 1m. etGeographical Information Systems Whatis a Geographical Information System (GIS)? A Geographical Information System is a computerised system consisting of hardware, seflware and methods that are designed to capture, manage, manipulate, analyse, model, and display spatial geographic data fon-spatial attribute data in order to solve complex planning and Management problems, The concept of GIS consists of three separate words namely, geography, information, and system, well as, What are the functions of a GIS? GIS has many functions that can be organised inte the following groups: © collecting and capburing data © storing and managing data * recalling and processing data * transforming and integrating with ther dats © analysing data * displaying data as maps and information tables. Spatially referenced data Before geographic data can be used in. GIS il first must be spatially referenced ina ¢o- ordinate system. This is known as georeferencing.Fewr 1? te wearrede af georvlerereig af geegrachie data Ww‘Spatial resolution Spatial resolution refers to the quantity of detail that can be detected. It describes the size of the picture elements, or pies, that make up the image. ‘Spectral resolution Spectral resolution is the ability of the sensor to detect information aver Several spectral bands-of the electromagnetic spectrum. Different types of data: point, line, area and attribute Spatial features can be classified as points, lines or area type features. Springs, bridges, monuments, beacons and wind pumps are all examples of point type features, Fear 1B 1h nya GES aearey und nplays clfevent patil Feanunes. © Spatial data, or geographical data, is data which describes the shape and the absolute and relative position of all geographical features or objects, + Non-spatial data, or attribute data, is information which describes the spatial characteristics of the spatial features or objects, Raster and vector data 18Spatial data structures Data structures supply the information that is needed by the computer to create a spatial data model of the real world in two differant formats used for differant types of data, Figure 19 illustrates the difference between raster data and vector data. format, There are 9FEWRE 19 The fever between raster andlwecter dita sinxtares Raster data A raater dala structure displaye geographic features by means of arranged patterns within # grid system of equare or rectangular cells. The position of each cell is determined by the number of its raw and column. Vector date The weetor data structure shows geographic features in the formof basic geometric abjects such as paints, lines and polygons.Using atlases What is an atlas and an atlas index? An atlas is. a book with a collection of diferent maps showing a varioty of interesting spatial infarmation at various scales. Ithas different types of graphs, charts, photographs, diagrams, lables and text, These cover topics such as health issues, population pyramids, biodiversity, history of the Earth and humans, desertification and sail degradation, world statistics and so on. Aliases are divided into various sections. The index atthe back of your atlas lists place names and features alphabetically, Next to the name of the feature oF place is the description of type of feature, country, page number where the place appears most prominently, an alphanurnerc reference and the co-ordinates to the nearest minute, Feee 20 Anformanae feomthe we nan aa ayou set looting for infosmaten about a place or feanute 1a tn the bade at the bach a the aia, 2 Ua the alphabetical at infind the rame ofa place or feature, Allmaees ave indeved aiphabebeally for nach Costinvent, country, City, tone teen, meunuinn, bay oF any ather named geographical feature: | find the page sumer of the mae showing the Dace ge feature. usualy ony arm vefererce Gives alboujhihe sate scr may apsear an manymnags. 4 Fired the peterence that indicates where the place ‘F featute name appears on the map. Tere different references maybe used, an aiphaauminic reference or ge opraghical coordinates ff you are feciung Hor snforreancn abet a ager OF Ueme that yor are stachyina: Gere tbe table of cstarey atthe Free of the mln. 2 fend the themerpay mere ier Manes, chert, ire the pag masters of reap in each pection of Une alloy where you may fied eelevant mag at nabonal, continersal ani giatal wales. 11 the there ou ate shyla 1: aK ated the tafe of conans, Bags through the Las oa oe tmbethet yout theme in anutithere tevered under another beading. ‘Ue all the infotmalvon availabe. iecluding a variety of macs, dterent hinds of graphs, dita lables and photographs.— sah wehara? Vin weeding, eboareamen of meat 1 identifyand Characlersnth and relcenigs: ‘whet écdinen problem Refeastsle olnueet. spsevenate ind _mecometishatte RS sc aan Paring foruard an educated gust abseh | pppotheaia may bea pevutieremen ee a salinenos | Statement he peptien: whee Deciembatntermason ceeded — | A Collen, deveibe Describe Haters emir dees, ‘where? 4 and record Koumuinpaslang phetee. mening | OTE 4 Fletd velormation ——acerdema guremenaens ac rcansing | 18 sheers, ‘What paneres? ‘aalpve and ‘Protect tndenmusion wth uomsle few did it 4 wnerpret wut tethegets happen Class internation Migs, Sagnemk gripe tee way it happened? ‘ear sie Fresentfindings Woes spor. posts er ara prsertannn | SA? 3 |andmake Meaning enctoties.and eggesning | vroummendinions — solurians we happen?