Cartographer course

The cartographer is responsible for depicting territories and their geographic structure on a scale in detail. This professional figure works in the field of cartography, the set of scientific, technical and artistic knowledge aimed at the representation, symbolic, but truthful, on flat supports (geographical maps) or spherical (globes), of geographical, statistical, demographic information, economic, political, cultural, related to the geographic place represented. The cartographer, therefore, must have the ability to understand the geographical map in all its constructive aspects in order to be able to design it, to direct its construction, to eventually provide the sketches necessary for its execution. The interpretation of the territory, made by him on the basis of the data in his possession, it must be created by him on the basis of the purposes that the card or map proposes. The cutting of the cards, the use of symbols, the scale and the projections with the relative calculations, the frequency and the writing of the toponyms are his choice and direct responsibility and depend on his skills. The scale of a card indicates its accuracy. The scale of representation is the ratio between the distances represented in the map and the real ones, indicated by a 1: n ratio. The number n indicates how many times a distance must be multiplied on the map to obtain the real distance. A large scale, with a small n, is used to represent a small territory, while a small scale, with a large n, is used to represent a large territory. Operations in which information and their symbols are modified to fit the scale of the map can be called cartographic generalization. Cartographic studies and related applications in various application fields have been revolutionized by the development and diffusion of geographic information systems (GIS).