Every teacher of geography has found themselves either disconcerted or surprised by the outcomes of what might appear rather straight forward mapping or map reading activities. While it is easy to dismiss such examples as the product of poor foundation training in the most basic skills of the ‘geographer’s trade’, research suggests that the problem is actually far more complex than this.

At the forefront of recent research has been Patrick Wiegand, from the School of Education, University of Leeds, and the Chair of the International Cartographic Association’s Cartography and Children Commission.

Among the most challenging elements of maps for students, according to Wiegand, are the conventions of scale, symbols, and the use of colour and text. Weigand contends that hysometric tints (the colours applied to areas between contours) showing land height are particularly open to misinterpretation by students. Green (a colour arbitrarily selected and conventionally used to represent low elevation) is often misinterpreted by children to represent lush grassland. Brown is frequently misinterpreted as representing areas of sparse vegetation. (Patrick Wiegand, Learning and Teaching with Maps, Routledge, 2006).

Colour is used by students as a metaphor for the landscape — blue for water, green for vegetation, etc. Cartographers have faithfully supported these perceptions in the production of topographic and land use maps. Problems mainly arise when a range of colours are used to represent elevation. These hypsometric tints work well to help plateaus and mountain ranges stand out against the green lowlands, however the conditioning to associate green with vegetation leads to misinterpretation of the map, such as the ‘lush’ Sahara region shown above.  

Oxford University Press in Australia is taking the atlas research on map colours in a new direction. The theme which underlies current research on the colour of maps is that students see colour on maps as standing for different things, i.e. green for vegetation and yellow for deserts. Cartographic publishers in Australia responded to the research by designing choropleth maps in shades of brown to show the different heights above sea level.

New Oxford University Press research is challenging the need for a land height base and is instead instituting a land cover or land use base for maps in their new series of atlases. The colours will now match student colour perceptions to provide map bases that are much closer to what students would expect to see out the car window as they explore the Earth. Relief shading is overlayed on the maps to give a three-dimensional feel for the shape of the land and spot heights.