Relief Shading Hypsometric Tints Base maps are produced at various scales, covering a wide range of areas, such as provinces, countries, continents or the entire world. Thematic Maps show the spatial distribution of a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative information. In fact, almost any subject that can be expressed as a geographical distribution can be mapped. Qualitative Map Quantitative thematic maps are more complex, and involve the location of ordinal , interval , and ratio data. Ordinal data provides the map user with information about rank or hierarchy, for example, a map showing populated places classified as either city, town or village.
Maps symbolizing interval or ratio data provide more precise information.
They employ a scale of measurement, usually described in the map legend. For example, a rainfall map indicating the number of millimetres per year in different locations, would illustrate interval data. There are common patterns to the way humans perceive and organize their environment. In the process of responding to the demands of society, over the centuries people have unknowingly created spatial structures, which in turn have modified the environment. Cartography helps us to describe systematically, human activity in terrestrial space.