Representation of Geographical Data

Representation of Geographical Data

Learning Objectives

* Identify various types of Geographical data.

* Understand various methods of drawing geographical data.

* Analyse the various methods of constructing diagram suitable for particular data.

Introduction

Economists, statisticians, and geographers make use of statistical facts and data in their respective fields. Climatic data like temperature, pressure, rainfall, etc., may be represented by diagram such as isotherms, isobars and isohyets respectively. Besides the tabular form, the data may also be presented in some graphical or diagrammatic form. Population, climatic, and Socio economic data can be represented visually for better understanding in the form of graphs, diagrams, charts and maps. Thus, geographical data needs to be scientifically visualised for appropriate cartographic communication. Therefore, cartographic presentation of geographical data is important to explore the nature of data, their pattern of variations over time and space, to analyse the data set, and to identify and classify the real world objects.

We study climatic, economic and population data in geography. The numerical data or facts when collected in a systematic manner to serve some purpose and presented in a tabulated form they are called statistics.

The diagrams representing statistical data are known as statistical diagrams. Geometrical figures such as bars, rectangles, squares, circles, cubes, sphere, etc., and curves or lines are used to represent statistical data diagrammatically. These diagrams serve the following purposes:

1. They enable us to compare figures at a glance.

2. They cast easily memorable impression on the mind.

3. They enable us to analyse the data and draw inference easily.