Chapter 3
Products of a GIS: Maps and Other Information
OVERVIEW
IN WHICH you investigate the relationship between GIS and map-making, look at a variety of types of output from a GIS, and learn the rudiments of mapmaking with ArcGIS.
GIS is the worst thing that ever happened to cartography.1
Unattributable Circa 1990
GIS and traditional cartography share a fundamental idea: Depict a part of the real world so that human beings can understand it and use the knowledge for navigation, planning, resource management, or other forms of decision making. The traditional cartographic product, the map, is a single entity that is usually the result of a major project. For example, a USGS topographic map may take several years to produce. Decisions about the font and placement of textual information, colors used, and so on are carefully considered. It has fixed size and scale. To many, making maps is a work of art.
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