Trumbo’s (1981) ideas on bivariate choropleth design have been underexplored and underutilized. He noted that effective map design (including color selection) is directly informed by the intended goal or use of the map (i.e., what questions might the map answer), and he identified three common spatial relationships that can be displayed by a bivariate choropleth: inverse relationships, a range of one variable within another, and direct relationships. Each is best suited to answering different map readers’ questions. Trumbo also suggested sample color palettes to focus the map reader’s attention on pertinent data. In consultation with Trumbo, we extended his ideas, first by creating focal models that illustrate his three spatial relationships. We then constructed sample maps to examine each of the focal models, and finally compared each model by mapping the same two data sets (of obesity and inactivity). We investigated the visual differences in each of the resulting maps, and asked spatial questions regarding the relationships between obesity and inactivity. Our work validates Trumbo’s ideas on bivariate choropleth map design, and we hope our focal models guide cartographers towards making color choices by linking their map purpose to the appropriate focal model.
The terms ‘land use’ and ‘land cover’ typically describe categories that convey information about the landscape. Despite the major difference of land use implying some degree of anthropogenic disturbance, the two terms are commonly used interchangeably, especially when anthropogenic disturbance is ambiguous, say managed forestland or abandoned agricultural fields. Cartographically, land use and land cover are also sometimes represented interchangeably within common legends, giving with the impression that the landscape is a seamless continuum of land use parcels spatially adjacent to land cover tracts. We believe this is misleading, and feel we need to reiterate the well-established symbiosis of land uses as amalgams of land covers; in other words land covers are subsets of land use. Our paper addresses this spatially complex, and frequently ambiguous relationship, and posits that bivariate cartographic techniques are an ideal vehicle for representing both land use and land cover simultaneously. In more specific terms, we explore the use of nested symbology as ways to represent graphically land use and land cover, where land cover are circles nested with land use squares. We also investigate bivariate legends for representing statistical covariance as a means for visualizing the combinations of land use and cover. Lastly, we apply Sankey flow diagrams to further illustrate the complex, multifaceted relationships between land use and land cover. Our work is demonstrated on data representing land use and cover data for the US state of Florida.
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