Thematic cartography and cartosemiotics: common and distinctive features | Tematiskā kartogrāfija un kartosemiotika: kopīgais un atšķirīgais

Latvian. Tematiskā kartogrāfija ir viena no kartogrāfijas zinātnes un prakses pamatnozarēm. Kartosemiotikai ir ļoti liela nozīme tematisko karšu zīmju sistēmas veidošanā, jo tikai dažām tematisko karšu grupām ir vairāk vai mazāk unificēta zīmju sistēma. Tāpēc tematiskā kartosemiotika jāuzskata par galveno kartosemiotikas sistēmā.

English. Thematic cartography is one of the basic branches of cartography and its history is at least one hundred and fifty years long, but at present it is not represented by any of the technical commissions of ICA – International Cartographic Association. This is a problem that directly influences the development of thematic cartography at international and national level and does not make it possible to have effective discussions in ICA events about such a topical problem as creation of thematic data bases for creating new maps. Cartosemiotics is a branch of theoretical cartography and is directly linked to thematic cartography. The article discusses several proposals with regard to various types of transformation and it is concluded that not all of cartographic transformations have a positive effect on the semiotics of cartographic image and in particular on the quality of thematic maps. With the rapid development of using IT technologies in cartography, the number of IT specialists among cartographers also grows. However, the basic functions of cartography remain the same and the cartographic image should show the spatial and geographic features of the depicted phenomena. The author of the article considers that there is no good reason for ignoring the specific features of creating thematic maps in cartosemiotics and suggests that it should be useful to single out a separate field of cartosemiotics - thematic cartosemiotics . In turn, in the structure of thematic cartosemiotics, it is recommended to single out semiotics of thematic map basic elements and semiotics of map thematic elements. The idea of the so called „neo - cartography” put forward by several authors is not acceptable, because this idea is based only on the use of modern technologies and ignores the creative potential that a cartographer puts into every new cartographic image.